Vernon Volumes text

Vernon Volumes text

Monday, December 31, 2012

Pediatric Dentist checkup for the kids


Today Connor and Paige went to the dentist together. Connor went once a long time ago, and was well overdue for another cleaning and checkup (http://babyvernon.blogspot.com/2009/10/first-trip-to-dentist.html).

We took them both to a Pediatric dentist that's in the area and we were very impressed. It was a very clean facility, had lots of kid-friendly entertainment, and the staff was experienced at working with children that may be nervous.

Connor's checkup went pretty well. All of his Primary (baby) teeth are in and we got a positive report on the cleaning we've been doing. All the teeth looked good and no major issues. Connor was very brave when they did the X-Ray. He gagged a little when they put in the bite-wings, but he toughed it out and they got good pictures as a result. The dentist was able to tell that Connor had sustained some kind of an impact to two of his front teeth, one on top and one on the bottom. The root on them is going away a bit faster as a result and they will probably be the first he loses sometime this next summer. It wasn't a major concern, but something to keep an eye on.



Paige has never been to the dentist, so we were very interested to see how she'd do with it. You never know with Paige. Sometimes the simplest little thing can become very difficult with her if she's not in the right frame of mind. This morning she actually threw one of the hugest fits on record when Mommy tried to fix her hair. We weren't sure how the dentist's office trip would turn out.

Thankfully, she was in a cooperative mood when we got there and her hygienist was great. Paige was a bit nervous, but the hygienist put her at ease. They got her teeth brushed with a toothbrush, then scraped them a bit with a dental pick and finally even tried the electric spinning brush.




Finally they finished up with a fluoride treatment and the dentist examined her teeth. So far so good! We were pleased to hear that her teeth look great and we're doing well with the brushing and cleaning.

We're very proud of both kids today, they were

Sunday, December 30, 2012

The Gobles visit!

Amanda, Ryan, and Graydon came to Florida to visit! Ryan did an awesome job planning the trip by himself and he surprised Amanda with the trip on Christmas. Amanda opened a present that had a stuffed SouthWest Airline airplane in it. It was a very hard secret to keep and we have been looking forwards to their visit for a long time.


Paige has had a great visit with baby Graydon. She has been very interested in him and loves to play with him and entertain him.


Paige helped Aunt Amanda put lotion on the baby after Graydon's bath.



She also loved watching and "helping" Uncle Ryan feed Graydon baby cereal.







On Sunday we ate at Clark's Fish Camp for lunch, compliments of Grandma Genie. There were lots of neat stuffed animals to see and the menu had lots of crazy stuff on it (turtle, snake, alligator, etc). For an appetizer, we ordered Kangaroo. It was pretty tough and I thought it had a "liver" taste to it. Connor made some faces at first when he ate it, but he actually really liked it and ate a lot of it.








Connor's new bike

Connor got a new bike!

Connor has been riding his old bike that he got when he turned four and has been struggling a bit with it. (http://babyvernon.blogspot.com/2011/02/connors-birthday-party-with-family.html) It was a cute bike for a four year old and helped him get the fundamentals of riding on a bike, but it was time for a new one. The old bike's tires were small and very hard to balance on. The pedals had small arms and didn't provide much leverage. Also, the training wheels didn't have much room for adjustment so they didn't allow for any practice balancing.

We went to a local bike store and he tried out a few. The ones with bigger wheels and better pedal leverage really helped him out. He picked out blue for the color and also a cool looking new helmet. We got it home this past week and he's been doing MUCH better with it compared to his old one. In the past, when we'd go on walks with him and he'd ride his bike we'd constantly be encouraging him to keep up. Now, he can get it going well by himself and we're constantly telling him to wait up.

When Amanda and Ryan were visiting, Amanda gave his bike a try and Connor pushed Graydon for a bit.



Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Christmas Day

Christmas Morning, we all got up early to open gifts and celebrate. I filmed the kids as they came down the stairs and saw all the presents. Paige didn't understand that she couldn't just start tearing in to every wrapped gift she saw. It was hard to wait the extra 30 seconds required to snap a couple pictures and determine which presents went to which person.




The kids loved opening all their gifts and playing with their new stuff. This year, we introduced the idea of buying other people gifts and we tried to instill the joy of giving. Paige and Daddy went shopping together for Connor and got him a remote control helicopter. I told her not to tell him before Christmas because it was a secret. She was unable to resist and told him he was getting an "airplane" days ago, but thankfully it didn't exactly spoil the surprise. Connor went shopping with Mommy and got Paige a baby doll. Both of them loved the gifts and it was fun to watch them get excited for each other. I snapped the picture below just as Paige opened the gift from Connor.


We went to Buca De Beppo for lunch, then we went home to relax. While Paige was "napping" Andrea took down most of the Christmas decorations. I helped with some of the big stuff, but Andrea was on a mission to get the house put back together and she went through the storage closet too and organized a bunch of things that had been put off since the move.

Sissy hadn't exactly been napping unfortunately. She loves the bean bag that Ga and Grandpa Garry bought her and recently she will drag it in to her "baby bed" and sleep with it. Apparently today, she found the zipper on the beanbag. It was actually a double zipper to prevent children from taking it apart, but Paige was pretty clever and somehow managed.I snapped a picture of her when I caught her in the act. What a mess!

We gave up on the nap.

In the evening, Andrea invited our neighbors over to take a dip in the hot tub. The hot tub had to work for a few hours to get warm enough, but it made it. Connor loved swimming today and even jumped in to the frigid regular pool. He had a blast playing with Ryleigh. Paige wanted to get in, but we didn't think the hot tub would be a good idea since she's been pooping a bunch lately after she eats. We knew it wouldn't be good timing so I sat out with her, which turned out to be a good idea.





All in all, it was a quiet Christmas at our house, but a fun one. At the end of the day, I asked the children what they liked best about Christmas. Paige said that her favorite part was when Connor opened up the helicopter and it went "up, up, up". Connor's favorite part about Christmas was watching "Home Alone" on Christmas Eve. His favorite present was the helicopter. We'll have to get a video of him playing with it. Paige's favorite present was her new bike. It doesn't have pedals on it and should be a good way to teach her how to balance.


Christmas Eve


On Christmas Eve we decided it'd be fun to get out for a bit and see the city. We drove downtown to "The Landing", which is right on the water and has lots of shops and restaurants. We took a few pictures with the holiday decorations and looked at the boats and birds out in the water for a while. Then, we ate at American Grill for lunch.












After lunch, we went home so Paige could take her afternoon nap and Connor and Daddy played Minecraft for a bit. After Paige woke up, we went for a walk around the neighborhood. The weather was absolutely wonderful and after our walk we biked the kids down to the neighborhood park so they could play for a bit.


In the evening, we let the kids each open one gift. Connor opened the Duplo Legos, which are a bit bigger than regular Legos. Paige opened her Mermaid costume that Mommy special ordered for her from Etsy. Paige absolutely loved it. It fit her well and looked super cute.




Mommy baked cookies for the kids and Santa and dyed the milk green for him. Santa probably loves it that way! We set it all out on the counter for him and then we turned the lights down and turned on our movie. We bought "Home Alone". Andrea and I both remember watching it in the theatre when we were kids and we were hoping Connor would like it as much as we did when we were kids. The movie started out slow and Connor could barely keep his attention on it. He kept wanting to play with his Legos and I had to hold on to him and keep him paying attention as the plot came together. It was hard for the little guy and he kept asking all kinds of questions. Connor really got bothered by the movie when Kevin, the main character, started doing things he wasn't supposed to because he didn't have supervision. Kevin would break things and eat junk food and Connor kept saying "Oh man, he's going to get in so much trouble!". We kept having to reassure him it was just a movie.

Finally, the bad guys came to break in to the house and Connor got really scared at first. Once the slapstick humor started he loved it. I haven't heard him laugh so much in a long time. He was literally rolling around on the couch during some parts. His favorite part was when the two robbers both simultaneously slipped on the toy cars and fell down. Good stuff.

Paige gave it her best effort, but about midway through the movie she thought it'd be more fun to watch Dora on the iPad. I guess that's more age appropriate anyways.

Finally, it was bed time and Connor and Paige said goodbye to Gin, the elf. They grew very fond of him throughout the month and on multiple occasions I would hear Connor talking to Gin. They both definitely believe in his magic and loved the goodies he'd put in their stockings. Connor teared up after he said goodbye.

They went to bed without too much fuss and we got everything ready for the next morning and then Andrea and I went to bed too.


Christmas Decorations

Christmas decorations this year were a bit different than before. We no longer have a fireplace (what's the point in Florida?!?) and had a completely different setup than we did in our Kansas City house. This year Andrea wanted to fit the decorations we used in years past in to the decorating style that she'd worked so hard to create and she got a few new things to help tie it all together.

We didn't go overboard by any means this year. The family room definitely looked Christmasy, however the rest of the house was pretty much left untouched.




For the outside, Andrea had some garland custom made on Etsy that would frame our front door. She also decorated a few pots with some ornaments and garland. She found a neat example to follow from Pintrest and modified it so the colors and ornaments would better match our house.









It looked very classy and cute, we liked how it turned out. Other than that, the outside wasn't decorated except for the night we put out the luminaries with the rest of the neighborhood. In the coming years, we're sure to accumulate more and more Christmas decorations, so it's probably good that we took it slow to start.