Surprise Selena is Five!

Selena had her fifth birthday almost two months ago.  We threw her a surprise party.  She knew she was having a party, but she didn't know when or where.  She helped pick out the decorations and make a pinata (boy was that an ordeal) but she didn't know when or where the party was.  The day after her birthday I claimed that I was going out to meet with some friends and Floyd said that he was taking the girls to Costco.  Then he said I called and I locked my keys in my car and they needed to stop at Nana and Papa's to give me my keys.  Obviously our stories didn't match up too well.  I hadn't said I was going to Nana and Papa's, but Selena didn't notice.  Floyd brought Selena and Allie in, and Nana told her that she had a birthday present for her downstairs.  When she came down we were all hiding behind a corner and we jumped out and yelled, "Surprise."  She was very surprised.  For a moment it looked like we scared her and she was going to cry.  But she was able to take a deep breath and control herself.  Then she had a lot of fun.

It has been wonderful because lately she has been really helpful cleaning up and organizing around the house.  Sometimes she can even convince Allie to help.  It is wonderful because her helping is real help, not I'm pretending to help, but really just making it worse.  She sweeps, picks up, unloads the dishwasher.  It is wonderful!

She isn't really into anything at the moment.  She spends a lot of time coloring, drawing, writing, and playing pretend.  Her and Allie are dogs, cats, bad guys, good guys, etc, etc.  They play well together as long as Allie does what Selena says.

She's getting pretty good at writing.  She can spell Selena, Allie, Nana, Papa, dog, and probably a few other words without any help.  Her vocabulary is expanding too.  She sprinkles words like randomly, assume, and stressed in her speech.

Eating is still a struggle.  Supplementing with zinc has greatly improved her eating, but she has lost the positive attitude about trying new things.  She still prefers to eat only her favorites.  So we've been having lots of arguments about food, and it is annoying.  At least now I can get her to eat a few bites, whereas before she wouldn't even be in the same room.  However I had fallen into the habit of giving the vitamin to her right before bed, and the last couple days I have given it to her in the morning and she has been better, so maybe that helps?  I'll have to continue to do so and see if I notice a difference.

Sleeping has been better too.  She is in bed and asleep before 10 most nights.  Still pretty late, but compared to 10:30 and 11 I'll take it.  When it is 9:30 I'm thrilled.  I've been occasionally giving her a small amount of melatonin (maybe .2 mg) when we're spending the night somewhere, or when she has a few nights in a row of having a hard time going to sleep and staying up too late.

The real bummer around here has been Selena's teeth.  She was brushing them one night and she said something was stuck in her tooth.  I tried to help her get it out, but it wouldn't come out.  I had the horrible realization that it wasn't something stuck, but a very large hole in her tooth.  I took the girls to the dentist and she had 10 cavities and needed two crowns.  I was crushed and felt horribly guilty.  I haven't been the most diligent role model of oral hygiene.  I never had a cavity till I was 25, so I didn't really I believe that that sort of decay could happen so quickly.  To add insult to injury we don't have dental insurance, so it was about $2000 worth of dental bills.  Normally I would have gotten a second opinion, but the dentist came highly referred by multiple mommy friends, one of whom is a former hygienist.  Selena is super tough and the office has been really great at making her feel comfortable, so overall I don't think it has been traumatizing at all.  Her and the neighbor boy were comparing their metal teeth so I guess it is all good.   In order to feel less guilty I'm blaming the zinc on the tooth decay as well.  It seems that tooth decay can be a symptom of deficiency.