****Breaking news alert****

It’s officialy, everyone in my family can ride a bike on two wheels. And, in typical 2nd child fashion, I have no video or pictures of it. On the other hand, I was too busy watching and cheering for baby girl to bother about filming/taping the Big Event. Her dad is officially dog tired from running alongside her.

Our method is as follows:

1.) Magic Bike

2.) Unfinished sidewalks

That’s right, we have a little blue bike that my brother-in-law gave to my son some X-mases ago. They’ve both kind of outgrown it so we took of the training wheels and have trained both kids on it. I might consider renting out said magic bike if anyone’s interested. It’s magic! Next, we let ‘em ride on the sidewalk. It’s unfinished, so the kids go a stretch and then ride off into the safe, soft grass. After 2 days, she veered toward the driveway and off she was down the road.

There will be band-aids this summer. Lots and lots of bandaids.

Thanks to my quiz participants. Cheryl wins the prize for getting the closest. I don’t know what she wins (other than my undying amazement…:)   )

This… is the track ball inside my mouse. Somehow, my daughter figured out how to get it out of the mouse and coat it w/ silly putty. In case you are wondering…track balls tend not to glide very smoothly when coated w/ silly putty.

The next stumper…how to get the ever-lovin’ stuff OFF of the mouse? Scraping didn’t work. I was afraid trying goo gone would make it worse. Soooo, I ended up putting the thing in the freezer over night hoping I could chip it off. That worked only mildly well. Finally, my husband just got another ball from another (dead) computer and we were good to go. Any other suggestions for the future, I’d be mighty glad.

Meanwhile…we have banned silly putty from our home. We once had to do that w/ legos. In case you were wondering, legos do not flush down the toilet very well. It’s not pretty.

Ok, let me start off with an apology. I realize I let my legions of fans fan down by not live blogging idol last night. My planets just did not align properly and before I knew it, it was Wednesday afternoon and we were already on predicting tonight’s episode of Lost.

 Anyway, today I bring you what I hope to make another regular feature on Befrazzled. I decided to combine my talents of winging it and seeing what sticks ingenuity with my worse than subpar, seriously, I think I got a D in 8th grade art class artistic abilities and bring you a why in the world would anyone listen to what I say handy how-to guide.

Big Day in the Dec household. Loose top front tooth on my son. It’s been hanging on for a couple of weeks now. Everyone and their brother (seriously, my husband has 47 brothers…I’m not kidding) has weighed in with the best way to help that tooth along. Last year, we scored the double bogie of losing a tooth on the night before Easter. Yep, the bunny and the fairy rendevouzed at our house. It was a smack down, but the fairy came out on top. She has the benefit of opposable thumbs, after all. Plus…those long bunny ears just scream, “yank me!” Turns out the Easter Bunny is a bit of a pansy.

I digress. So, after years of dealing with loose teeth and helpful advice from friends and family, I’ve compiled my data and have come up with the following sure-fire method for major drama, crying, and general hysterics quick and painless baby tooth removal.

First, I highly recommend your child actually HAS a loose tooth before you begin this process. Luckily, mine did. The only tool we require is a dry paper towel. Next, we do this… 

Next, we do this (Note: I realize Fig. 2 and Fig. 4 are missing. I misnumbered them and by now had already spent an obscene amount of time on this project.)

Usually at this point, everybody and their 47 brothers (see above) begins calling us and offering these helpful suggestions for how to proceed.

               …or…                …. and finally…

By this point, my son figures out that if he allows the “adults” to continue with this line of reasoning, he might never be able to enjoy a Happy Meal again. So, he quietly walks into the bathroom with his paper towel. After a few minutes, he comes out looking like this:

And there you have it. I’ll keep you updated on whether he does better by the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy in terms of cash haul. I’ll now open the floor to my blogger buddies for more helpful tips that I can incorporate to improve this tutorial (i.e., string tied around a door knob, pick-up truck, 747?)

*******************BREAKING NEWS ALERT **************BLOG UPDATE*****************************

Because the above method worked so well, the other top tooth got bold (and extra wiggly). About 2 hours after I posted, the boy looked like this.

 Robin