February Wrap Up

I know that we're not to the end of February just yet, but we're heading out early tomorrow morning to go to San Antonio again, and I figured I wouldn't have much of a chance to post this weekend. Yes, you read that right. San Antonio...again. Mara loves it down there, and we have season passes to SeaWorld. So, why not? Plus, we've been finding some really good deals on hotels too. :)

Now on to this week's pictures.

Monday, February 23


Tonight was spaghetti night (again), and Mara really got into eating her spaghetti as always. She insisted on putting the Parmesan cheese on all by herself.

Tuesday, February 24


Doxy is always very interested in Mara's baths. A lot of times, she actually gets up on the side of the tub and eventually falls in, like tonight. It's not too bad because it's usually only a leg that gets wet, but it doesn't help that Mara likes to splash her. But Doxy always comes back for more.

Wednesday, February 25


I decided that since Plano has so many parks, it would be a good idea for me to start getting out at lunch to go for a walk. I found one not too far away from my office that has a nice walking trail, and you can easily adjust where you go depending on how far you want to walk and how much time you have. There's a pond in the middle that has ducks and geese in it. Today was the second time I went there for a walk, and I think I'll keep going back until the weather gets too hot.

Thursday, February 26


Mara is resting up for a big weekend at SeaWorld. She always goes to sleep with at least on whale in her bed with her.

Third Week of February

Here are more Project 365 pictures.

Monday, February 16


When John picks Mara up from school, Mara loves to come to my car to greet me. She insists on opening the door for me, and then she proceeds to climb into my lap so she can beep the horn and pretend to drive.

Tuesday, February 17


We fixed homemade chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese for dinner tonight. It's one of Mara's favorite meals, and the plate has her favorite princess on it – Ariel.

Wednesday, February 18



Mara wore her "Tiny and Tuff" OSU shirt today, and we spent the evening cheering on the OSU Cowboys basketball team as they beat Texas Tech. Mara was doing the "Go Pokes!" cheer in this picture. Later she got down on the floor to play with her animals.

Thursday, February 19


Today, Mara woke up not feeling too well and saying her throat hurt. We decided to go ahead and let her stay home since strep was going around her class. John took her to the doctor to rule out strep, and we found out she just has a cold. The bad thing about that is that there really isn't anything she can be given to help her get over it.

Friday, February 20


We needed new Band-Aids for Mara and were able to find some Littlest Pet Shop ones tonight. Mara was thrilled since that's one of her favorite toys.

Saturday, February 21


Mara attended another birthday party today, and she's finally staring to like going to the inflatable play areas. I think she would have had a lot more fun if she still wasn't getting over her cold, but I was glad to see her play some.

Sunday, February 22


We've been trying to work on her loose tooth, but we haven't had much luck so far. I have the feeling we're going to have to make an appointment with the dentist to have her pull it. At least she is feeling much better today.

Maybe there's something in the water

Mara and I went to a birthday party for one of her school friend today. There are two kids that Mara has been in school with since she started (Grace and Logan), and they are still pretty good friends. I hadn't seen Grace's mom in a while, and I found out today that she's due with another girl in three weeks. On top of that, Logan's mom just found out she's pregnant and due in October. When we were leaving, I also discovered that another one of Mara's friends (Ben) is going to be a big brother sometime this year too.

At first, I wasn't sure what to think of all of this news. I mean, I'm happy for all of them, but I couldn't help thinking that I should be a part of that group too and that I had already had two chances. Then, I realized that maybe it's a sign and that it will happen to us soon too. I pray that's the case. It would be neat if Mara and all of her school friends had siblings all the same age.

Valentine's Week

Monday, February 9


We started a bad habit when Mara was little of always laying down with her or cuddling with her to get her to sleep. However, the past couple of weeks, she has been going to sleep on her own, and I think we've finally broken the cycle. Now, we just tuck her in bed and turn on her music, and she goes to sleep. It's amazing how quickly she is growing up.

Tuesday, February 10


Mara has recently developed a fascination with my hair. She loves to get behind me when I'm sitting on the couch and play with it. She even pretends to spray it and braid it. Luckily I've developed a pretty tough head over the years. :)

Wednesday, February 11


John closed at work tonight, so Mara and I met him at the store and went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. Mara's been on a real CFA kick recently. Usually, we can talk her into going wherever we want, but we couldn't talk her out of going there tonight. Not that we minded much. :) As always, she enjoyed a sweet tea for her drink.

Thursday, February 12


With all the great weather this week, we've also been having some really great sunsets. I saw one tonight in my rearview mirror on my way home from work, but I knew it would be over by the time I got home. This is the shot I got of the sunset in my rearview mirror.

Friday, February 13




Today was a very busy day for us. Mara had her Valentine's Day party at school where she enjoyed Cheetos for lunch, Lori placed first in her group at a skating competition (see previous post), and we celebrated it all by having dinner at GattiTown.

Saturday, February 14




We didn't really get to celebrate Valentine's Day today because Mara had a birthday party this morning, and then John had to work the rest of the day. We did make the time to give Mara her Valentine's Day present this morning. She got a card with music and a Littlest Pet Shop monkey that she can decorate herself. John also got us cookies from work. As for the birthday party, it was at a bounce house place, which Mara typically doesn't like (not for a lack of trying), but she finally started to warm up to the place today. That's good considering she has another birthday party at an inflatable playground again next Saturday.

Sunday, February 15



It's hard to believe that Mara's birthday is only five weeks away. That means that we are in the midst of making plans for her birthday party. Tonight we went to the park where we are planning to have her party. Mara liked playing on the playground and going to look at the ducks and geese at the lake. She's really looking forward to having her party there now.

Congratulations, Lori!

My niece Lori had a skating competition today, and she placed first in her group. Here are some pictures of her performance and us celebrating her placement.

First Week of February

I've been taking a picture each day for Project 365, but I've gotten a little behind in posting the pictures.

Sunday, February 1


We went to Mike & Myra's to watch the Super Bowl, and Mara and Lani decided to play dress up (like they usually do whenever the two of them get together now).

Monday, February 2


This picture is classic Mara – Thomas the Tank Engine PJs and Princess dress-up shoes. What's funny is that those PJs are the ones we gave her for Christmas 2007, but she refused to wear them until now.

Tuesday, February 3


Doxy was very interested in what John was fixing for dinner (chicken), so she got up on Mara's footstool to take a peek at what was cooking.

Wednesday, February 4


Mara was being her silly self on the way home from school today, and decided she needed to wear her tiara, which just so happened to already be in the car.

Thursday, February 5


The weather was so nice tonight that we cooked hot dogs out on the grill for dinner. Mara is starting to want to help us more and more when we're fixing dinner.

Friday, February 6


Mara picked out an Ariel tattoo as a prize from her dentist, and she insisted on putting it on as soon as possible. So, since we went to Target after her dentist visit, we went to the bathroom there, and she got to show off her tattoo all through Target.

Saturday, February 7



Today was a Kids Workshop at Home Depot, so we went up to create a trinket box and visit John. Although she doesn't like to wear it, I was able to get a picture of her and her daddy in their aprons.

Sunday, February 8


Since Mara will be losing a tooth before long, I wanted to make sure we got several pictures of her with all of her teeth. It's going to be strange seeing her with a toothless grin before too long.

Another trip to the dentist

Mara went back to the dentist today for a checkup on her teeth from where she hit it last October. This was her third trip to the dentist, and it was the best trip for her yet. She had no issue when they want to X-ray her front teeth, and she even sat in the dentist chair all by herself. (A first for her – usually she insists on sitting in John's lap.)

It was neat to look at her X-ray because you could see her adult teeth way up at the top of her mouth. The X-ray also showed some shadowing around the root of the tooth she hit. That caused the dentist a little concerned and said Mara would likely lose that tooth early – especially if the shadowing got any worse. But that was before she actually looked at Mara's mouth.




Mara then laid back in the chair so her dentist could look at her mouth.



The dentist noted that her tooth is now loose. (It wasn't really loose on her last visit three months ago.) That, combined with the shadowing on the X-ray, the sore she has on her gum above her tooth, and the fact that her gum never grew back over that tooth, means that she is going to lose that tooth sooner rather than later. They are all signs that her body/gums are rejecting that tooth. In fact, the dentist wants us to work on getting it out over the next month, and if it doesn't come out on its own, we need to take her back in to have it pulled. So, in the meantime, we need to work on wiggling the tooth looser and then twisting it to pop it out when it's loose enough.

All this means that Mara will lose her first tooth before her 4th birthday. Ironically, it's that same tooth she chipped when she was 18 months old.

It might take a little bit for her gum to heal after she loses the tooth, which is normal, and she should quickly adjust to not having it. It'll probably make eating a little easier after the tooth comes out since she still bites off harder food using her side teeth and not her front teeth. And even though she's going to lose her tooth early, the adult tooth still won't come in for probably another two years or so because it's still high up in her gums.

It's going to be strange with her missing a tooth, but I'm sure we'll get used to it. We'll have to make sure to get plenty of pictures of her with all her teeth because it looks like she'll be missing one in her 4-year-old portraits. Here is what her tooth looked like yesterday. You can see that the gum never grew back and a sore developed on her gums. The dentist said the sore should heal after the tooth comes out.


If Mara doesn't need to go to the dentist to have the tooth pulled, she'll go back in May to have her teeth cleaned. Since she'll be 4 for her next visit, she'll get a full set of X-rays and not just of her front teeth.