Ten on Tuesday

1. Julia has been amazing to post at least something every day. I'm not making any promises, but I like the idea.
2. This morning, the 2nd-grader played on the iPad while waiting for the bus, and the Kindergartener played on my phone, so I jumped on the computer while the three-year-old whined about watching tv. We're nothing if not a digital family. (The bus has been and gone, but I'm still on the computer, and the three-year-old happily got his way once his older brothers were safely on their way. He's currently into "Daniel Tiger". It's cute and he can watch it, but I can't watch too many episodes in a row.)
3. What I can watch many episodes in a row of is My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Curtis and I have been working through season 5 after the kids go to bed. It means taking a break from Magnum: P.I., but we'll go back to Hawaii once we know Equestria is safe.
4. Today is Toilet Tuesday - that means cleaning all the bathrooms. Not my favorite chore, but it is finite (unlike laundry. O.M.G.), and if I don't do it this week, it's harder next week.
5. Turns out, Curtis did NOT want to pick whatever he wanted to do over his birthday weekend! He wanted ME to plan it all out and just tell him what was going on. I thought I was loving on him by constantly insisting that he got to decide everything. Of course this doesn't all come out until 10pm Monday night. Sigh.
6. I heard one bad story about Daniel's teacher (before I knew which class he was going to be in), and I didn't get a great impression of her at Open House, and now every time something happens (he had a potty accident at school one day (twice in the same day), and he got in trouble for talking too much another day), I spend the rest of the day imagining all the worst-case scenarios of having a conversation with her and it going very, very poorly.  I'm trying not to dislike her. I need to get in that classroom and help out or something so I can form a better opinion of her!
7. I finally got the paperwork started to have Eli evaluated for speech therapy with Mrs. Becky. We had him tested for Early Intervention, but they combine the understanding part with the expressive (talking) part, and he understood EVERYTHING so well that that half of his score pulled the other half up, so he didn't qualify. He's been qualified to be evaluated by Mrs. Becky since he turned three last September, but I guess because he was speaking better than Daniel did at that point, I didn't worry about it. But he's got some major articulation problems, so he needs some help. A year ago I asked Mrs. Becky if she thought he might qualify and she indicated that he absolutely would. 
8. If Eli goes to see Mrs. Becky, maybe I can use that time to help out in Daniel's class, just like I helped out in Zachary's K class while D was with Mrs. Becky. 
9. Daniel has impeccable articulation now, btw. He speaks so clearly and carefully. He's careful in almost everything he does, placing items just so, or putting together the perfect outfit (to be a bunny, for example), I suppose it's not surprising. Every once in a while, beyond just listening and responding to him, I find myself really listening to how he says everything, and marveling that this was the kid who couldn't pronounce initial consonants. We love Mrs. Becky.
10. Number 10 already? This was easy this week. I guess because it had been so long, I have lots of things to share. Those two sentences don't count as a number though, do they? Okay, I'm embarrassed to admit that I had to get two fillings last week. TWO! Of the 14 times a week that we're supposed to brush our teeth, I've probably been averaging 8-10 over the last few years. Then all of a sudden, the (new) dentist found two little spots. She called them pinpoints and wasn't too worried, but we went ahead and scheduled the fillings for the following week. Turned out, the "pinpoints" went straight down deeper than she had thought, and one of them had almost gotten to the nerve. The whole experience was incredibly miserable and I am extremely motivated that no one in our family is ever getting another filling EVER. Here's the kicker though: I skipped a few brushings here and there, but Curtis skipped brushing for AN ENTIRE SEMESTER in college and all he got were yellow teeth (easily fixed) and a scolding. The man has never had a cavity in his life (baby teeth OR adult teeth). He was very sweet to me though and never made a judgmental comment. I think he decided that the misery I experienced in the dentist's chair was punishment enough, and he was pleased at my resolution to prevent anyone else from having to go through that.
    10.5: I had one filling about 10 years ago, and I don't remember it being nearly as bad as these two were. I don't know if it's because this time the decay was so deep, or if this (new) dentist is just not as...what's the word for someone who's competent, but not as skilled at reducing discomfort for their patients. That. Whatever that is. The tech tore up my gums at my cleaning too. Doesn't have anything to do with the filling, but she did. And she didn't floss. Don't they usually floss after polishing your teeth? She didn't, which I was supremely grateful for, as I'm sure it would have been terribly painful. And she forgot to mark down that I had two spots of decay. The dentist was filling the one (actually she was still in the drilling phase, because it was so deep it took longer) and at one point when I actually had only my tongue in my mouth, I asked didn't she see another spot? and she looked and sure enough there it was. Wow, this got long. Sorry. Eli has started another episode of Daniel Tiger "I'm going to watch another one, okay?" he announces without waiting for a response, so I better go.