First Trip to the Dentist

So Miss Courtlyn had her first trip to the dentist Monday morning. We hyped it up for several days and she was all excited until it came time to leave Granny's house. Since her appointment was at 11:30 I dropped her off at Granny's (my mom's) like I normally do and went on to work. Then around 10:45 I came back to Granny's house to pick her up to go to the appointment. Well apparently she got confused and thought we were going home for the day (which I would have loved to do!) and proceeded to throw a small fit. After some convincing--mainly a bribe of a McDonald's Happy Meal (yes, call me a bad mommy!) we were able to get her in the car and head on our way to the dentist.

Once we were there they were running 45 minutes behind. Ugh! Courtlyn was fine because they had lots of stuff in the waiting room to keep her entertained including Finding Nemo on the TV, lots of books and a play nook. It was me that was getting impatient since I had to be back to work. There's nothing that irritates me more than having to wait more than 20 minutes in a waiting room of a doctor or dentist. Plus the fact that I hate the dentist office--the smell, the sound, well basically everything about the dentist. This goes back to my childhood and a very horrible experience I had. Anyway, I digress...

So finally Courtlyn's name is called and we head on back. I was so proud of my little girl. She didn't kick, cry or scream the entire time. She followed the hygentist on back like she had been there a hundred times before.

First the hygentist started off with the pink stuff on the teeth. You remember those pink tablets you had to chew up when you were little and it showed where you missed brushing? Well, now they have a liquid version of this stuff. (How cool is that?!) So she put the stuff on Courtlyn's teeth and let her see where she missed with the toothbrush. Then she rinsed her mouth out and got to spit in the sink. She thought this was very cool because Mommy & Daddy do this. Now she's a big girl because she can do it! ;) (Of course it helps that the sinks are at knee level for her since she's on a stepstool.) She had to check her "pearly whites" in the mirror because she was so proud of herself. The hygentist helped her brush her teeth and then we were off to get down to business.

Putting on the pink stuff

Rinsing

Checking out those pearlies

Getting some help with brushing

Now Courtlyn couldn't get enough of the dentist office. It is a pediatric dentist so everything is geared towards kids. The exam table where she was had a tree coming out of the floor--you can see it in the picture--with butterflies in it. Oh, she was in heaven! The x-ray room had a motorcycle you sat in to get x-rays taken. It was so cool. (If they had this when I was a kid I know I wouldn't be terrified of the dentist to this day!) So the hygentist had her lie down on the table they had and tried to see if she would let her polish her teeth. First she used the polisher thing (not sure of the medical name for it) on her thumb to get her used to the feel and noise. Then she explained that she would be putting it in her mouth to polish her teeth. Well, that's when Courtlyn said, "um, I'm ready to GO!" I tried not to laugh because it was too cute how she said it. "Like um, lady, you're crazy if you think you are going to put that thing in my mouth!" So she tried again to gently persuade her. Nope, she wasn't having any part of it and this time instead of saying she was leaving she just threw her little arm up in the air and put her thumb up in the air as to say if you're going to do it, do it on my thumb. Too funny!!!!

So she didn't get her teeth polished, but at least she didn't kick, scream or cry during the visit at all. The best part--NO CAVITIES!!!!!! I'm so proud of my baby!!!!

Getting down to the nitty gritty stuff! :)

Flossing! I can't believe she let her do this!!!! I was SO proud!

Counting her teeth...she has 20!

Smiling waiting for Dr. Hank

Dr. Hank came and checked her out and we made our appointment for 6 months. It's hard to believe, but the next time we'll be there it will almost be Christmas! SCARY STUFF!

On a side note....I had to include this picture from this past weekend. It is the only picture I have that when I look at it reminds me of me when I was little since Courtlyn looks SO much like David. I don't know what it is about this picture--if it's the expression on her face or what, but finally I have a picture of my child that actually resembles me!

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a very relaxing Memorial Day weekend. Saturday we went to a graduation cookout where Courtlyn got to go fishing with her pink & purple Disney Princess fishing pole for the very first time. She was so excited! She talked about all night the night before and it was the first thing she mentioned when she woke up Saturday morning.

In the truck before we left

When we got there she took maybe 4 bites of her food and was dying to go fishing. So David wolfed down his food and they went on down the dock to fish. She had to "pet" the worm. (Not sure why since she hates worms, spiders, bees and bugs, but she insisted on "petting" the dead fishing worm. Crazy girl!) She caught a bluegill fish which she named "Daddy Fish". She was so proud of her first catch and has not stopped talking about it since. She caught another fish which she appropriately named "Mommy Fish". I'm glad to see that we aren't far from her heart. :)

"Petting" the worm

Daddy & Courtlyn before the fun began

Daddy & Courtlyn fishing

Waiting on Daddy to bait her hook

She caught the big one!

Her first fish--"Daddy Fish"!

Isn't she proud!

I caught a couple bluegill myself and David caught one--on the Princess pole! (pretty good pole, huh!) Then not to be outdone David decided to take his fishing pole and go walking around the pond fishing on his own. I think he caught a couple more fish so he could say that he caught more than me. ;)

Before church Sunday

All in all, we had a very relaxing weekend which is pretty unusual for us, but this weekend is completely full of places to go and people to see. Oh well, hopefully it will make for lots of Kodak moments! :)

Firetrucks!

Monday evening we decided to take Courtlyn to the dedication of the new fire department here in Richmond so she could see all of the firetrucks on display. Ever since she saw all of them at the Christmas parade last December she has been in awe of them whenever we see one on the road. So I rushed home from work to pick up David and Courtlyn so we could head back to town before the dedication started.

The ceremony was actually longer than we thought it would be, but it was nice and Courtlyn enjoyed seeing all of the firetrucks on display. She got to sit in the back of one of the trucks with the help of a nice firewoman, but she chickened out when we tried to get her to sit in the driver's seat to take her picture. The closest we could get her was the step on the driver's side.

She did enjoy watching the hosing down of the new firetruck and watching the firemen push the truck back into the firehouse. She thought that was really cool and she kept saying, "they are giving it a bath, mommy!"

What a wonderful weekend we had!

I've been trying to post this entry to my blog all week, but for whatever reason I haven't been able to get with it. So here it is...

What a great weekend we had this past weekend! We met up with some friends (Tera, Alex, Braylee & Brynna Knepp) in Louisville and ate at the Cheesecake Factory. YUM!!!! This was actually our first meeting in person, but we’ve known each other for I guess 3 years now. We met when we were pregnant on an online message board for pregnant moms-to-be. Her daughter Brynna and Courtlyn are a little over a week apart. The girls hit it off and so did the adults! :) We had a wonderful lunch and even better cheesecake. The conversation was really good, and I hope this is just the beginning of many gatherings between us! (P.S. Tera--you and your family are in our thoughts and prayers while you grieve the loss of your precious Gramps.)

Here are some pictures from our meeting…

Brynna, Braylee & Courtlyn

all with their eyes closed :)

Brynna, Tera, Braylee, me & Courtlyn

holding hands...

giving hugs...

After we left the Cheesecake Factory we window shopped around the St. Matthews Mall a bit and then decided we would sightsee around Louisville since we were in the area. We had planned on going to the Derby Museum at Churchill Downs, but figured Courtlyn wouldn't get much of a thrill out of that. So I grabbed my trusty Rand McNally map in the car because my GPS was acting weird and saw that the Louisville Zoo wasn't that far from where we were. So we decided we would surprise Courtlyn and take her to the zoo. It was near naptime for her and she was getting antsy in the car and kept saying, "I don't wanna go home!" as we got on the Expressway. We tried to assure her that we weren't going home and before we hit the exit ramp for the zoo she fell asleep. As we meandered through the streets we finally found the zoo and sure enough Courtlyn woke up. When we told her where we were at she squealed with excitement! It was priceless!!! She was SO excited and could not wait to get inside.

The weather was perfect and it wasn't too crowded. We got there about 2:30 which gave us 3 1/2 hours to check out everything, so it was just the right amount of time. We got to see lots of monkeys (our favorite), snakes, hippos, a rare white alligator, birds, a wolf, emus, wallaroos, tigers, turtles, zebras, lions, camels, giraffes, ostrich, rhinos, and a couple things I can't remember what their names were. The one thing we wanted to see that we didn't get to see were the elephants. They were there, but apparently they were hiding or sleeping. Not sure, but we were rather disappointed since we are big elephant fans. :)

After we saw all of the above mentioned animals we decided to let Courtlyn ride the carousel. To say that she loved it would be an understatement.

We let her ride it twice and she was the screaming child that everyone was staring at as we left the park. See....

She did not want to leave the horse--as she called it! When asked if she rode the horses that go round and round. She would say, "no, I ride the horse that goes up and down!". She could have cared less that the carousel went around she liked that the horse went up and down. Kids! I could have done without the round and round since I get nauseous at the very thought of it, but the things you do for your kids.

We left the park and grabbed Courtlyn a bite to eat at her favorite place, McDonald's. Notice I said her favorite place. :) Then we headed for Richmond. About 10 miles down the road she was sound asleep until we pulled into our driveway. She was worn out.

Sunday, Mother's Day, I was met with Courtlyn running into the bathroom while I was getting ready for church with 2 cards in her hands yelling, "Mommy, Happy Mommy's Daddy!" as proud as a peacock. I cracked up! I got 2 sweet cards--1 from David and 1 from Courtlyn. After church we had lunch with my dad and stepmom at Casa which was yummy of course. Then we headed home for some much needed naps and then back to church that evening.

So as the title says....what a wonderful weekend we had! I hope we have many more like this!

Derby Weekend

Well, we didn't get to go to the Derby last weekend in Louisville, but we vegged in front of the TV all day Saturday watching the festivities from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m. and had a blast doing it. I say we vegged, but I did manage to clean a little bit and get some laundry done while the commercials were on since they played the same 4 commercials ALL DAY LONG! I should remember them my heart right now, but I think I just blocked them out after the third time I saw them. Although I do remember the Pepsi commercial because Courtlyn and I would bob our heads to it when it would come on. :)

I snapped some pictures of Courtlyn modeling a couple of my Derby hats from work I had tucked back in my closet. She loved trying them on and pretending she was at the Derby. :) Maybe one of these days we will make it up there for the big race!

I love how she is totally rocking the second hat. She cracks us up! Of course the pink one was her favorite.

Honestly that was all that we did this weekend besides going to church Sunday. We had a really quiet weekend which was so nice. It rained all weekend and is still raining which is totally messing with my allergies and sinuses, but hey that's spring in Kentucky! We'll be complaining in July that we need rain so bad and wishing we had these days so I guess I shouldn't complain.

Fun Weekend!

What a busy weekend we had. Friday evening when I got home from my weekly trip to lovely Wal-Mart I found David & Courtlyn in the front yard swinging. So after we all unloaded the groceries we went back outside to enjoy the beautiful weather and a really pretty sunset.

Saturday morning David turkey hunted while Courtlyn and I slept in and bummed around the house waiting on him to finish. Once he got home we took turns getting ready so we could head to Lexington to eat and get Courtlyn some new shoes for summer which she was excited about. Of course she’s always excited when we go shopping for her. :) So David was ready and while I was getting ready he was entertaining Courtlyn and when I came into the living room this was what I found…

These two crack me up! I asked them what in the world they were doing and David said he was trying to get her to take a nap. I don’t understand what part of stickers and a Belk's sale catalog entail nap-taking, but it was a cute sight to see nonetheless. :)

We got Courtlyn ready after all of the stickers were removed and she was in all of her cuteness with some old sunglasses that used to be Mommy's.

Once we got to Lexington we ate at Ruby Tuesday and managed to get there before it got too crowded which was nice. Of course Courtlyn enjoyed her favorite fruit before our food came....lemons!

After we ate & shopped we when to Graeter's for ice cream and to try out the neat little contraption I got at Babies-R-Us to hold an ice cream cone for Courtlyn. It's too neat! It's called a Dripstick. I think it was $5.00 and well worth it. She only managed to get a little messy with her first ice cream cone. The only complaint I have is that the end for ice cream cone has a cup to catch the melted ice cream and I had to empty it a couple of times because it wasn't deep enough, but other than that if you have small children you must get one of these. The other end holds popsicles.

A cute story from Graeter's. While we were in line waiting for our ice cream cones some local prom goers came in for an after dinner treat. Well, little Courtlyn had never seen anyone so dressed up in a public place like that before except for the wedding she was in last year. So when she saw them she immediately screamed, awwww princesses!!!!!!!!!!!! It was too cute! Everyone in the store heard her and of course thought it was cute as well. I honestly think she thought that Cinderella & Belle were getting ice cream at Graeter's. Too funny! Imagine what she will do when we go to Disney World?! I can't wait!!!!

Sunday we went to church and then after church we went to Lowe's to get flowers to plant on the front porch. Courtlyn was really excited about this because it was something we could do "togever" that is together for those who don't speak toddler. :) After we planted flowers we couldn't go inside until she did some swinging. So we did that. We had lunch and then had a short nap before heading back to church.

All in all we had a great, fun weekend, especially with the wonderful weather. I just hope the weather is nice this weekend for the Oaks & Derby races in Louisville. I can't wait to see all of the ladies in their pretty hats and watch some great horse racing. Until next time...

Easter Weekend

Well, we had a great Easter Weekend in the Hoover house this year. This was Courtlyn's first year of actually hunting eggs. She was all excited about it, although she didn't really know what to expect since this was her first time. She was the only one hunting eggs or as she liked to call it "picking eggs" so she racked up on the loot. And boy did she ever! We decided instead of filling the eggs with candy (we were lazy and just bought the plastic eggs at Target instead of dyeing eggs) we would fill them with money because the girl is like her Daddy and loves to save money to put in her pibby bank (that's what she calls a piggy bank). So what did I do but head down to the bank to get a bunch of one dollar bills and raided our change bucket. We filled each egg up with a dollar bill and 3 coins. Well, I believe the girl was more excited about putting the money in her "pibby bank" than actually "picking eggs". Oh, the life of a 2 1/2 year old....

Easter morning we woke up Courtlyn bright and early so she could see what the Easter Bunny had left her. This was what we found...(Yes, those are Christmas pajamas she is wearing. She insisted on them the night before and I wasn't going to argue. Remember pick your battles with a 2 1/2 year old!)

She gets her lovely morning personality from her Mommy. Now I say this dripping with lots of sarcasm because when David & I went into her bedroom to wake her up she said in no uncertain terms, "I WANNA SWEEP (meaning sleep), LEAVE MY (she gets me and my confused) ALONE!" After we told her the Easter Bunny had left her basket full of goodies she managed to drag herself out of bed and stumble into the living room to check things out. She racked up. She got 2 Disney Princess shirts, Gymboree bubbles, a Disney Princess sticker book for church, a Tinkerbell Color Wonder coloring book for church, pink Minnie Mouse rain boots and a stuffed Belle doll that she has had her eye on at the Disney Store to match her Snow White doll she already has.

We let her play for a while and then we had to get ready for church. Right before we left I managed to get a picture of the 3 of us. It's not the greatest picture of us, but at least I remembered to snap it before we left.