On the First Day of First Grade...

The night before the first day of school we attended meet the teacher night where Joshua met Ms. Sarita (in black) and Ms... (hmmm what was her name?? >>shame<<)

Anyway, they were very nice and Joshua was really excited to meet them and check out his new classroom.

That evening he could barely sleep.
The next morning he was up at the crack of dawn, bright eyed and bushy tailed :)


Happy to see his friends again at the bus stop.

One last group hug before getting on the bus.
Going...

Coming home after a great day!

My big first grader!! So Cute!

Isabella entertaining the crowd.

It's Magic!!

Isabella LOVES to talk.

That's just a fact of life.

She loves to ask questions too.

She usually gets super chatty right before bed.

It's one of her ways of avoiding bedtime, but I know exactly what she is up to.

Tonight was no exception.

She must have had a lot in her mind, then all in one breath she asked...

"Mom, what happens if you eat pee and poop?"

"Well..." I answered trying to figure out what to say...
(She really caught me off guard and i didn't really have anything witty and clever to say.)


"Uh, I'm not really sure... I never actually tried it. Your mouth will probably really stink and taste terrible. You might even gag and throw up, and get a belly ache."

"Hummm..." she said scratching her little chin (she's very expressive that way.)
"...Well, I think if you eat poop, you'd throw up and die"

"Really?? Wow, sounds awful."

"...And did you know, that fruit turns into Poop? It's Magic!!"

Happy to be a Loser

The day FINALLY came! Joshua has lost his first baby tooth!

It all happened very quickly. He had a loose tooth for about 2 WEEKS , but the wiggle was so insignificant that I thought it was going to take forever for that tooth to fall out.

2 NIGHTS ago, he showed me that the tooth was really wiggly, and last night when i checked it, it looked about the same.

This MORNING his tooth was so loose it looked totally crooked, like it was hanging on by a thread. I also realized that the new tooth is not only already breaking through, so is the other one next door. That baby tooth isn't even wiggling yet.

When we came home from TKD, I decide to check it again. It was time.

Josh was very excited to finally lose A tooth. This is something that he has been looking forward to since the beginning of Kindergarten. It was hard for him to watch just about all of his classmates lose teeth left and right and his showing no sign of budging.
He checked his teeth everyday, so when he finally felt the slightest little wiggle, he was overjoyed!

I figured I'd use the same method that I lost most of my baby teeth to... THE STRING.
I tied it on his now totally crooked little tooth and passed the strings to him. Gave him a little bit of instructions, (pull upwards, not forward) and with Dwight with camera in hand, he was ready for the pull.

Only nothing happened.

He gave another good pull and said, "I can't do it, it's stuck!"
So I re-adjusted the string, and with tears welling up in his eyes he said, "this kinda hurts!"

That was when I took over and with a confident, "this tooth is loose" I gave it a good yank and...
THE STRING BROKE :S !!

I re-tied it, gave it a yank, and nothing again. He started to bleed a little and he started to cry :(

I felt so bad!

I let Dwight take over.

He used the method he was used to... Floss.
He wrapped it around the tooth and off it went.
Just like that.

At first Joshua was in a bit of shock, but we tried to distract him with the tooth, and his first visit from the tooth fairy.

He was happy again.

For the rest of the night he could not get his tongue off the empty space in his gums.

He is so proud of his whole and I am so glad it's over... for now.


Proud Momma
First toothless semi-smile
Checking it out
Showing it offTa-da!!

The down side...

Joshua's been learning to ride his bike without the training wheels for a few weeks now. He's getting quite good at it.
I actually removed his training wheels a week before his 6th birthday back in April, sort of as a rite of passage. Only problem was, I failed to inform him of this little change.

He was nervous, but still he tried it twice. His friends were also there for moral support...
"Really Josh, it took me 6 days to stay up on my bike", "My mom says that I'm so close to the ground, it won't hurt if I fall!" He felt better for not getting it down right away, but then summer came and we've been pretty busy and bike riding went by the wayside.

During the last couple of weeks we've been encouraging him to try it again. He started out pretty wobbly, but has gotten better very quickly. I only had to hold the back of his seat for 1 session.

Here's a video of Josh riding his bike. He was excited that he got to ride for about an hour without falling. Feeling pretty brave, he decided to go down a little hill to end the riding session on a high note. See the results...

TKD and We're under Attack!!

The day finally came and Joshua was so ready for Taekwondo classes.
Since before we went on vacation he had been asking about it.

Here he is trying out his uniform and showing off his moves.

Bella was impossible during the TKD class. I think I might just have to leave her home in the future.

Joshua absolutely loved his class. He's so into it and so intense. He's got very good form as well.

A peaceful walk home with his friend topped off the evening, UNTIL...

Fransiska and I stopped to talk and the kids were playing by a tree. All of the sudden I heard my kids SCREAMING at the top of their lungs...
FIRE ANTS!!!!
It was such a scene. Tragic, but hilarious at the same time.
Joshua and Bella were paralyzed in of all places the top of the ant hill. DUH!
They had so many ants climbing and biting on them, I didn't know which kid to help out first.
Thankfully Fransiska was there and came to the rescue

In the end, poor Bella had 8 ant bites on her feet and ankles, and

Joshua had 11 :(
Thankfully neither one of them is allergic.

I had tried to warn them about fire ants before, but now, THEY KNOW BETTER!