A Day of Firsts

Yesterday (1/25/13) will go down in the family history books.  We accomplished two major milestones yesterday - one could even argue three, since Maximilian made significant progress in his potty training efforts (or maybe I did).

Maximilian

Potty training has been a battle with Max, not because he's unwilling, but just because there's never a good time to work with him on it.  He's gone peepee (and even poopoo) in the potty several times, but yesterday was the first time he spent the entire day pants-less.  

With the timer set for 30 minutes, I rallied support from his siblings, and by the third time it went off everyone stopped what they were doing to cheer Max on at the potty.  He had several successful trips, including a couple he initiated himself rather than by the timer.

Reagan

Reagan took her first step!  As we were getting ready for bedtime, she was aiming to crawl out the door when I called her back in.  She stood up, turned around, and I caught on that she might want to try to walk, so I started with the mommy-voice cheering, holding my hands out to her.  She took one step on her own, then grabbed my finger and triumphantly walked the rest of the way into my lap.  Even though I caught Max and Patrick's firsts, it feels like my first all over again!

Karol

This is it.  This is what we've been waiting for for weeks!  Karol lost her first tooth!  However, what should have been an exciting moment turned into a devastating one, because the tooth was actually lost.  She didn't even notice when it came out.  We searched everywhere, but to no avail.  Shortly before I noticed the hole in her mouth, she'd been eating apple slices, so I suspect she swallowed it.  Karol was mortified, believing that with no tooth to give, the tooth fairy wouldn't come.

After much soothing and calming I think I convinced her that the tooth fairy wouldn't short change her. We determined that there must be some waiver process, since this probably happens all the time, and so I set her to write a letter to the tooth fairy.

To be honest, I think I was probably more upset by the lost tooth than Karol was.  I wanted to save her first baby tooth - and I'm not usually the person who wants to save much for sentimental value - and I really wanted this first tooth losing experience to be perfect.  It seems as though Karol has inherited my luck.  That's why, after bedtime, I was on a serious mission to make the tooth fairy's visit over the top.

Karol received a letter from the tooth fairy, on tooth fairy letterhead and matching envelope, informing her that her tooth was magically collected using her magic wand to pull it out of her belly button.  She also got candy to share with her brothers, a dollar, and a first tooth loss official certificate of authenticity.  I think she bought it.

Now, the other bottom front tooth is wiggly.  But I think she'll keep better tabs on this one.

Patrick

Patrick is coming to the age where he's doing new things all the time.  Reading like a pro, doing addition in school, and he's only just turned 4!  I'm thinking that next year will be kindergarten for him, there's just no slowing this kid down.