HELLO
Mom to Iris. Wife to Todd. Our little family lives at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in Fayetteville, Arkansas. We love it here and I love sharing little bits of our life.
As a parent, there’s nothing more fun than to surprise your kid with awesomeness. So when we booked a trip to California, we kept it a secret for a little while and told her that in two weeks, we’d be packing our bags and heading to the west coast. Our besties at the Loews Hollywood Hotel are hosting us and we’re going to explore Universal Studios while we’re there (Iris is a recent Harry Potter fanatic, so she’s super pumped). Here’s a little video of how we told her! She’s just starting to read, so I thought it would be fun for her to sound it. As for Cali – any other places we must visit? We can’t wait to explore!
Did you know that February 28 is National Tooth Fairy Day? This is more timely than ever in our house because Iris has her first loose tooth! Actually, she has two of them – the front two bottom teeth are getting wigglier by the day. Iris is beyond thrilled, while I can’t help but be a tad bit sentimental about my baby growing up so fast!
Iris has been going to the dentist every six months since she was about two and a half years old and thankfully she’s THE biggest fan of dentist visits… especially after her last report of no cavities and finding out that the Tooth Fairy will soon be visiting. I sat down and asked Iris a few questions about the Tooth Fairy and here’s what she had to say:
And not only is National Tooth Fairy Day coming up, but February is also National Children’s Dental Health Month (NCDHM). This year I’ve teamed up with Delta Dental of Arkansas, who is celebrating NCDHM by empowering parents like me with important information and myth busters to help protect our children’s smile and overall health. We started out making going to the dentist a fun, exciting experience and thankfully Iris still loves it. Even though we’ve been taking her for a while now, I was still surprised to learn a few new things myself about kids and dental care.
Here are some powerful stats from Delta Dental, along with some interesting Myth busters:
– Each year, children miss an estimated 51 million hours of school because of dental-related illnesses, many of which are easily preventable.
– Tooth decay remains the most common chronic disease of children aged six to eleven and adolescents twelve to nineteen years of age. In fact, according to a 2010 report from the Arkansas Department of Health, 64 percent of Arkansas students have evidence of current or past cavities, 29 percent had untreated cavities and 27 percent were in need of routine care.
– Studies show that the earlier a child received regularly-scheduled, quality dental care, the less likely they will develop long term oral health illnesses.
Now that we know even more about protecting Iris’ oral health and how important it is, we keep brushing, flossing, and waiting for the Tooth Fairy (and maybe even a dollar bill).
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Delta Dental. The opinions and text are all mine.
We just got back from one of my most favorite places in the world – my hometown Memphis, Tennessee. I’ll do a full recap blog post soon, but first I just had to share the video of Iris as the Honorary Duckmaster at The Peabody Hotel in Downtown Memphis. As a little girl, I grew up watching the ducks and their routine. I never would have believed you if you had told me I would get to watch my own little girl lead the ducks one day.
If you haven’t heard about this tradition, the Peabody ducks live in their very own duck-penthouse on the roof of the hotel. Everyday at 11 am they march down to the lobby fountain, taking a ride in the elevator and a walk down a fancy red carpet. And every day at 5 pm, they march back up to the roof for their dinner and a stellar view of downtown. On Friday night (at 5 pm sharp), Iris got to assist the REAL Duckmaster. Seriously – that’s his real job, and funny enough he’s friends with my dad from back in the day. She was so big and brave in front of the crowd, helping the ducks make their way back home. She even got to keep the Duckmaster cane, which is pretty legit. So, if you see Iris walking with a cane… You know why.
So if you have a kid anywhere near Iris’ age, they are probably equally obsessed with those crazy YouTube videos of other family’s vacations, random kids playing with their toys, and even grown-ups unboxing Shopkins, acting amazed at what they find. Well, recently Iris decided she wanted to start her own YouTube channel for other kids to watch, and she named it Iris’ Fun Channel! If you have any kids that like this sort of thing, share it with them, leave her a comment, and subscribe – it will seriously make her day. She only has two videos right now, but we’ll keep adding to her channel because whenever she gets a comment, she asks me to read them over and over.
