Funny Hair Day

Funny hair day for Cali last year.

She's adorable.

Shark Tooth (Hoo Ha Ha).

This post was partly written and originally posted on January 17, 2012.  Updates have been added to this post.

Sometimes you get a phone call from the school saying your daughter has fallen (but was able to get up), and they believe she's okay, but she has a fat lip and some blood.  Everything seems fine, regardless, she didn't break a tooth or anything.

Sometimes you talk to your daughter and your daughter agrees that, yes it hurt, but she's fine and wants to stay at school.

So you hang up and don't think much about it until you get home.

What turns out to be "she's fine, she didn't break a tooth or anything" actually appears to be quite the opposite and you're not entirely sure how the school staff missed the fact that your daughter's tooth is now shaped like a shark tooth.

You call the dentist.

30 minutes and $50 later...

Getting rid of the shark tooth... PRICELESS.

Cali has an overbite and the orthodontist mentioned, at a check up while we wait for her to get older before beginning work, that Cali needed to be careful because kids with overbites of this degree tend to break their front teeth at least once when they fall.

Oh good, she's done it three times now.  We tend to be over-achievers at our house.

I just need to make this kid wear a helmet until she turns 12 and we can begin her orthodontist work.

On the plus side, the dentist only charges to fix a broken tooth one time within a year's span.  If it breaks again, there's no charge.  I'm sure this is to cover any work that doesn't stick on their end, but I'm not complaining in any way.

Need a good dentist referral?  Go here.

Tell them Cali sent you.

(No, I didn't receive compensation for this post.  I just really appreciate a good dentist.)

The Choir Battle. And Lights At City Hall.

It's come to my attention that I'm probably not a very good mom.

And I should probably clarify that nobody actually told me that I'm not a good mom.  It's just something I've picked up on a lot recently.

Most recently this morning.

The story goes something like this:

Every year some odd number of my children decide they want to join the choir at the elementary school.  It's a big commitment since the practices are held early in the morning, before school, and with my work and school schedule, chances are pretty good that they're going to have to walk there in the early morning cold temps of November and December.

Honestly, I've been impressed with their willingness to get up and get it done.

As Cali is now our only child in elementary school, it fell upon the neighbor boy whom she walks to school with to also join choir so Cali wouldn't have to walk alone.

I'm pretty sure that neighbor boy made it to practice more often than Cali did.

Half way through Cali asks me, in her most pouty voice, "Do I have to take choir next year?"

To which I laughed, literally out loud, because, Chica, I didn't even make you take it this year, that was a choice you made all on your own.

She's not a morning person and the practices became something she dreaded simply because she didn't want to get out of bed early to go to them.  My schedule was more flexible this year than in previous years (yay online classes) so I started giving her rides most mornings and that seemed to help her attitude.

This year is also the first year that Cali is old enough to join the elementary orchestra.  She begged to take violin, and being as Casidee decided not to take violin this year, I told Cali she could use it.

I signed her up and paid the fees.

Practice is once a week, after school.

She hates it.

But frankly, it's paid for, and she's going to have to see the year out with it.

So most of my week has had a battle in it with getting that girl to choir and orchestra.  She certainly doesn't have to sign up for these things again, but she needs to fulfill her obligation and finish out this year, even if there wasn't a fee for choir and it was strictly on a volunteer basis.  And I explained that to her.  It's okay if she doesn't like it, but she can't bail when she's given her word to be there.  She can finish it out and then not sign up again.

Every year the choir sings at the lighting of the Christmas lights at our City Hall.  The kids sing, the lights across the property light up, and Santa, that jolly ol' elf himself, is there.

Cali never gave me the note with the information and time.

Luckily her orchestra teacher doesn't send notes.  She emails.  So I received the email stating when the orchestra kids needed to be at City Hall, and knowing that she also needed to be there for choir, because they've done so every other year, we raced to City Hall to get her there on time.

We made it just in time for her to join the choir performance.

Normally at concerts I take videos, but I never did that at the City Hall event because I knew the bigger concert was coming up, and I planned on taking video then.

After choir it was the orchestra's turn.

And she did well.  Even though I know she doesn't like doing it, I still had fun watching her show off her new skill.

As a reward we got in line for Santa Claus.  We checked him out from our place in line and I asked her, "Do you think he's the real one?"

She peered at him in contemplation.

"His beard looks real so I think he's the real one."

It only confirmed her thoughts when we overheard the people behind us having the same exact conversation, and coming to the same conclusion.

After Santa we checked out the lights, and went home.

 Two days later Cali had her orchestra concert where I was able to get my video of her playing the violin.  I'll post about that tomorrow.

This morning the alarm went off, and off, and off, and off... I finally went in to drag her out of bed.

"Come on, girl, you've got choir this morning."

"No I don't."

"What do you mean no you don't?"

Tayler interjects, "She forgot about the concert and didn't go."

This concert was the concert.  The whole reason for the choir and the practices.  It's done now, no more choir. I know good and well that Cali didn't forget about that concert.  I'm quite certain that she simply didn't give me the note that had the information on it, and just didn't go.

But there isn't much I can do with it at this point except sigh.

And tell her to put her violin on her backpack so she remembers it, because I paid way too much money for her to "forget" about orchestra.

I've determined that I'm not a good enough mom to be on top of this stuff, and I probably should be.

But then again, maybe I should give myself a break because what chance do I have against the nine year old who doesn't want to go to choir?

Cali's Halo.

This girl.

This picture seems to give her a halo.

The only girl who's required me to have dealings with the principal at school.  Both in her defense, and at her doing.

The only girl to tell me that she hates me over homework.

The only girl who would go missing in the store in the blink of an eye.

 The only girl who leaves me weekly love notes on my pillow.

The only girl who sits at the kitchen counter and reads to me while I cook dinner.

The only girl who calls me teary from her dad's house to tell me she misses me after only one night.

The only girl who would wear a pretty dress on the day of her orchestra recital and flash the audience not once, not twice, but three times before the program even started.

After being told not once, not twice, but three times that the entire room could see her underwear, she finally tucked that dress firmly between her knees.

And she played.

This girl is full of life and adventure.  She has such energy and ambition and a heart that will cover the entire world.

That light halo belongs to her.

I see it on her every day.

First Day of 2013-14.

The first day of school.

Again.

Officially.

For everyone this time.

Our three middle schoolers:

We are so in trouble.

Frying pans, who knew?

If you understand that reference and why I went there, bonus points to you.

Casidee is ruling the school as an 8th grader this year.

(for more on Jay's first day go here, for Brynn's go here).
Our elementary crew:

We have two fifth graders and a third grader this year.

Cali's already killing me with her eclectic style.

And it's only the first day.

She revamped her outfit five times until we finally settled on this.

Tayler and Sean get to be on Student Council this year.  They had their first meeting about their responsibilities before school this morning.

We got a letter saying they had to earn money for their student council shirts and sweatshirts.

Tayler was all over it and has already earned her money.

Sean was like, "why would I earn money for that when I could earn money for a video game instead?"

Which is typical behavior for both of them.  We'll see if Sean changes his mind as everyone else has shirts, but I don't know that he will.  That boy is comfortable in his own opinions.  Which is not a bad thing.

And so it begins.

The school year of 2013-14.

2nd Grade Field Trip to Red Butte Gardens.

It's been crazytown business around our house, and I'm sure you can all relate to that.

Plus, exhaustion hit me.  You know when you're running and going and then suddenly you get a break and you stop for a minute?  And in that minute it all catches up to you and you feel like sleeping for four solid days?

That's where I just came back from.

That and a bunch of other stuff that was going on in between all my napping.

I need to get caught up on our goings on.

Last week I signed up to go on Cali's field trip to Red Butte Gardens up at the University of Utah.  I was assigned to watch over Cali and three of her classmates.

Tell you what, I could never be a 2nd grade teacher.  Hats off to those people who not only do it, but do it well.

The kids learned about flower parts and about pollination.

They learned about different kinds of seeds and even got to pull some lima bean seeds apart to see the different parts inside as the plant begins to sprout.

They talked about different ecosystems.

And I related having just finished my conservation biology class.

There is a flower there that smells like chocolate.  And a plant that smells like lemons.

I need these for my yard.

Need.

After Red Butte Garden we went to a park for lunch.

Where we realized Cali's friend had forgotten his lunch so we pulled him over next to us and split up our food.

And I watched as other kids caught on and brought him parts of their lunch.

In the end he had more food than he could eat and no one was hungry.

It made my heart smile to watch these kids looking out for each other.

(And then turning around and fighting over the swings...)

We also got to see a truck bring in a tree for planting at the park.

Tell you what, by the time I got home from the field trip I was dragging.

I laid down and took a solid hour nap.

But how grateful I am for the day I got to spend with Cali.  To see her excited about the beauty of the world around us, to see her helping someone in need, to see her laughing and playing with her classmates.

That girl is a whirlwind that leaves me so tired, but man alive I love her to the moon and back.