What are the odds???

We went to the dentist today for regular cleanings and check-ups and they wanted to do panoramic x-rays on the boys. I almost didn't, but since insurance covers it 80%, I figured it wouldn't hurt and could give us some idea of how their adult teeth are developing. Well, it turns out T has an extra tooth on the top, right between the two adult teeth that should be starting to push out his baby teeth sometime soon (he's 6 and hasn't lost any teeth yet). The problem is, the extra tooth is growing the wrong way, so it's keeping those adult ones from coming out. The dentist referred us to an oral surgeon and he'll have to be put all the way out and have it taken out surgically. An extra tooth happens in less than 1% of all people. T's just one of the lucky ones!!!!!

When I think about how many times medically (or dentally) we've hit the extremely remote odds, it's just crazy. Like when J ruptured her appendix before she turned 2, having Jason with Trisomy 13, my weird messed up teeth with extra roots and roots that split into 2 partway down, etc. But, I guess on the other hand, we just hit the remote odds on the good side with the baby, and I'll take this trade-off any day.

Run, Run, Run

R and T ran in the St. Alphonsus Children's Capitol Classic last weekend. It is a one mile race from the Boise train depot to the Capitol-- one mile. It is the largest children's race in the country for ages 6-14. T ran it in 11:02 and placed 21st out of 83 6 year old boys and 601 overall out of 1096. R ran it in 11:09, 50 out of 93 for 7 year old boys. Their cousin ran it with them an he finished in 11:56. Pretty good for 6 and 7 year olds. Here are some pictures.
There were a bunch of mascots milling around while the kids waited for the race to start, here are both boys posing with Smokey the bear.
This is the mob at the start of the race-- and this is only the boys. R and T are there somewhere, but good luck finding them!!!!
Here is T midway, he had a mega grin the entire race!!!!
Here is R with his medal at the end. All of the kids got a T-shirt and a medal and both boys were SOOOO proud of their medals.

At the end of the race, they had a big party in the park with lots of free hot dogs, pop, yogurt, milk, fruit, and free stuff for the kids. Here they are posing with the Boise State mascot, Buster Bronco and showing off their medals.

Talent Show Star

Our ward had a talent show and dessert contest last night. I had encouraged R to practice a song on the piano and participate, but he didn't seem interested, so I let it drop. When we got there, the turn out was pretty small and there were only about 6 people signed up to share a talent. I mentioned to R it was too bad he hadn't brought his piano book, and he said he wanted to play Dotted Waltz that he has memorized. He learned it awhile ago, but it's one of his favorites, so we signed him up.

Then T said he wanted to do a talent too. He said he wanted to play the piano, but I reminded him he doesn't know how. He said he could just play a song he'd made up. Instead I suggested he sing a song and started suggesting Primary songs I know he knows. He thought for a minute and said, I know, I'll sing my skip counting songs. So we decided he would sing 2's, 3's and 10's. He would be the last performer.

It all went pretty smoothly with different kids playing songs on the piano or violin or singing. When R's turn came, he walked up and introduced his song and played it perfectly, then walked back with an expression on his face that said "That was cool, but I'm sure glad it's over."

T was announced next. He walked to the front of the room, took the microphone from the MC and said, "I'm going to sing skip counting songs." He then set the microphone down on the stage and walked out of the gym!!!

Several people turned to look back at me, but I had no idea what he was doing. I thought maybe looking out at 40-50 people had frightened him and he had just slipped out. But next thing you know, we can hear his boots clomping up the steps onto the stage. He walked out into the middle of the stage and started singing. He did the 10's and the 3's before a member of the bishopric got up there to turn the stage lights on. Then he finished with the 2's and walked off beaming!

It was the perfect finale of the talent show and everyone had a good laugh.

The dessert contest was next, and T was sure he would win. I had made fudge, but it hadn't set up in time, so at the last minute we'd been trying to figure out what dessert to take and T helped me spread cupcake holders on a pan and fill them up with jelly beans. What judge wouldn't choose candy over cake or cookies? When he didn't win, he decided it was because the judges were old people, not kids. Then he and the other kids enjoyed eating the jelly beans. From his perspective, it was the perfect night!

Swimming and Co-op

We've been doing swimming lessons the past 2 weeks and T has learned to open his eyes under water and float with a kickboard. This is nothing short of amazing for him. He has Sensory Integration Disorder and water has always been a challenge for him. Imagine the sound of fingernails on the blackboard-- that is what water feels like to him. As a baby/toddler we would have a major fight on our hands with every bath. It took forever to get him into the pool, and even after taking preschool swimming lessons twice last summer, he wouldn't bob.

We went swimming several times during the fall and basically bribed him into learning to bob with donuts. Knowing he could earn a donut per bob to share with our family and his cousins finally helped him get over the phobia. But now that he has mastered that obstacle, he seems to actually be enjoying swimming and being in the water.

R has learned to backfloat and will go down the slide alone now. Yeah! I have my hands full with the two little ones, so catching him was quite a challenge. J and A both love water and are little fish. Hopefully when they are old enough for swim lessons they will still love it.


We also started our homeschool co-op Friday. I am teaching PE to the Class B, 7-9 year olds. We played junk food tag, where some of the kids have play junk food and if they tag you, you have to sit down because you are out of energy until someone with a vegetable or fruit tags you. We then played several other games and ended with water balloon volleyball and teamwork/cooperation activities with the water balloons. The kids had fun and I enjoyed teaching it. I also enjoyed the two hours when the older 3 were in their other classes and I could just read and visit with other moms and they liked showing off what they made and learned.