Long-lost friends!

We had a playdate with Robbie and Ellie. Suffice it to say, we enjoyed ourselves!

The Week That Will Live in Infamy

Oftentimes, I feel like I don't have much of note to post here. Enter, this week. I won't waste any more time on deliberation. Here goes...

Monday, one of my upper back molars started hurting like the dickens. This tooth has given me problems a few times before. I actually had a root canal done on it and a crown. When I woke up on Tuesday, the pain was excruciating. I immediately sent out an email to Wheaton friends (seeing as I... uh... haven't been to the dentist in a while), asking for dentist recs. I got Dr. Beck's name twice, so I quickly made the call. I immediately fell in love with his office. The secretary was amazing sweet, and, considering my pain, she booked me an appointment for 3, that day. Later that day, she called back to make sure I could still tolerate the pain because they would do everything they could to fit me in earlier, if possible.

I toughed it out, though, and a little before 3:00, I walked in and met with Dr. Beck. They took x-rays, which nearly made me jump out of my skin. The long and the short of it-- he saw what looked to be an abscess, so he called an endodontist, Dr. Brandys, who could fit me in right away.

I left the office, the pain from my tooth now shooting up through my whole face, got in my car and turned the key. The engine revved but wouldn't turn over. I tried it a few more times. Nothing. I called Mike, asked if there were any quick fixes I could try. No. I trudged back into the dentist's.

The secretary, again, super-nice, asked if I had cables to jump it. I went out to check, and then Dr. Beck himself came out. He told me his son was driving around, but since they expected me at the endodontist now, he thought that maybe Mark could just drive me there, and we could deal with my car later. Really, talk about full-service dentistry: a check-up and chauffeur service!

So, Mark and I had a nice drive to Glen Ellyn, where he dropped me off, gave me his number-- just in case my life continued to fall apart in a uniform way and I became stranded again-- and I went to the endodontist.

I'll skip the non-exciting details, but Dr. Brandys said that I'd have to have a root canal... or, I guess, a re-root canal? He'd have to undo the old one and replace it. Now, it was 4-something, I was in Glen Ellyn, and I had no ride. Naturally, pretty much all my Wheaton friends were either sick or working, but I called THE MOST WONDERFUL WOMAN IN THE WORLD, Connie Tameling, who came to my rescue.

She drove me home, and the girls and I waited for Mike to come home.

This would be a fairly good end to the story, I think. But wait... there's more!!

We had to go check on my car, still parked at Dr. Beck's office. The battery was fine, the car couldn't be jumped, so Mike dropped all the Green girls back off at the house and went to wait for the tow truck.

Wednesday went fine. I didn't have a car, but it was gorgeous out, and I had Tylenol with codeine. I love Tylenol with codeine. :)

Thursday was my root canal day. The car still wasn't ready, so Mike worked from Wheaton and stayed with the girls after dropping me off at the doc at noon.

Root canals aren't necessarily a good time, but really, it's not all that awful either. I was numbed, and the doc put a little prop in the other side of my mouth, so I didn't have to just hold it open the whole time. Dr. B did his thing, sat my chair up and said, "Well, we have a problem." Now I don't want to sound like a defeatist or a complainer here, but my only thought was, Of course we do. He then went on to tell me that the previous guy had used three posts instead of one, which he'd seen before. What he hadn't seen before was the type of cement used. He tried every trick in his book, and he couldn't break through it. So I get to brag about being a first IN HIS CAREER! Root canal fail.

This left us with one real option: surgery in which he slices my gum, lifts up the flap, removes the infected tissue, puts a filling-type-thing on the root, closes it all up and stitched my gum back down. That's happening next Tuesday. Awesome.

I left the office, and remember, I'm car-less, so I called Mike to see if the girls were awake. Nope. Fortunately, there was a Starbucks about a block away, so I went and hung out there for about an hour. Figures that this is the day both girls set records with their napping times. At a little over an hour, I realized, Why am I just sitting here? I'll just start walking home. I called Mike, told him the plan. We were both certain the girls would be up soon, and he could intercept me.

4.2 miles later, I was finished with my post-root canal stroll down lovely Roosevelt, the girls were still sleeping, and my face was still numb.

Oh, and that night, we decided to go to the grand opening of Chik-Fil-A for dinner (because gosh darn it, we deserved it!), where Noelle puked up her entire stomach contents all over me.

The End.

Update: Our toilet broke last night, right before we had company over.

funny girls

It's been a little while since an update. This is how I seem to roll: a burst of blogging, a long silence.

In case you haven't been around, our girls are funny. I think so, at least. Riley regularly cracks me up. Recently, she's been test-driving different names for me. The last three or four days, I've been "Mom" instead of "Mommy," and today, inexplicably, I became "Mama." Every time she subs another name in for Mommy, I can't help but laugh. It's not because these are inappropriate but because she says them with the air of someone who is highly clever and creative. Really, she's quite proud of herself.

She's a little chatterbox now, that one. And she has definite "likes." She likes macaroni and cheese. Any time (and I mean ANY time) I ask her what she would like to eat, she volunteers macaroni and cheese. And she prefers the easy mac Velveeta, in case you're needing specifics. She likes (though it's more like LOVES) Pixar's Cars.

She has been allowed to pick out some fabrics when we hit Jo-Ann's or Hobby Lobby. Guess what she chose.

red flannel Mater and Lightning pants

a little Cars peasant top

...and a Cars pillowcase dress

Then, when we went to Sonny Acres, she actually got to ride in a car! Wow! She told us that this one "looks like Ramone." :)



Here's another one of Riley's habits: lining things up. Not a day goes by when we don't have a line of cars and trains. Sometimes, I move one-- just a little; it doesn't go over well.


Noelle is also a little character. She's saying "Mamamamama" a lot and loves to clap and wave. Oh, and bounce. Bouncing's always a winner. She's taken to screaming (in joy), too. And she has an EXCELLENT indifferent face. See?

She can crack herself up, too, though. But really, no one makes her laugh like Riley does.




Really, we are so blessed. Both girls are such sweethearts. We like 'em. Don't you? :)

Fall Fun

Mike took Riley out for a fun Fall activity in the backyard. Here are the pics, plain and simple. :)

Arts and Crap

Before you're offended by my title, let me explain. Riley loves doing crafts. Her favorites, thus far, are making fingerprint pictures (under the close supervision of Mom, who doesn't need the whole house covered with ink) and play-dough. My favorite is everything because Riley cracks me up. She's a pretty darn good little speaker, but some words are still pretty unclear. When she wants to create, she looks up at me and says sweetly, "Mommy, please make crap?" She asks to do this nearly every day, and I still have to hold my laughter back. Does that make me immature? If it does, I don't care. If you could see her sweet little face, imploring me to make crap, you would laugh, too.

I don't have pictures of our fingerprint creatures, but here are some of our play-dough creations.

This alligator gets a kiss.

It's a good thing he got that loving send-off because, shortly after, he was consumed by our ravenous dog. Rest in peace, alligator.

Speaking of crafts, Riley turned painter during one of her naptimes last week. I won't go into detail (you're welcome), but here's, really, all you need to know.

In case that's not clear enough, let me just say that it's not chocolate, and the whole event was actually grosser than it looks. Think encrusted hands. Ew.

Alright, so there was double meaning to the title of this post. So sue me. :)

Potty Time Fail

There are going to be no surprises in this one. The title gives it to you straight. I decided, once again, to attempt potty training with Riley. Granted, I probably could have prepped a little more, but it was at least a somewhat measured attempt. Yesterday, we went to the library and picked out the Potty Time with Elmo DVD. She already had Elmo underwear, and we already had the Riley-sized potty.

(Sidenote: Elmo was and is entirely her choice. That red furball's voice grates on my nerves. Seriously, Sesame Street, why?!)

Last night, we watched the DVD, and I made sure to intersperse comments about how "awesome" and "neat" it was that Elmo was going on the big kids' potty. I mean, wow!

Today, I asked her if she wanted to wear her big-girl underwear. Initially, she refused, so I dropped it. I've heard, enough times, that it's not worth it to push your kid. A few minutes later, though, she told me she wanted to wear them. On they went.

After playing cars and modeling a little...




... here's where we ended up.

She sat there for OVER AN HOUR, watching VeggieTales, with no urine or excrement to show for it! For heaven's sake, I even let her eat her lunch, sitting on the potty! Sheesh. The kid's a model of self-control (or something?).

So I suppose I'll be waiting a while longer. Like my mom apparently used to say, "How many 21-year-olds do you know who can't do this?"

Bad Blogger (and the Allergy Saga)

Sorry, folks... It's not that we haven't had any news; it's that I haven't been blogging. Slap on the wrist for me.

Let's start with some of our most exciting news...

Two weeks ago, I took Riley in for her follow-up appointment at the allergist. She had gone in a year earlier, when we discovered that she was allergic to eggs. Because of that allergy, she also had to avoid nuts and shellfish. With my gluten-intolerance and her allergies, things were getting a little restrictive in the Green household. Needless to say, I was excited and hopeful for her follow-up, praying that Riley would FINALLY be able to eat "normal people" food.

We went, armed with stuffed animals, toy cars, and my iPhone, loaded with Pixar's Cars. The doctor ended up testing for a variety of nuts, some fish, sesame, and, of course, eggs. As Riley watched Cars, I watched her arms. It seemed, to my untrained eye, that she was NOT reacting. After all, the first go at this, the egg test site had puffed up and reddened almost instantly. Now, I wasn't seeing anything, at any of the sites. When the time was up, the doctor declared Riley ALLERGY-FREE!!!

Elated, I started trying to decide where we were going to go to get Riley a celebration cupcake. As we were driving home, I stopped at Culver's to pick lunch up for her, and when I looked back at her, one of the sites that had been negative was showing a late reaction. I wasn't entirely certain (though I was about 92% sure) that it was the egg site. I quickly called the doc, and she confirmed it. Late reaction to eggs. Gosh darn it! The nurse said she would get back to me with the doctor's updated course of action.

I was absolutely crushed. I can hardly explain how ecstatic I was that Riley could now eat eggs. The late blow was hard to take. I felt like I had gotten kicked in the gut. I put all thoughts of cupcakes out of my head.

Late that night, I finally heard from the nurse. I don't know how to build the suspense here, but I will say that my jaw hit the floor when she told me that Dr. Ozog still gave us the go-ahead to introduce eggs into Riley's diet. Two weeks later, she's reaction-free! See! :)