Horton, Haircuts, Teeth andTaxes

Last Friday we took all 3 kids to see Horton Hears a Who. When you first see Horton, Caden was beside himself and yelled "Mommy, it's a COW!!!!".... after shushing him and ignoring the chuckles behind me I told him, "That's not a cow, silly!"... he looks at me, looks a Horton, and then exclaims "It's an ELLIE-PANT, silly Caden"...

It was a very cute movie, and I was quite impressed with Caden's behavior throughout the movie. He's been to a few movies before, the first being "Happy Feet". This one was a disaster and Brent and I took turns with him out in the hallway. We saw Alvin in the Chimpmunks a few months ago, and he did pretty good at that one too.

This is such a big deal for me because Caden is just... BUSY. I outright refuse to bring him places like swim team or gymnastics practice, because he just doesn't have the ability to NOT race up and down the bleachers or make mad dashes for the pool. Those that know me well know that I lack patience, and Caden is as accident prone as they come. Not a good combination. He's had his nose bit by a bird, a black eye, a bloody fat lip, fallen into a campire, scraped up his nose and face, and countless other minor injuries. And really, I'm not an inattentive mom - I keep a good eye on him, but stuff just happens faster than we can react with him. I love this age, they are so darn funny and witty, but I'm just hoping we make it through this summer without him falling out of the boat or being attacked by a flock of angry geese. If that happens, I'll consider it a raving success.

Anyways... I think Caden's tooth is dying. One of his front teeth. Last fall he was running around on the ceramic tile in our kitchen, he slipped, and smacked his mouth on the staircase banister. Ouch. At the time, it was a fat bloody lip and a red bruised area on his gums... No loose teeth, so we didn't go to the dentist. Apparently, he did some damage though, because over the past month Brent and I started noticing that one of his front teeth were becoming discolored.. it's turning grey, and I'm sure it's dying. I made an appointment for him at the dentist, but I'm not optimistic. I'm hoping that he didn't do damage to anything that will affect his permanent tooth. I'm SO bummed about this! I love that age from 2-5 or so where they have these gorgeous perfect smiles. Anyways, here's his new smile - from what I understand it's only going to get worse, and may turn BLACK. ew.

Oh, well. At least I'm good in photoshop, I can doctor up all his pictures for the next few years...

So.... onto haircuts.

I'd been noticing for the past week or two that poor Caden had to tilt his head back in order to look at us, because of his shaggy locks. Plus, he was bumping into stuff, and we all know that he doesn't need any help in the clumsy department. The last haircut he got was at Fantastic Sam's and was an utter disaster. He had to sit on my lap, and refused to wear the plastic cape so we both got covered in hair. He would lean away and tilt away from the stylist, and whip his head around just as she was making a snip. He came out with jacked up crooked bangs, and a little nip on his ear.

So after putting it off for way too long (I ALMOST took the buzzing clippers to him myself) I decided this time to take him to Snipits. Madison has gone to a couple parties there, and I'd liked what I'd seen. Wow, what a difference!!! Snipits is definitely designed with the wee ones in mind. They have small chairs with seatbelts that elevate far enough so they don't have to sit on a booster. There's a nice parent sized chair next to each station so that I don't have to feel like I'm hovering while still keeping a watchful eye. They had a TV at each station with a cute little movie going to help keep their attention. And the stylists are definitely used to working with miniature sized customers. The cost wasn't bad, just about $3 more than I'd usually pay, so I'd say it's definitely worth it!

Caden BEFORE Snipits



Caden AFTER Snipits



I was browsing around on the IRS website this morning, cause I'd heard that the schedule was out there telling us when we could expect our Economic Stimulus Payment. I'm eagerly awaiting this, as Brent got the tax return, and I get the stimulus payment. Mine is already spent, I need to finish paying of a credit card that got built up a little last fall/winter, and it'll probably pay for the kids spring/summer swim team costs too. Anyways, I was glad to find out that we'll be in the first round of payments going out, so should have the money in our account around May 2nd. You can find out when you'll get yours here.

I'm skeptical that this measure is going to do what "they" are hoping it will. While I appreciate the concept, I don't think that it's going to do much to slow down the recession that we're undoubtedly going into.