American Girl Dolls
I took Jess to the American Girl store in Natick today. We spent an hour looking at all the dolls and discussed the pros and cons of each. I'm getting her one for her birthday and I think it'll be Kanani, the girl of the year. I'd planned before on getting her a historical one but she loves to do hair and wants me to show her how to do different things with it. With the exception of Julie who she didn't seem much interested in, a lot of them have short hair or curly hair which will be more difficult for her to style. Josefina seems to have textured hair which is long but I'm not sure if the texture will make it harder for her to style. Kanani's is pretty smooth. I'm a little torn between the two but am leaning toward Kanani. Jess wants one with long hair to play with and was happy when I told her that if she gets one doll, she can still get accessories from the other's collections. She really loved the horse set. We had tea at the Bistro there. It was really cute and the food was really good. They have a selection of "My American Girl" dolls that children who didn't bring a doll with them can bring to their table to have lunch with. Several kids had birthdays while we were there and Jess loved the staff singing to them. I told her after her birthday I'll take her for lunch there again. She wants them to sing to her when we go.

Jess lost her first tooth!!!

Jess has been playing with a loose tooth for at least a month now. Wiggle...wiggle...wiggle... but it wouldn't come out. Until yesterday. Finally, she pushed it with her tongue and out it popped. She had one coming in behind it (called shark teeth) and now that one will hopefully move into place. Jess wrote a letter to the tooth fairy asking to keep her tooth. We looked up online what the toothfairy does with the teeth and read some FAQs. Apparently Jess isn't the first to ask to keep her tooth. I told her that the toothfairy said in her answer to someone else who asked that she can keep the first one but that she'll need the others when they fall out to help build things in toothfairy land.

My Birthday

I've been 44 for a month today. I had a great birthday and got exactly what I wanted.

My gift to myself was doing the Team Beachbody nutrition challenge. It was the first 10 days of August and it was run by a friend who's a Team Beachbody coach. For 10 days, I committed to having no caffeine, no sugar, keeping my calories below a certain number, exercising, drinking at least 8 cups of water, and really trying to make better choices. I lost some inches and some pounds and feel a ton better. I'm working on continuing to make better choices and portion control which is a weak spot for me. I drink a shakeology shake every day and that has had one benefit I hadn't counted on. My mother, my siblings, and I all have stomach issues related to eating animal fat. I have not had any problems since starting to drink this shake. During the first 10 days of August, I didn't eat a ton of fat but since then I have had a couple celebrations (birthday dinner at Melting Pot and my mom's birthday dinner at Daniel Webster Inn where I tried raw beef for the first (and last) time) where I've eaten things that would have caused a problem before and I've been fine. So, my ongoing gift to myself is to take better care of myself.

My MIL and SIL took me to the Melting Pot after my challenge was over. For anyone who hasn't tried that place, GO!!!! It's not a quick dinner, that's for sure, but it's so worth it! I think I might take Jess there; they have a children's menu for the entree and I'd just share my cheese and chocolate fondues (no Baileys when she comes though).

People chipped in so Mike, the kids and I can go to the dog show this coming weekend. I can't wait! It's at Coco Keys in Fitchburg and really should be a good time. My friend is leaving Plymouth at 6 and asked if I wanted to follow her. Since I don't have dogs to unload or anything to set up for, I think I'll pass at leaving home at the break of dawn.