Today, The Parent Blogger’s Network and Sk*rt want to know what you’re hiding under your skirt.

Ah, my skirt. I don’t wear skirts very often. They aren’t practical since I’m often crawling around the floor with my kids or climbing up slides with them at the park. If it’s warm enough for a skirt I’d rather wear a pair of shorts. If it’s winter, I’d rather wear pants because I hate wearing tights or nylons. Every once in awhile though, I will go ahead and bite the bullet and wear one. And then I have to spend the rest of the day remembering to sit like a lady instead of putting my feet up on my desk or sitting cross-legged on the floor.

When I went to work at the studio back when I first met George, our boss once made a comment about how I never wore a skirt. He even joked that I was actually a “man with breasts”. (Yes, I could have called sexual harassment on that but a – we were all friends by then and b – a lot of people there could have filed the same charge against me!) I explained my lack of interest in wearing skirts too often by recounting this incredibly embarrassing true story:

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Hayley’s bottom tooth was loose for about a month, and it was driving her crazy because she felt like it was taking forever to come out. She kept wiggling it and poking at it, but it was still in there. She couldn’t wait for it to fall out so she could leave it for the tooth fairy. We even have a special container for it that my aunt gave her so that it can be left out on a night table (so the tooth fairy doesn’t disturb you by feeling around for a tiny tooth under your pillow) and she was excited about getting some money in exchange for the tooth.

Then on Saturday we went out for a birthday BBQ party. Hayley had a blast splashing around in the pool with some of those floating noodles and by the time all the kids showed up, she was in the pool more than she was out.

(Meanwhile, Breanna wanted NOTHING to do with the pool or the sprinkler, and settled for playing with a Dora ball, throwing pebbles, and clinging to my neck.)

Everything was fine until we had supper, which included corn on the cob. Hayley loves corn. You see where this is going right? She took a little nibble and said it hurt. I asked if she wanted me to cut the corn off but she refused. Two minutes later there was screaming and crying because her tooth had been knocked to one side and it hurt very much. Poor Hayley ended up not eating much of anything after that, except for half a small piece of cake, which wasn’t so bad because it was a mousse cake.

She whimpered about it on and off whenever it moved too much and we were really hoping it would just fall out already. It was so cute when she went to bed, because she curled up in a complicated little ball on her side, saying that she didn’t want to lie on her back in case her tooth fell out; she was very worried she’d swallow it in her sleep.

The next day, we headed out so Hayley could have her official soccer photos taken (so cute, I can’t wait!) and then we went to visit my parents for Father’s Day. My mom hugged Hayley with a big, tight squeeze and Hayley suddenly jumped back and said, “My tooth came out!” With no fanfare at all, it had just popped right out in her mouth. Thank GOD.

She was very excited and showed my mom and dad the big space where the tooth used to be. When we went to see George’s parents, she ran around showing them too. She couldn’t wait to put her tooth away for the tooth fairy, and was wondering what she would get in return.

And then we came home and she burst into tears because she didn’t want to give her tooth away. “But I love it!” she kept saying, over and over. We gently tried to persuade her to put it out because she would get some money for it and then she could go buy something at the store with her loot, whereas she couldn’t do much of anything with an old tooth. That didn’t work at all.

George even tried to see if she would consider lending the tooth fairy her tooth but not a chance! In the end, George got some paper and wrote a nice letter to the tooth fairy explaining that Hayley wasn’t ready to let go of her tooth yet, so to please not take it. Then we put the tooth in the container, taped it shut, and stuck the note to it. It’s a good thing that the tooth fairy can read!

As of this moment, she’s considering lending it out after all, as long as she can get it back another time. Also, she showed me that the tooth next to it is also loose, so she’s thinking she might keep the first one and give away the second one. The other alternative is that she knows the tooth fairy (*cough*) makes jewelry for other fairies out of old teeth so maybe the tooth fairy will bring her a little necklace with a “pearl” made from her tooth. We’ll see what she thinks.

I just can’t believe that she’s losing her teeth. She’s not even five yet, but now she looks so big. Last night at the soccer game, she was so proud to show off her lost tooth to her coach, her team, random parents, anyone who would look in her mouth.

I still remember when she first got those teeth. I can’t believe they’re starting to fall out already!

Today I was stuck in a waiting room at the Children’s hospital and I got bored, so I decided to go poke around the gift shop. I was actually just intending to see what paperbacks they had, but on my way in I spotted a little stuffed Orca (later I discovered it was a Beanie Baby, and please don’t let either of my kids become obsessed with them).

Hayley recently fell in love with Free Willy and it’s one of her favorite movies. It’s to the point where, if she splashes too wildly in the tub and I ask her to settle down, she will look me in the eye and with a totally straight face say, “It’s not me, Mom. It’s Willy. He’s a big killer whale you know.”

There’s nothing in any parenting book that addresses gigantic imaginary Orcas splashing water all over your bathroom, so I usually tell her, “Fine, but if Willy splashes like that again, he’s going to have to mop the floor and go home.”

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Yes, I have also had days like this. But honestly, I have to apologize because no amount of empathy can stop me from laughing hysterically at that picture.

Have I mentioned that I love soccer? Seriously, I’m really hoping that Hayley enjoys this season enough to want to do it again next year, because I refuse to force her to do a sport that she isn’t interested in, but I enjoy it enough that I’d be bummed about it. I love everything about it. I love the chaos of 4-6-year-old girls running all over the place after a ball, I love laughing as they run towards the wrong goal and they scream and cheer while we all yell for them to go the other way! I love sitting with other moms, getting to know them. I love helping out at practices. I really want to be back there next year.

Right now her games are on Monday evenings, and we’ve had one practice. I really enjoyed helping out. We had them do drills like running to the middle of the field and then dribbling the ball back to the side, pairing them up to practice kicking it back and forth, and then trying to teach them control by having them run up and down the field and stopping the ball when the coach blew the whistle. At one point, I told the coach it was like a hilarious circus and he laughed and agreed, saying that his goal is to try to have everyone able to control the ball to a certain extent and to be able to pass to each other by the end of the season.

Even though Sunday is Father’s Day, we’ll be at the soccer field bright and early because they’re doing photos. I think it’s a photo of each girl plus a team photo. That will be nice and will have to be framed and hung on the wall. The coach also said we’d do a practice since we’ll all be there anyway. We have to be there by 10:30 am but I’ve found that I don’t mind getting somewhere early (ish) if it’s for something fun, and soccer is fun indeed.

I never thought I’d enjoy it this much. It’s a shame I wasn’t able to dribble and kick as well as I do now back in high school!

Hayley on the left; shortly after this she actually made an assist on a goal and came very close to scoring a goal herself. Woo!

A nifty video montage of the 100 greatest movie quotes.

I just found the coolest craft ever, how to make a mini flower box magnet out of an old credit card.

We hadn’t gotten around to getting our air conditioners set up yet, and the past several days have been pretty damn hot. In fact, last night I was so tired from not sleeping well for several nights due to the heat, that I just slept like a rock anyway, despite the stuffiness in the bedroom.

First George put the a/c in the window of the bedroom and then he was going to get Hayley to hold the duct tape that he used to make the plexiglass air tight.

He said, “Here Hayley, come hold the duct tape.”

And then Breanna spent ten minutes standing on the bed, stretching to peer out the window, and constantly asking, “Where duck? Where duck?”

I tried explaining there was no duck, that it was DUCT tape but it was lost on her. I finally got her to stop asking for the duck by telling her the duck went night-night, at which point she waved to the window and said, “Bye bye!”

This site has an amazing amount of free stuff for kids, including things to download, things you can make to eat, craft ideas, and things you can order online. I’m bookmarking it for future reference for those crappy rainy days.

Head on over to IzzyMom’s caption contest. Hilarious! You can win a prize if your caption makes her pee her pants.