I can’t believe that Cheech is 6. I wanted to share a few photos from last night. Also I wanted to say thanks to you guys for voting for her and thanks to Mommy Shorts and Crumbs bakery for making her birthday that much “sweeter” (sorry for that little pun). She was bragging to everyone that she was getting a big cupcake from New York. I’m glad it arrived in time and she had her brother, best friend, mommy, daddy, and her neighbor friends over to help her eat it.

I asked her to let me do a new smash photo for you but she wasn’t really excited about it. So I dabbed a tiny bit on her nose and she laughed. Funny how 5 years makes the difference there.

I’m pretty sure my husband wants another one soon. He was going on and on about how moist the cupcake was and I was laughing at him (at first), and then I was like woah back there a bit you know that I also make cakes sometimes. The great compliment they received was that nothing I ever made was as good as the Crumbs one. So I guess the insult to me is a compliment to them.

Chee wanted to make a video to say thanks, but then she wanted to make another. Sorry but they were both cute (to me anyway) so I posted both. I maybe should have made 2 different ones to click and watch two. Looking back maybe it’s weird to have edited them together. Oh well.

I told you she was obsessed with Monster High. I just had candles and stuff I was going to put on top, but her MH cupcakes looked cute against the big cupcake and she decided that 3 of her dolls had to be around it too. It worked out ok.

There’s a local dentist who has a bad reputation for pushing stuff that may not be needed. Sadly I didn’t know this and took my kids to see him when they were small. They wanted my son to wear this apparatus when he was 4. —>

It was something to fix his crossbite. He had only baby teeth and he was a thumb sucker. I’d asked about what age to work to break him and they had told me that it’d work itself out.

They were like it’s going to cost this much and insurance will pay this much. Let’s schedule it for next week, when would you like the appointment??? I about cried. I was like, that’s a lot of money and pretty scary looking. I am going to have to talk to my husband and they were like ok, we’ll leave the room so you can call him.

What??? I took the photos of it with my camera in my purse. My 4 and 2 year olds are in the room whining and I told them that I’d just have to call back later as I’m not sure what my schedule was like. I was freaked out!

Then I went to my dentist and asked his opinion. Like walked into the waiting room and just asked to see him. He looked at him briefly and was like No! No no no no NO!!! Don’t do that to that poor baby! Work to get the thumb habit to stop, but crossbites will either get better with time as their mouth grows (and when he quits the thumb) or when he gets older he can get braces, but why on EARTH would anyone want a 4 year old to wear that?

I stayed with Dr. Snodgrass two more years and just said no to them. The next year they gave the kids flouride and my insurance didn’t cover it but once a year. I told them that I’d pay it this time but put it in the records that I don’t want that to happen again. Next year, another flouride bill. Why? Because they didn’t care what my records said, they do it each time as it’s best for the kid. Um, no. I called and went off. Look I asked you not to do it. I’m the mom. I will not be paying you for these and I’d like their records. I’ll be by next week to pick them up we’re done.

Now they go to my dentist with me. There’s no arcade, but they ASK before any treatment and they do it when I’m doing mine. I trust him and they have a tiny goodie box for the kids so they still get their silly ring or whatever after.

Oh and that dental thing scared my 4 y/o out of his mind. He was crying about it and begging not to. He was like, I’ll quit the thumb – anything but that. He asked us to help him bandage it at night  and sure enough he quit pretty quick. I’d be like remember that mouth thing and show him the photo. BAM. So if anything I recommend them to scare your kid to stop the thumb.

By the way – my son is almost 8 now, so this was a while ago, but still so fresh in my mind. And he has a few adult teeth and …. well see for yourself, he isn’t lacking for room right now. Crossbite or not, the david letterman gap was going to happen either way. I had one and I had braces and fixed it Oh the braces. Better start saving up now!

Wait, that sounded way worse than I intended. Let me rephrase that one, I hate having hermit crabs as pets. Whew, that sounds better.
Let me paint a picture for you. It was August and school was about to start back, so like many other families we realized we hadn’t gone on a vacation and went to planning in a haphazard fashion. Wait? Most people plan ahead? Really?
I digress.

So we planned to go to Florida and about 2 weeks later we were down there.

It was great and I love looking at our photos so it must have been a good trip, but we brought home some unexpected pets – hermit crabs. Now I know who goes to Florida thinking, “I gots to get me some hermit crabs!”?? But we were at the gift shops and they had them in there. The kids went wild with happiness about begged for a new pet. I buckled pretty quickly as I recall having them as a kid and liking them. Hubby wasn’t as quick to say yes, but he eventually said ok and we bought 2 crabs The first night we realized one never would come out of his shell, so we went back and got 2 more – you know in case that one was sickly or something.

This was a good call as both of Cheech’s crabs died in October. We had a crab funeral for them and since it was October we had tombstone decorations and the kids had to use those too. They drew pictures, cried a little, and we buried them.

Yes, Cheech has her Disney ears on at their funeral, clearly she was in mourning. Or she’s 5.

Anyway, that’s the way it went with both of her crabs, but the boy’s crabs live on. Oh do they live on. When we bought them I thought, I don’t want to just kill them slowly over time, let’s see how you’re supposed to care for them. This was a bad idea, as getting them some sand, spraying them daily with salt water, feeding them special food, keeping their humidity higher, letting them drink fresh distilled water – those are all the proper ways to care for a crab. I read all about it and followed it to a T.

Sadly, the kids love for their crabs waned.

I would randomly ask, “Did you feed and water your crabs?” and the kids would be all “No, we forgot!” Everytime. I thought, surely the cold weather outside and the chilly bonus room will cause us to have a winter burial and that’s ok. But it didn’t. Sometime over Christmas break hubby noticed that the crab tank had mold in it. Yikes! Mold? As if Cheech didn’t get sick easy enough!!

Early January Cheech got pneumonia and that was the final straw, so I took matters into my own hands. I got rid of the tank and returned the crabs to their original homes in their carriers. My hubby tried to make me feel bad, “You know you’re killing them right?” “I never wanted them to start with” Well, my answer was to call Sarah McLachlan or something and maybe they’d make a TV commercial about it. I know I’m the best wife ever, right? But now each kid has their original crabitat and can now transport their crabs around. They were so happy to have their pets portable again!

The bad thing is, they still forget to feed and water them. Also, they have to clean out the crabitats whereas before we just kind of left their tank alone.

I have decided that when these die we will not be bringing anymore home with us. If they want them they can get them day #1 of a vacation and at the end of the week we’ll set them free on the beach. This may be a win/win as they can play all week with them and we can set some captive animals free who were going to likely slowly die somewhere land-locked in a crabitat away from home. The only crabs we’re having at our house from here on out are the Xia-Xia Hermit Crabs. Clearly some toy maker at one point in time had this same dilemma (see pink crab above in photo). Please don’t call Sarah McLachlan on me, but if you do tell her she has to take these to her house.