DAY 9

I got the dang cavities filled. Yippee. I guess it is my goal to see how many places I can ask medical professionals to numb me while I'm on break. I hate the feeling of being numb almost as much as I hate pain. It's scary! It gives me anxiety. My teeth are all better now, and the numbness is going away with minimal tongue biting, so I guess it belongs on the "SUCCESS" list.

Here's another SUCCESS from last night:

BAKING BREAD WITH CHEF TESSIE
(View the photos in order for the story.)

This is a Tessie's Tutorial on how to bake cinnamon swirl bread with Mommy, just like I used to make with my mom when I was really little. I figured this activity was cheap, delicious, pretty easy, and it would keep Tessie busy for a solid hour. There aren't many things that can keep her attention that long. We had so much fun in spite of the mess and other mishaps, and the bread turned out to be delicious! I think we'll make it a weekly tradition.

One thing (there are thousands) that I really loved about my mom's parenting was that she would often give my brother and I the tools to accomplish something and just let us go, no matter how messy we were or how awful it turned out. I'm sure it was hilarious to watch as her little three-year-old made pies, painted ceramics etc. She and my dad always let me cook with them. Now that I'm a parent I realize that was probably not an easy thing to do. Letting a toddler whisk up some pancake batter could result in hours on scrubbing later, but they let us help. We learned from our mistakes. Now, we are pretty brave about trying things we've never done because the we know the worst that could happen is we'll ruin it. We've ruined plenty of things in our lives, so it isn't scary to us.

SUCCESSES
-Baking Bread
-David and I finally saw Frozen!
-Cavities are filled.
-Tessie and I had a great day, drama-free.
-I got lots of Leo snuggle time today.
-Dave came home for lunch just to change a diaper and get Tessie to take a nap.

FUNNY LATER
-Really late night. Hardly any sleep.
-Numb mouth for most of the day.
-Leo screamed and woke up Tessie just as I closed my eyes for my own nap. I was so close to getting one!