Matilda by Numbers

2-29: It's Leap Day! Matilda was mystified as I tried to explain it to her multiple times today. No wonder they made no mention of this strange date during the morning calendar review in class. (I spent 2 hours today playing teacher in kindergarten while the actual teacher worked on individual testing. I am not cut out to be a kindergarten teacher.)

46 x 46: Matilda is square. We were measuring her for her passport application and discovered she is 46" tall and 46 pounds!

3-1-12: Tomorrow is March. Matilda already has a major case of birthday fever. Today she said to me, "Isn't it SO EXCITING that tomorrow is March!!?"

2: Next week Matilda is having her first ever gal pal sleep over. 2 girls in the bed I predict = 2 giggly hours of trying to settle them to sleep.

I like numbers.

Coyotes, Coffee and A Rainbow

As we were headed out of Griffith Park tonight at dusk, we drove by two foraging coyotes. In one area of the park it is quite common to see them lurking around, waiting to see if anyone might toss a bit of food out the car window. I imagine they are fed fairly often because they are not too shy and will approach slowing cars. I pulled over, not to feed them of course, but for the kids to get a good look. Matilda noticed that we were lucky enough to get a rainbow with our wild animal sighting of the day.

Next, the coyote found a half full iced coffee and proceeded to carefully carry the plastic cup across the street, remove the lid and drink it. I wish I had a closer picture of this coyote with his snout in a McDonald's cup, slurping down cold coffee. 

I don't think the kids will stop talking about these events for quite some time - it was all very thrilling to M & P as they clambered around in the back seat for a better view.

Bliss

Tim & Porter went to Trader Joe's right as Matilda's friend spontaneously came by for a quick playground trip. I am now alone with the Oscar red carpet pre-show. AND I spent all morning digging in the garden. This Sunday could not get any better.

Protector

As Matilda grabbed his hand to walk together she said, 

"Porter I will always keep you safe." 

Zoo Friend

Together

This is my 1500th post! I feel like I should do something more to mark it, but really I am just going to give you more pics of this silly crew that makes me laugh all day and wears me out. They are really sweet together these days, with only minimal yelling. 

(Matilda was beyond excited to get to go to a make-up music class with Porter. He was so proud to introduce her to his music class teacher.)

(With our honorary third sibling, who cannot keep a straight face with these two jokers.)

Boys Day Out: Harlem Globetrotters

Tim & Porter took the train downtown to Staples Center for some basketball FUN today. Truthfully, I am not sure which of them enjoyed it more. Thankfully Tim just scored the discount tickets yesterday so they were not tortured by many days of agonizing anticipation!

 Porter got nice and comfortable in his seat.

 He was also quite pleased to get this close to Globie, one of the many thrilling mascots.

 Porter even got a head pat from Big Easy!

 To complete the day of basketball fun, sweatbands on a very tired boy. Too adorable.

Matilda and I had our own perfect day with a movie-date to see the Secret World of Arrietty followed by lunch out and a stop at the used book store.

Tooth Report

At the dentist today they recommended x-rays to check out the damage from Porter's big pavement vs. mouth match-up. 

Porter was amazingly compliant. He sat still, held the x-ray paper things in his mouth awkwardly, AND did not fuss when the tech and I both had to leave the room for each x-ray.

 While waiting for our results-chat with the dentist Porter had a nice chat with his dino friend.

The thing I mostly learned today was that we were geniuses when we decided to enroll the kids in Tim's dental plan last month. Good timing! The dentist thinks that Porter's permanent teeth are fine and not damaged. We are supposed to watch for signs of an abscess as the inflammation in his gums heal - terrifying! She did not file his teeth since one showed an enamel crack so she did not want to risk breaking it any further. It seems that very obvious chipped-tooth-look is here to stay. The tooth that hit hardest is a little wiggly and may still turn grey from the damage, which would shorten its lifespan. We are supposed to avoid giving hard foods for a week or two in order to give the teeth a chance to recuperate a bit.

On the flip side, the dentist had good ideas for moving Matilda's wiggly tooth progress along. My favorite is having Matilda bite into a halved marshmallow and using that to pull the tooth. Supposedly the stickiness of it will pull the tooth right out. I think I will be buying a bag of marshmallows soon! In the meantime Porter's soft diet is serving Matilda well, too!

Extreme Makeover Hollywood

Tomorrow Porter gets his shaggy hair cut AND his chipped teeth filed at the dentist. I don't think the road rash on his chin will magically heal faster but it is nothing some fancy make-up person can't cover. I think we need a reality camera crew to track this. After pictures to follow for certain!

Missing Grandma Marge

My mom was here the past week and everyone had such a nice time with her. Porter is especially in grandma-love right now and could not get enough grandma-attention. Since she left yesterday he has been repeatedly bemoaning how much he misses grandma and how much he loves her. 

To give mom a little winter-break we made sure to hit the beach for some sun and relaxing. She did not venture onto the sand sled, but Porter did have her running repeated laps up and down the sand hill. She also got a turn flying kite after Porter had his long, long turn.

 Tim made an effort to get some nice pictures of Matilda's smile because her first tooth is about to come out. The bottom right center tooth is so wiggly that she can barely eat and cries as we (oh so gently) brush her teeth. She is really excited for it to come out but will not entertain any talk of pulling it!

Little did we know that we were documenting the wrong mouth.....the next afternoon Porter fell forward while scootering and chipped his two front teeth. Now that I have had a few days to get used to it, it seems to be fairly minor. We go to the dentist tomorrow and hopefully she can file it to make the chips less obvious. It seems he will just look a bit more gap toothed than before.

Birthday Bonanza

To make up for me working Saturday AND Sunday this weekend, I arranged for Tim to have birthday parties to take the kids to both days. Saturday: sugared up on amazing tiramisu cake!

 Porter was in love with these dogs. I am in love with Porter decked out in his white shirt. (His sister has convinced him the white shirt is his only appropriate "fancy attire" for parties.)

 Sunday: sugared up on cake and pinata candy at a Princess-Knight party.

 They even dressed the part!

Love

As I headed off to work Saturday morning, Porter was asking me to "keep him company" at breakfast and to feed him. He wakes up so sleepy and so hungry some mornings that all he wants is for someone to spoon feed him cereal.  I said that I needed to leave, but that maybe his sister would be happy to feed him. Not only was she happy to feed him, but she offered up her lap and gave him kisses. It makes my heart twinge a little now just remembering it.

Lunchtime Portraits

Randomness

We have been encouraging bathroom independance by dressing Porter in pants that he can get down by himself. The problem is that he can now take his pants down whenever (more precisely wherever) he wants to.

Today Matilda took a book into school and got the chance to read it aloud to the class. She was so excited about it and we are crazy proud.

I joined the YMCA last week for swim classes for the kids and some exercise for myself. Porter is so far unconvinced that the daycare "Kids Club" area is a place that he wants to be. As a result, I have been newly motivated to run almost everyday with the jogging stroller. My ridiculous logic seems to be that I am not wasting $$$ on a gym membership so long as I run, regardless of the venue.

If you have not watched the British tv series Downton Abbey, I suggest you spend several days doing nothing else. I have managed to make my poor husband quite sleep deprived by convincing him to stay up far too late many nights recently as we blew through watching the first two seasons.

Filed under kids say the darndest things, today Porter told me "my boobs are fancy." Even though he seems to finally have weaned, his breast obsession is unchanged.