Going against the grain

I'll admit that I can be an odd duck at times.  I have a confession: I am extremely tempted to never watch  Eclipse and any remaining Twilight movies.  I know, GASP!  WHY in the world would I ever do such a thing???  Simply because I am over the hype and hysteria.  This annoyance of mine hit a peak when I was walking into the toy section at Wal-Mart and saw all the Bella, Edward, and Jacob BARBIES.  Really?  Barbies?  I hated the first movie.  Liked the second, but mainly because I think the actor who plays Jacob is the only one in the cast who can express emotion without going monotone when he's trying to be serious or sad.  Edward in the books is supposed to be like an Apollo.  To me, Edward in the movies is a skinny pasty white boy with an ugly hair dye and contacts who I will say is a terrific actor - in other movies.  I know for a fact that the vast majority vehemently disagree with me, and that's okay.  I'm also annoyed that so many are naming their kids Edward, Jacob, Bella, and Cullen.  Really it's because I liked the name Jacob way before any of the books got popular, but now it's the #1 name for boys and I just can't quite bring myself to name my next baby Jacob - like planned.

Yes, I am an odd duck, I'll admit.  And I probably will end up seeing Eclipse in the end - one can only go against the current so long, right?  :o) haha.

Zane

My life has not been the same since the day I met this man.  In case you don't know our story, I'm going to briefly tell you how we met.  I worked at a radio station on campus at BYU-I.  After a few rough months of being engaged to a guy and then us calling it off, deciding I was going on a mission, doing the paperwork, etc.  I finally received my mission call May 5, 2003 and ran into the station to announce where I was going.  There was Zane (the new guy) and I didn't care one bit when introduced - in fact I brushed it off and continued my squealing to everyone else, "ya, hi!  ANYWAYS guess where I'm going?!?!":)  Needless to say, I didn't go on a mission - he's pretty persistent when he wants to be, and we were married later that year.  It's been the craziest 7 years, and definitely not easy.  There were many times I didn't think we'd make it another day together, but I'm so glad we've trudged through all the muck.  I honestly love this man and I'm grateful he's my partner now and forever.  He may not be perfect, but he's mine and honestly, who is?  We compliment each other's weaknesses and strengths and I think we both are better people because of it.  He is the best father I could ever hope for my kids - they know without a doubt how much he loves them and he is always willing to take the time to play - no matter how tired he is at the end of the day.  Happy birthday to my sweet husband!!  I love you forever.  Here are some pictures of Zane over the years.

Love this man!!

Princess is my hero

She found the camera!!!  It was in her hair basket under the kids' bathroom sink.  I'm pregnant - that's my only excuse.  :)

If you haven't already been...

watching the world cup, today's game should convince you of the intense AWESOMENESS of it!!!

GO USA!!!!!


And you really should start watching - it's the American thing to do.  :)

Picture free

I've lost our camera.  The playback button was broken anyway, but at least I could still take pictures.  It's gone gone gone.  Thank goodness I had already pulled off all the pictures before misplacing it!  Meanwhile many picture worthy activities have been going on that I guess I'll just have to describe.  *sigh*

We went back to Rexburg this last weekend to see our new nephew and Zane's mom before they all went to California for the summer.  Baby J is so cute - and I realized that I am NOT ready to have such a tiny FRAGILE thing in our lives again.  You forget how little they are - definitely sweet and cuddly, but I think I'll be grateful when we can get past the non-supportive head stage with our new baby.  :)  I was glad to see some old friends at the complex and we went to our old ward on Sunday.  I'll just add here that I wish we could just transport our baby-sitter wherever we move she is the greatest ever!  It was great to see everyone and I think it's crazy how much things can change even in just a 5 month period of time.  Wish we had more time to get in a "good" visit, but we had a lot of fun.

Speaking of fun - Cowboy did something pretty awesome and picture worthy.  One of the car dealerships was having a classic car show so we stopped by to see all the awesome restorations.  The fire department was there doing a fundraiser and had their ladder extended up all the way for people to climb.  Crazy high! Cowboy really wanted to climb up, so we asked and they fashioned a small harness for him and off he went!  I should tell you that he had not only a harness and rope, but one of the firefighters climbed right behind him in case he needed help since the rungs were pretty big steps for such a little guy.  Cowboy did AWESOME!  He didn't climb all the way (which is about 70 feet up) but they estimated he climbed at least 55 feet before coming down.  Not bad at all for a four year old!  :)  We were so surprised and proud of him.  Next stop - airborne school!  Princess would have tried it as well, but she had decided to wear a dress that day and we didn't think it would be appropriate for her to climb up showing off her undies to the world.  Drat that modesty!  :)

The kids are starting another round of swimming lessons and all are very excited.  Brother Bear will hardly let me hold him in the pool - he just wants to do it all himself and quite frequently dives out of my arms to kick and glide.  *Sigh* It makes for tiring lessons for mommy sometimes!  The other two are just as fearless and would stay in the water all day if it were possible, or if the weather would cooperate and they weren't shaking like leaves by the end of the lessons.

Princess is reading like crazy and loves to get new reading books at the library.  I'm so amazed with how well she does - she hardly has to ask me what words are anymore!  She got some eye shadow make up and lip gloss for her birthday and loves to play with it and feel like such a big girl.  She actually does a pretty good job with it too.  I love having her home all day this summer and am dreading the start of school already - I hate the idea of her being gone from home so long in the day!  She is super excited though, so I can't say anything.

I'm supposed to sign Brother Bear up for speech therapy, but am putting it off a little because of his explosion of words.  The only question is whether or not other people can understand his words like I can.  :)  We'll see.  I think I'm going to wait until after the baby is born to start taking him...maybe.

So that's our picture free update.  For all my photography guru friends, what camera would you recommend if we were going to save and get a digital SLR?

Professional clarification

I went to my PA today and got some clarification on things said at the hospital last Monday:  I'm fine, nothing to worry about at all, and basically whoever said anything else at the hospital was dumb.  :o)

Back to normal life and no more worrying!  Yay for me!

Oh and by the way, GO USA!!!  I haven't been able to watch much, but the parts I've seen are super great - love the World Cup.  :)

Gross praise

Odd title, I know.  You'll understand after reading.  Oh, and a warning: this post is graphic and not for people who get grossed out too easily.

I've said this so many times, but once again I have to sing the praises of a great husband.  I NEED to go grocery shopping in a bad way, so last night we went out to eat at a local bakery/sandwich shop we've never tried before.  Well apparently, I got a touch of food poisoning from the chicken salad sandwich (I'm hoping this throwing up isn't an every Monday trend).  I woke up at midnight put my hands over my mouth and RAN to the bathroom - but didn't make it before another wave hit me so fast I was stunned.  Seriously, I stood there in the doorway completely shocked that I had just sprayed such a huge amount of puke ALL OVER me (covering my entire face, hair, down my front, not to mention my hands), the carpet, the doorway, the guitar case, mirror, walls, bathroom floor.  You get the idea.  I was totally dumbfounded!  Zane was still awake and I just called out, "Zane?" as I went to the tub to wash off some of my face and then lost it again.  Literally this stuff was unreal!  I was COMPLETELY emptied of everything in my stomach and down to the dry heaving in less than 10 minutes.  And the unbelievable sour smell was something special.  So while I got in the shower to try and clean off my sweet husband cleaned up the entire mess, got out the carpet cleaner (which, just let me interject a note here: carpet steam cleaners are one of the best investments we have ever made and I would highly recommend one for every household with children/pets/people who puke  (o:), and he didn't even complain - just asked if I was okay and set to work.  Granted after all that, he came out and slept in the living room.  :)  Poor guy - I can't say I blame him one bit!

SO that is what I mean by gross praise.  The situation was disgusting, but the praise is real and deserved!

Summer days

Two for one on posting today!  :)  Just wanted to post some pictures of the first day of summer.  :)  It's the first time it's been close to 80 in quite a while, so the kids and I had fun in our backyard after swim lessons.

Princess turns 6

Modeling her new dress and sandals

Cowboy's present to Princess

She wanted a My Little Pony sugar cookie cake

Happy birthday big girl!!

The fun and no-so-fun

I decided Saturday morning since the older two kids had been on antibiotics long enough and BB didn't show any sign of strep we could go down and see Zane's family for his sister's baby's blessing.  The kids did great with the trip in spite of the super quick turn around and it was fun to see everyone.  Unfortunately poor Zane was the only one of the whole family NOT there.  Oh well, I'm sure there will be more get togethers and lately it seems there is always one more baby to add to the bunch so the family pictures are never quite complete.  

All the cousins - the boys are taking over!

BB & his cousin G are 3 wks apart - Cowboy sure loves them!

BB thinks he should close his eyes when someone says "Look at me!"

Princess helping him open his eyes for the picture - so funny!

We were also able to visit with my sister and her family for a little bit.  I wish it could have been longer as planned before sickness, but it was nice for the amount of time we were there.  It turns out it was a blessing in disguise we weren't there for very long anyway.  We thought one of the nephews had food poisoning, but it turns out it was a stomach bug that I caught as well.   So Monday morning I woke up SICK - out both ends.  It was AWFUL.  I was incompetent of taking care of the kids at all so I called Zane and he came home from work to take care of us for the day.  By the end of the day I wasn't keeping any fluid down at all but I still didn't want to go into the hospital for iv fluids thinking I could make it to the next morning and just go in for an office visit.  However after my contractions kept coming every 3 minutes I figured I needed to get hydrated before the contractions actually progressed to something more so I had Zane drop me off (yay for living 5 minutes from the hospital).  However, I was really dumb and decided to go ahead and let them give me the cheaper Phenegren for the nausea in the iv instead of Zofran.  Such a bad idea!  I react to that so bad - it can cause restlessness, anxiety, etc.  So I had to sit through another bag of iv fluid unable to sleep or stay still or relax and starting to freak out that I was strapped to the monitors and iv.  Serves me right for thinking of saving money on the bill.  :)  The poor nurses had a hard time getting my iv started anyway - they had to poke me 5 times to try and get a vein that wouldn't burst or collapse.  My arms look fabulous!  :)  But I'm glad I went in then instead of the morning - I'd hate to think how hard it would have been to get one started after another 12 hrs without any fluid!  Yuck.

I did feel better about my ability to recognize the contractions after actually seeing that not only was i having them, but they were big enough to actually register high numbers on the monitor.  It made me feel like it wasn't just in my head.  :)  Because of all the contractions they went ahead and checked my cervix to make sure they hadn't made me progress before I left the hospital.  I was very happy that I wasn't dilated, but not so happy to find out that my cervix is super soft/thin which from what I understand from them means there isn't any more barrier to the contractions actually making me efface and dilate.  No one wants to hear a doctor say "well, at least try and keep that baby in there another month."  ?????  What are you supposed to think with that?  I've been pretty good at ignoring all these contractions up to this point - with the exception of those that made me have to stop walking or take my breath away.  But seriously, now how can I not become paranoid about these obnoxious contractions that I inevitably have 24 hrs a day?  *sigh*  Ignorance is bliss I tell ya!

So Zane picked me up from the hospital about 2 am and I was still super weak yesterday so he worked from home again.  I just have to say, I really have an amazing husband.  He took care of us all without a complaint that he was having to use some of the few vacation days he gets, I didn't even have to ask him to stay another day yesterday - he told me he was going to stay because I needed to get better.  He's wonderful.  There are times in a marriage when you question how much you love your spouse, or even if you still love them.  I can honestly it's true - love grows and changes over time.  I can't imagine life without him - he's truly my match and I love him so much more today than I did when we were married. I think our differences challenge each other - but in a good and growing way.  Love that man!  :)

Fevers

I'm all for immunizations - I just have this big huge reservation with the safety of injecting 7 + diseases in a poor kid at a time.  So I generally stagger my kids' shots.  Well, I've gotten so far behind on Brother Bear that I allowed them to poke him 4 times yesterday with a total of I think 8 different diseases.  Ugh.  Needless to say, I expected him to have a fever, etc last night.  Meanwhile, Cowboy was missing one of his Hib shots and even though the doctor just said he had strep, she thought it would be fine for him to have the immunization on top of it.  Against my better judgement I agreed.  POOR COWBOY.  Last night was terrible for the poor kid.  He was limping around because his leg hurt, his throat already hurt from the strep, and he had such a high fever - it was so hard to watch!  Zane was fuming when he read the immunization hand out and it said to NOT give a child who could be moderately ill this shot until they are healthy.  Nice!  Thank goodness for the priesthood!  We don't have any home teachers yet, so thankfully one of the guys we know in the ward was willing to come over and help Zane administer.  I'm so grateful!  Cowboy slept pretty peacefully the rest of the night and woke up with no fever, and no bad side effects.  Whew!

Brother Bear woke up in the middle of the night with a high fever, but thankfully his went down with some ibuprofen and stripping him of his clothes.

We are so blessed!  Both boys are up and relatively happy (although our bouncy Cowboy is quite subdued laying on the couch).  If I could just convince them that drinking is the way to get better faster!  :)  Princess healed so fast this time because she was able to understand that if she ate the popsicles and drank lots of juice and water that her throat would feel better.  Love that girl!  :)  She's a smarty.

Mommy and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

Today is Mommy's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.  Well, maybe not that bad, but it's not a good Mommy day.  We've all had them, or will have them at some point, some of us more than others.  I am feeling overwhelmed and frustrated and very short tempered.  I feel like the perfume of my life right now is a mixture of pee and poop - on the bright side, at least no one is vomiting to add to that lovely mixture.  :P  I know it sounds stupid, but I swear I can clean the bathroom every day and it still smells bad!  I have a hard time not feeling angry when my 6 yr old still has some kind of potty accident almost daily.  I'm frustrated that I am now washing 2 sets of sheets that were all soaked in pee.  I won't even bother explaining this story right now, but Brother Bear peed all over the house yesterday and I can't find all the spots to wash them.  He wants to potty train, but I just don't think I can handle the extra mess right now.  Of course, I also hate changing his messy diapers that reek to high heaven.  *sigh*

Brother Bear has been at the receiving end of my yelling a few times today.  Last night he put a huge gash in Cowboys head swinging around a flashlight instead of cleaning up (he could have used stitches, but it's under the hairline, so we aren't too worried about a scar).  Today BB whacked Cowboy again in the head in the bath with a toy.  Needless to say, he may not speak much, but he is definitely a 2 yr old. He's been refusing to listen and hitting a lot lately.

I'm blogging this in an attempt to get out my feelings so I stop yelling at the kids today.   Really, it's not their fault that I am feeling frustrated.  I'm hormonally imbalanced, and already not sleeping at night due to the pregnancy.  I'm starting to think Zane is right.  He thinks this should be our last one - I'm not sure my family, or I can go through the mood swings and exhaustion again.  I just want my house to be completely clean today - all of it, and I want the energy to do it.  I'm not just talking regular cleaning - like washing all the stains out of the couch, shampooing the carpets, pulling out the fridge and stove, cleaning all the blinds and window sills, the outside windows, every little nook and cranny.  Yes, I am being completely unrealistic, I know it.  But these little things are influencing the whole irritation.

I'm not on the verge of a breakdown, just having a no good Mommy day.  This too shall pass, and I do love my kids, and I am grateful for being able to stay at home with them, but I think I'll actually be feeling more grateful another day.  :)

Jumping on the bandwagon

I refused to read the Twilight series almost until Breaking Dawn came out and I finally gave in and read them.  I liked them - they were different and I appreciate easy read books that don't have a lot of swearing or over-the-top love scenes, etc.  But the deal is,  I have this thing against following the "fads" of the reading/entertainment world.  I really don't like when the books I love are turned into movies because for the most part they are severe disappointments.  I don't like when everyone and their dog reads the same book.  Weird?  Yes, I know.

That being said, I've joined another bandwagon, and I really hope they NEVER turn these books into movies and Barbies like they have Twilight.  If you haven't already read the Hunger Games series, I'd truly recommend it.  They are totally unique and thought provoking.  So if you are a hold out like me, come and join in - I thought they were worth it.  But you should know the third and final book doesn't come out until August, so you may want to wait a couple months.  :oD

If you are ever looking for somewhere to live...

We love Boise.  We went there yesterday for a quick trip to the zoo and to see Grandma Great.  If you haven't ever been downtown to the greenbelt, you really should check out The Julia Davis Park.  The city is very bike friendly and we LOVE the big tree-lined streets throughout.  I'm a little biased of course, considering my mom grew up in the area and my grandma still lives there.  :)  One of the best parts of Boise is the Fanci Freeze  - they have an amazing concoction of hand-dipped ice cream cones (so many flavors) and they have what's called a "boston shake" - a shake with a sundae on top.  It's a little place that's been around for YEARS, and always brings a round of nostalgia when I go there.  I can remember getting bubblegum flavored dip cones there when I was tiny.  Yesterday was the first time I took Zane and the kids and it was still so good!  I was really tempted to try a roasted coconut and chocolate shake, but I have a really small limit on how much ice cream I can consume without hating it this pregnancy.  :)  So I "settled" for a small blue raspberry dip cone.  :)  Yum!

So anyway, that is my promo for the day.  We love Boise.  If Zane could find a company to work for out of Boise that would pay the same amount (or close), our lives would be complete - but until then, we'll settle for the 1 1/2 - 2 hr drive visits.  :o)  I looked up how much houses go for in our favorite area in Boise - needless to say, we have expensive taste.  Big surprise!  The least expensive house barely big enough for our family runs about $260 K.  *sigh* Someday, right?  I should add for my readers in more expensive areas of the country - I sigh at the price tag because there are a lot of good areas in Boise that you can get a good size house and yard for under $150K.

Besides, Boise's the home of the BSU Broncos - can you honestly ask for anything more??  hehehe.

Photo credits: resources.jobing.com/ files/2009/02/boise.jpg, http://www.joseandblancaphotography.com/WebPage-ImageGallery-Idaho.html

Oh Brother Bear

The things that make a mom happy are astounding.  This morning is a prime example.  BB came out of his room with a super stuffy nose and boogs and when I got a tissue - he actually blew his nose.  :)  This is a major feat for a 2 yr old who always sniffs instead.  Makes a mommy proud.  hehe.  Speaking of BB, he was eating his cereal sitting across from me and decided to blow his nose again - w/o the tissue and then promptly wiped it on his sleeve, smearing the goop across his face.  Ahhh...the life of little boys.

He has now taken to carrying a baseball around everywhere.  Never puts it down, with the exception of throwing it - but watch out if anyone but him goes to fetch it.  He sleeps with it, eats with it (although I'm trying to convince him that it's easier to eat if he puts it down), would probably bathe with it at this point and screams uncontrollably if it is ever within anyone else's reach.  At least it's a newer, cleaner ball.  :)

Oh Brother Bear, how you make me laugh.

New era of life

We have entered into a new era in life that will probably continue until the kids graduate from high school. I sat down and did our calendar for next month and put in all our appointments/activities/etc.  It's the first time (and most certainly not the last) that it's been so full - and we haven't even started the kids into any music lessons yet!  I'm starting to understand a little more my sisters' pain when coordinating their families busy schedules, and I'm grateful for my super easy transition stage.  :)

So what's going on in June?  Well, all 3 kids will start swim lessons M-Thurs (unfortunately for my large preggo self, Brother Bear's lessons are with the parents - eek!).  Since their daddy is such a swimmer, he wants to sign them up for 4 consecutive sessions so they will be totally swimming by the end of the summer.  We went ahead and got a pass for the pool so we could go anytime when Daddy was available too.  Princess is in t-ball and LOVING it!  I'm so glad.  She didn't really like soccer all that much, but I think she can tell that she is improving each week with t-ball and that makes her feel so good.  She has a great coach, so I'm thrilled.  Her coach is the principal at the high school and his wife teaches kindergarten at P's school - it's a great match.  So her practices are M-W evenings, and their games are T-Th evenings.  Cowboy will start his t-ball in July - thankfully!  :)  Zane was called as the assistant scoutmaster to the 11 yr olds in the ward, so he's gone every Wed and they've got their campout things in June as well.  Princess will have her 6th birthday this month, Zane's birthday is at the end of the month, and the kids and I will be headed to UT to see family the first weekend in June while poor Zane has to go to drill in Boise.  :o)  So much for school getting out and settling into summer!  hahaha.

For me, I'm dreading having to go to the doctor more often, even if it means the down hill side of the pregnancy.  Just one more thing to schedule in.  :o)  It really wouldn't be so bad if this office didn't take SOOO long for any check up.  Oh well!  Speaking of doctor's that's the other thing taking up our time in June - everyone has their check ups this first couple of weeks.  Maybe I'll finally get Brother Bear caught up on his immunizations.  Poor kid.

Speaking of BB, he just poured milk all over the kitchen - guess that's my cue to get going!

A most unproductive day

A note about cleaning days - I must start cleaning from the time I wake up and before I have a shower, or it just doesn't happen.  The boys had appts at the dentist and I figured since we were already out and about I might as well run a few errands I normally don't get to do.  By the time we got home it was way past lunch, I was exhausted and the last thing I wanted to do was change into grubbies and clean the house.  So I didn't, but I need to - our dishes overfloweth from the sink and we have no more clean plates or bowls, there are 3 loads of laundry that need to be folded and put away, dusting needs to be done, and our kitchen floor is feeling a mite sticky...I'm sure I'll get the dishes done today, but everything else?  NADA.  *sigh* looks like Friday will be at least a half cleaning day and the rest will have to wait until next week.

My lesson of the day: DO NOT GET READY FIRST THING, OR GO ANYWHERE ON DESIGNATED CLEANING DAY.

:)  Just thought I'd share.

Counting blessings

I had a great reminder today, almost to the point of chastening, of how blessed we are as a family.  Even when things aren't exactly how we want or planned them, I still shouldn't complain.  My husband has a job in a turbulent economy, we live in a safe neighborhood, we are not going hungry like so many others, we are able to have children, we have our health, we live in a free country where I don't have to worry about a daily occurrence of a suicide bomber, and most importantly we have the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I could go on and on, and I think I will tonight in my personal journal.  I just wanted to state for the record, that I know I am incredibly blessed, and maybe if you are having a hard time right now in your life, take a minute and count your blessings and life may seem more bearable, and even downright great!  :)

Parenting...WOW

How do you instill enough confidence in your children to help them be successful?

I'm getting concerned about my Princess and would love any suggestions or advice you may have.  She has a friend who can be very sweet, giving, and nice.  However this friend can also be extremely manipulative and downright mean and rude.  I keep encouraging Princess to stand up for herself by either telling this friend to "stop" or walk away and not play with her anymore when she is on one of her mean kicks.  But so often I hear Princess pleading for forgiveness from this friend for something she didn't do (ie-I'm so sorry!  Don't stop being my friend.  Or please still invite me to your birthday."  If I tell them it's time to come in, Princess will ask her friend if it's okay that I said to come in - to which her friend will reply, "that's not very fair or nice to me!"  It drives me CRAZY that my daughter is cowering to this girl just to be her friend, and if I say no more playing with so-and-so, it just comes off as punishment to Princess.  What else can I do to help her understand that she cannot stand to be treated this way?  I worry about her tendency to follow someone else and not stick up for herself just to keep being friends.

Yesterday I overheard said friend speaking VERY rudely to Princess and getting in her face and yelling about something.  I went over to see what was going on and this friend was upset about some secret she said her cousin and Princess had and Princess wouldn't tell her the secret.  I asked P and she said she had no idea what her friend was talking about.  Friend kept insisting that a few days ago she knew that her cousin had told P a secret. ????  I explained that I was sorry she felt upset, but Princess didn't know what she was talking about and if she really wanted to know she should ask her cousin if he remembered what it was.  Then I continued and told her that she may not EVER speak to my daughter that way - I wouldn't let P do it to her, and she cannot do it to Princess.  Friend argued about it saying she just wanted to know the secret, to which I again said, "Friend, Princess doesn't know the secret - if you want to ask Cousin fine.  But DO NOT talk to my daughter like that again.  Do you understand?"  I then told Princess in front of her friend that if Friend wanted to be mean again, P should walk away from her.  I thought it may have helped to stand up in front of her, but again today Princess was bending over backwards.  *sigh*  It's not as simple as just saying, "You can't play with Friend again" due to the fact we are neighbors and friends with the other family members.  By the way, in defense of Friend's parents - they are very good people and not uncaring about how she behaves.

I've heard kids in karate build up their confidence and self esteem...

Besides wanting to help the confidence side of Princess, it is also coming out at home quite a bit.  She is lashing out at me and is really becoming this super angry child who screams and throws things at me and talks back like a teenager.  In fact it was SO bad the other morning that I even asked her if she treated and talked to her dad like she did her mom what he would do.  Her reply?  He definitely wouldn't like it and would probably throw her into a wall.  (He really wouldn't hurt her like that, but he's been known to give a solid smack on the buttocks when it's called for).  I don't want to spank her - it doesn't help the situation.  I can't just ignore it because truly, it's unacceptable and there is obviously SOMETHING going on.  I just don't know how to help her deal.  I keep wondering if I should take her into counseling to try and figure out what is going on.  I just really would like that to be a last resort due to $$.

Parenting...WOW.

Princess

Pics of the missing teeth.  They make us laugh whenever we see all the holes.  Good thing she lost her two bottom teeth last summer - she wouldn't be able to bite anything!  :)