Days with the Dorans

There are two reasons for the title of this post: 1) Ali has had a loose tooth since before December and 2) She actually lost it a week ago and I am just now FINALLY getting around to writing about it (work, life and workouts have had me too busy to hop on the computer as of late). Al had been gently wiggling her front tooth for quite a while, but when she showed my brother (back in December) and for some crazy reason allowed him near her mouth, I thought for sure she would lose it! Well she didn't. It got really loose, but in the end she said she was done and I think Danny felt pretty bad about having her in tears. I was shocked she let him pull on it as long as she did but she did get some ice cream to eat as tears silently dripped down her poor, sweet face. In the weeks that followed, I sent my brother a text that said, "LOST TOOTH!" knowing he would think it would be Ali... But alas, it was Joe and Al's tooth still just hung on. Last weekend Dan and Steph cam...

I always worry that I will forget the little funny things our kids say (which is why I write much of what they say here). Of course, this blog was after Joe and Al were first learning to talk and much of what they did and said at those ages I have forgotten. Yesterday (thanks to facebook and my niece Mary), I was reminded of a three year old Joey and it made me smile. Mary and the rest of the Dorans had been talking at dinner about something Joey had said, "And then they took the baby Jesus and THREW him in the river!" Yes, Joe had his babies mixed up but it was cute just the same but it triggered in me something else that Joe used to do/say. When he was little, Joe used to refer to any crosses as "God" (much like Sean refers to them as 't'). Any time we would pass a church with a large cross he would say, "Look there is a big God!" If he saw someone with a cross necklace he would say, "There is a little God!" Joe found crosses an...

Last week Thursday, Jeff got a call when he got out of school that Joe was in the office because he had hurt his finger earlier in the day and despite icing it, it still looked really bad. When I found out, I figured I was going to have to ditch my plans to hit Costco and instead take Joe to the hospital for x-rays. Not so fast. Joe wasn't complaining about his finger much at all... in fact when he and Jeff got home, he went right for the Wii, leaving the ice behind! The next day Joe still had a pretty ugly looking finger (his pinkie on his left hand... Joe is a lefty), but again he didn't say too much about it so went off to school. I had emailed his teacher letting her know that he didn't really complain too much about it, so we opted not to take him to the ER. I got an email that said, "Either Joe is one tough cookie, or his finger looks worse than it is (I think the former is the case)." Still I phoned the pediatrician and they said unless it looks obvio...

I have two resolutions for 2012. The first is to shed those pesky five pounds that have plagued me since Seany. It has been hard because we are so busy, but so far I have been walking each night after the kids go to bed. The second is (being so busy) to get organized! Santa started color coding our kids with the presents he gives and so I took a tip from him and started color coding our calendar. The calendar pictured above has since had about 5 other things added to it and we do not have a single day in January with nothing going on. Still I have vowed to get organized and it started with junk drawers and toothbrushes! I have been searching for a way to organize the toothbrushes for the kids. I don't like the cup or toothbrush holder on the sinks (even the cute one we have) mostly because of this guy... Sean gets into everyone's tooth brushes and we find them all over the house, which means we are constantly finding them and throwing them out! I went to the Dollar Store and go...