Corey Lost His First Tooth!

Excitement in the Sinclair household!!! Corey lost his first tooth! Well, Mommy pulled it, but it was really loose.

Now Corey looks like a Jack O'Lantern.

His tooth is so incredibly tiny. Look at Brody's "Mr. Cool" photo - he has new Elmo sunglasses I brought back from a business trip to Ft. Lauderdale. Brody's teeth are much bigger.

It's not for a lack of drinking milk!!! They are both milk addicts, as we all know.

Anyway, just wanted to share the exciting news. I expect a visit from the Tooth Fairy tonight. (Corey wants to know if it's a he or she, but honestly, I'm not sure - I've never met the Tooth Fairy myself.)

Rock Chalks and Speed Racers

Here are the boys in their "Rock Chalk Jayhawk" gear. The game night was big in our house. Brody missed the end of the game, but was a loud cheerleader until bedtime. We had to relocate to the master bedroom so he could sleep, and Rob and I were jumping up and down. We'd never been so homesick for Lawrence!!! But it was a great game!

Since that night, we've all been wearing KU pretty much nonstop (okay, not me to work.) I think we may finally be running low on KU stuff - time to do laundry! And many thanks to Julie and Brandon (and Ben and Grace) who sent us some Rock Chalk gear hot off the presses! I wasn't sure why, but no one in Phoenix seems to care that KU won - we can't find the KU stuff anywhere, and no one asks me about it hardly at all! (Though at Corey's friend's birthday party last week, I did run into a Jayhawk, because he said he wasn't wearing HIS KU stuff because he'd worn it all week.)

Our Speed Reader
I got Corey a book at Target last week - book four of a series of Speed Racers. (Okay, I didn't know it was the fourth until AFTER I took it home, but that's not important.) Corey is maybe on chapter ten or so now. He reads the first few pages of each chapter, and then Rob or I finish the chapter before bed every night. Corey just suddenly reads - kindergarten has been good for him!!!

He is a GREAT reader. I hope this video uploads so you can all see what a wonderful reader he is. And... if you get hooked on Speed Racer like Corey, give us a call, and I'll have Corey tell you about the book! :)

He's also writing now, which is lots of fun to watch (he's Speed Writer.) And we were playing hangman with him the other night, and he was amazing. He never ever lost. Even with tough words like "Coyotes" and "orange."

Mid-April Update

It is just sad that we haven't posted for two weeks. So I will rely on Rob to upload photos, and I'll try to do an update.

Corey's been in t-ball all month now. He's had about three games and maybe four or five practices. His coach is Rob, so it's a family event whether practice or game! Brody started out a little jealous - he wants to be with Rob 24/7, but I think he's come out of that well. In fact, I missed the last two games while I was on a business trip, and Brody did okay sitting with friends watching the game. Of course, each time, he was well-fed. He discovered the wonder of Bugles. But Corey has been playing great, and after a game, can't stop talking about his outs, his saves, his at-bats.

I joined another health club when my other one changed owners and gave me the opportunity, and because I want to sometimes take Corey with me, I let him help me pick. Of course, Lifetime Fitness is like the Taj Mahal of health clubs, and the kid's zone is out of this world. He can play hockey, "shoot some hoops", play outside, computers, movies, you name it. He got Brody addicted too, which is kind of funny. I think they enjoy playing together with someone else's toys.

Corey went to the dentist this month - it was his first official cleaning. When he was in chemo, a dentist visit would have required a shot, and he didn't need one more shot. His teeth look good - and he has a loose tooth on the bottom! Any day now, we'll be seeing the Tooth Fairy.

And Corey is doing great at school. His teacher showed us his journal. He writes a sentence every day, and it's usually "I like it when I play hockey with my daddy," "I love going to Coyotes' games", "When I grow up, I'm going to play for the Coyotes." Pretty much three out of four are all about hockey. We got one the other day that said "I don't like it when my daddy throws me in the pool." Rob was not happy about that one, since he's never actually thrown him in the pool. And of course, all sentences are in some variation of spelling or grammar, but you can see he is getting it. I bought him a Speed Racer chapter book in hopes that he'll read it himself.

Best news with Corey is that his teacher believes he's ready for first grade. We're all afraid he'll regress if he goes back to kindergarten, not to mention that he'll be bored since he's already reading and writing.

Friday Corey had no school, so Rob had him in the morning and I took him in the afternoon. It was really Corey's special day, because Rob got him donuts (and Starbucks, but I'm thinking that was more for Rob than Corey) and Bee Movie to watch. We met at the Good Egg for lunch and then Corey and I went bowling and played arcade games there. Then we met a couple at Molly Branigan's who are moving out this way from Kansas, so it was a busy day!

Yesterday might have been more busy: Corey and Rob had t-ball practice, then I took Corey and his friend Justin to a birthday party (high-pitched screaming girls there!) at Bounce U and then we went to a friend's house that night, and the kids were out way too late.

And I'm up, because no matter how late Corey stays up, he wakes up at 7.

Hopefully we'll have pictures for you soon.... This week looks relatively event-free, but that can change!

Quick Friday Night Update

We haven't downloaded photos from the camera from Minnesota yet (or recovered for that matter), but here's an update from our week ...

No, Corey isn't at Pebble Beach. We played miniature golf today (TWICE!) at Amazing Jakes after Corey's procedure this morning to test the capacity, or ability to empty and flow, of his bladder. To quote Forrest Gump, "That's about all I have to say about that." Corey had a stressful morning, but overall did a great job and the results were wonderful. His bladder doesn't seem to have been affected at all by the surgery to remove the tumor nor the radiation.

Corey actually beat me in the first round (I only halved his strokes on the first two holes), but I bounced back to win the nightcap. We also bowled today, and under the category of "boys will be boys," were more interested in how fast we could throw the ball than the number of pins we knocked down ... I hit 18.9 MPH while Corey topped out at 3.9. He did set a new personal best score with 88.

Brody is doing well and stringing words together ("More Elmo," "Daddy car," "Elmo books," etc.). One of his teachers baby-sat Thursday night while Corey and I went to the final Coyotes home game (in the Hope Kids suite) and Carrie was at a business dinner. Here's a photo from the game as well as a random photo of Brody wearing is Mickey Mouse shirt, standing on his changing table next to his picture of "Bird" from the Roadrunners game we went to last month.

We've also started T-ball practices (I'm coaching Corey's team this year). We've got about 13 boys and girls on the team, ages 5-6-7. We'll have our fourth and fifth practices tomorrow and Tuesday before our first game Thursday. Also tomorrow night, Carrie and I are going out to watch the KU basketball game before seeing Ray Romano and Brad Garrett in downtown Phoenix. Should be quite a day!