What happened in Aprilish

What? I'm blogging? Yeah, that's right, baby. It has been quite a month. All sorts of junk's been goin' down round here. 

3 things happened to Addie this month: 

• She got her ears pierced. We were at the mall buying stuff for Anders' pinewood derby car, and I said, "Hey Addie, wanna get your ears pierced?" She was like, "Um, maybe?" and I was like, "Okay! Let's go!" Then I told her she didn't have to and it was her decision, of course, but oooh! Look at the pretty earrings! Long story short, she went through with it, but I felt bad afterward because I think I was living vicariously through my child, as I wanted nothing more than to have my ears pierced when I was 7. And the experiment of motherhood continues. She likes her earrings now, and my guilt has eased. 
• She lost her first tooth. Hooray, hooray! Her adult tooth started growing in before the baby tooth even fell out. The tooth fairy gave her a buck.
• She broke her collarbone. She was swinging her legs back and forth, with one hand on the kitchen table and one hand on the windowsill. She slipped and fell forward, landing on her shoulder. She's doing great, she just has to wear her splint for a couple more weeks.

Anders has started the orthodontic process. All of our children are doomed since it seems they inherited my ridiculously small mouth. He's got spacers in his molars now, and will have an expander put in next month, along with braces on his front teeth. All of this is no fun, and he claims that he doesn't care that his teeth are crooked. Yeah, well, you're welcome, future Anders with straight teeth. You are WELCOME.

Aani continues to be her wacky little self. She has to play with friends every day, or the day is an utter failure. She is very lucky to have a plethora of little girls her age around the neighborhood to play with. Her preschool group is ending in the next couple of weeks, which is crazy and sad. My last turn was a couple of weeks ago, and it was really cute to see how the kids have become a good little group of friends, and really have the drill of preschool down. I couldn't have asked for a better group of kids and moms to do this with. 

Ava is a complete nut. She figured out how to climb out of her crib, so now she gets out whenever she pleases. Sometimes this is at 3 in the morning, and I have the bejeebers scared out of me when she's breathing in my face in the middle of the night. She climbs all over the place all day long. She can pull herself up on the kitchen counters and get herself a cup. It's so not cool. She loves chocolate milk and pronounces it "chotnit noot". 

Nils and I got strep throat at the beginning of the month. I was sicker than a dog and thought I might pass away. Nils felt sickish, but he was still functional. How does that work? Anyway, that knocked us back a good couple of weeks. Then we celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. We ate at Zupas, which is really all I need in life. Nils and Zupas. And our children.

Okey doke, here are some pictures, in no particular order.

Aani and Ava do this pose every time we walk into the gym, and they see the picture of the guy below. It's super awesome when they block the way of other people trying to walk into the gym. It's funny and I refuse to stop them. 

The inspiration for my yoga girls.

Anders finished out the year of chess club with a couple of tournaments. It's funny to watch elementary school kids play chess and talk smack to each other. "Check. Check. You're blocked in. Check mate."

Addie's freshly pierced ears. 

I helped serve cheesecake at a wedding reception. For whatever reason, the powers that be didn't want the cheesecake served until the last half of the reception, and since this is Utah (where you go to a reception, shake hands, get a snack and leave) people were confused. Finally, a 90-year old man got up and served himself a piece of cheesecake. Oh man, it was fuuu-nny. 

Took the kids to Culver's for lunch over spring break. Such cute little stinkers.

Addie getting her x-ray for the collarbone. She was scared and wouldn't open her eyes. She also wore her bunny ears for this entire process.

Today I'm happy for mediocre health insurance.

One of the downsides to Nils' job is that there are no benefits. We spent a couple of months trying to find a family health insurance policy that wouldn't suck us completely dry, and that would actually pay for things like regular office visits. It sounds a lot easier than it actually is. Shopping for individual health insurance is one of the most frustrating and exhausting things I've done. It was so aggravating that we really considered just bagging the whole thing and saving the money every month in case of any medical expenses. But, I don't know, what if someone has to stay in the hospital or breaks their coccyx and has to have surgery, or worse? I was just never comfortable with being totally uninsured. Too scary.

At any rate, we were finally able to find a plan that only sucks us a little dry, and is only moderately mediocre... and today I'm actually glad! I've been sicker than sick for the last week or so. Extreme fatigue, aching body, sore throat... snot! So much snot! Hacking cough from H! Then I gave it to Nils. Then Aani dropped. Super awesome. Anyhoo, both Nils and I have strep and Aani has a double ear infection. After a day on antibiotics, I am a new woman! I think of how much it would have cost to self-pay at the doctor for all three of us, and get all of us medicated; I think it's safe to say the insurance paid for itself this month.

Now if I can just get a refund for all those months that nothing happens, that'd be greeeeeaaaaaat. Oh man, I am FUNNY!