My baby is growing up

You can see more photos about this little monster here.

Not my current baby. My first baby.

Samuel reached two major milestones this week and I'm beginning to feel like Claire on the latest episode of Modern Family. Like I might just freak out after trying to contain the emotion. Well, actually, I'm not quite that dramatic.

Friday was his last day of Kindergarten, except for a single test this week. They had a little program with all 3 kindergarten classes. At first they danced a little square dance. The photos I took were very low quality so I won't share them. But just imagine Samuel dancing every movement with precision. Can you believe it? Mine and Tyler's child dancing knowing every dance move? That nearly brought tears to my eyes.

Then each kid (all 90 of them) stood in line and said a little something like, "I didn't know how to read before I was in Kindergarten, but now I do." That almost brought on tears as I thought about it. How much Samuel has progressed. He did not know how to read before kindergarten. He could not count to 100. He could spell his name but not very clearly. It's been so comforting to see how much he's learned. Though he's had some behavioral/social challenges, he's had a successful year. He will miss Mrs. Murray. He will miss his classmates. He will probably miss his little girlfriend. But I look forward to a fun filled summer with him and then a fresh start in the fall. He's scared of going to 1st grade because his buddies siblings have told him that it's hard but I am pretty sure he'll do just fine. Sigh, my first born is done with his first year of education. At least he held my hand after his T-ball game on Saturday while walking to the car. He initiated! That melted my heart!

The second milestone was losing his first tooth! He's had three loose teeth for a long while. About a year ago he bonked his knee and his front tooth became loose. He had another loose tooth on the bottom. But then yesterday he bit down into an apple and yelled, "Ow!" He had a third loose tooth.

So he jiggled it and tickled it with his tongue all day. It was just hanging by a thread. I told him we'd better get it out so he wouldn't swallow it in his sleep. Is that possible? I think I've heard of that happening. It scared him that he might so I reassured him it wouldn't. He wanted me to call a dentist to make sure. I told him the Dentists were closed but that I'd look it up on the internet.
But I was too scared to pull it out myself remembering how painful sometimes it was. So I let him sleep on it. The next morning it wasn't much looser but he wasn't eating breakfast and complained of it tickling and irritating him. So I got out the pliers and was ready for operation. And he was really brave too. The pliers didn't grip very well so Tyler suggested I just use a kleenex. That worked great! It came right out with no tears! And he was so gitty and proud!


After this great accomplishment I decided we needed a little something to put the tooth inside for the tooth fairy. I've seen these little pillows around the web and though it would be fun to make one. The way Samuel sleeps with pillows on all sides I was afraid I wouldn't be able to find the tooth.

So the tooth monster joined the family. The kids helped me whip it up before Samuel's T-ball game. Samuel was the head designer. He described what he wanted and we traced it out sewed it together. Fun times! And lucky for him the tooth fairy came in the night and left him $1.

I thought was a fair amount. He told me kids at school were getting $1. One of his cousins got $5 but I can't justify that much. Tyler thought $1 was too high. haha. But I told him I got like .25 to .50 cents when I was a kid and with inflation his should be increased to $1. How much did you get? Or how much do you give your kids?

Now, I expect the rest of his teeth will start following suit. And hopefully this summer will not be too painful, full of bickering and boredom. I have a lot planned and I am excited about it! I'll blog about it as soon as I make the final list of activities!