Hot and Humid - August in Houston

August, the month of my birthday and the month that is so miserably hot here in Texas. It came and went but sadly the heat is still lingering. We braved the heat one day and took the girls to the Houston Zoo for a day of animals, fun and sweat. The girls loved being there as a family and we promised we would return soon, hopefully in the Fall when the temps are a bit cooler.

We also got ready for our Back to School days with pedis and our BFF's, Emily and Ashley. The girls all picked different colors and came away with the tiniest toe rings. They loved being pampered and feeling girly and beautiful. Any day spent shopping and at the spa with friends is a pretty good day for a girl, no matter the age.

We rode bikes, had Leo over for a sleep over, made messes, and ate lots and lots of Pinkalicious cupcakes. Olivia read the book daily many times and ate half a dozen cupcakes herself trying to turn pink. Even though she was disappointed, I am glad my babe stayed her nice tan self.

Before we knew it, Belle was back in school as a 2nd grader and we were getting out our Aggie attire to cheer for a Texas A&M Football victory. It is starting to BE fall in the big USA, now if we could just get the weather to agree.

Back to school...2nd Grade!

Isabelle started 2nd Grade the last week of August. It has been hard for Ben and I to wrap our head around her growing up, but it is happening whether we want it to or not. Sigh. Belle is always a good student, but would probably never chose to go to school on any given day. She takes a lot of encouraging but once she makes it out the door, she is ready to learn.

We met her teacher, Mrs Steed, a few days before hand and instantly knew she was going to have a great year. Not only does she have a super fun teacher, but she also has her two very best friends in her class again, Emily and Paloma, and her church/neighbor/boy friend Henry.

We are all enjoying getting back into a school year routine and we know that Belle is happiest when she is busy and growing (mentally and socially) so we are trying to gird up our loins and face 2nd grade with our best happy faces. All four of us look forward to that afternoon bell finally ringing though and look forward to our family dates now even more.

Back to school, back to school.


(Shelly and I and the littles went to lunch to commiserate together on the first day of school. It happened to rain for a few minutes and since the moms were too busy chatting, Livi and Ashley decided to do a little rain dance celebration of their own.)

Smile

Why does it always seem like your children inherit your worst features? Both of our girls sadly inherited Ben's thick upper frenum and both have now had surgery to remove it. Ben always hated it as a kid and wished he had had his clipped much younger so when our dentist suggested we remove our girls, we signed on the dotted line.

Olivia had her frenectomy when she was just 18 months old and was under the knife anyway getting her newly broken teeth fixed. Her mouth was swollen and stitched from the event, so we were just glad when she finally looked like her self again. Isabelle, on the other hand, never had another reason to get her frenectomy done so Dr. Anderson thought the best time to have the surgery would be when she was starting to lose her baby teeth.

This summer she lost her first and second baby teeth so we knew it was time to schedule the appointment. Isabelle was nervous, as you would expect, but knew she would be happier once the surgery was over so she put her brave face on and marched into the dentist office. It wasn't too long before they had quickly put her out cold and took her back to surgery. Ben and I were shocked when they invited us to watch the procedure, but were told we had to be silent and ask no questions. It was a little difficult to watch them cut and sew up our little girl, but we really like Dr. Anderson and he was gentle and quick and we knew she was in good hands.

Soon it was time to wake sweet Belle up and take her home. She was pretty sleepy and silly for a while but finally close to bedtime she was starting to get a little hungry and tried to eat a little something. It took a few days before the swelling went away and the stitches in her mouth dissolved, but Belle was a trooper and was so relieved the worst was over. I am not sure how she could be any cuter, but I guess having nice straight front teeth will not hurt.