Eli...
December has been quite busy already. Eli's choir sang at church a couple of weeks ago. He was so excited to get to sing on stage. He went around singing his songs for us all week prior. He looked so cute dressed up as an angel with the other 3 and 4 year-olds. Then 2 minutes before the service started, he came running to the piano (where I was prepared to start playing the welcome song). He was crying for me to hold him. I held him through both of his choir's songs. He sang a little from my lap, but refused to get up on stage. It just about broke my heart because I knew how excited he had been and how in about 5 minutes it would all be over...possibly until next year. No second chances later in the service; no "redo" next week or next month. I tried frantically to get him to settle down and get on stage. I wasn't sure if he was just having a typicall "mommy meltdown" (which he does often) until he finally mentioned being scared. I guess stage fright really did get him after all. I had to apologize later for fussing at him to stop crying, and I made a big deal of telling him how proud I was of him for being in the choir and learning his songs and singing well during the rehearsal I saw.
Colton...
Colton's choir sang the following week (last week). I felt pretty certain that he was old enough to stick it out (he refuesed at Eli's age too), but now we had the extra anxiety over a solo. He had the entire first verse of "Joy to the World" all to himself. I was so scared he would get scared. But, he pulled it off like a trooper! Needless to say, I was so proud of him.
Then the week of losing teeth began. Tuesday night after going to bed, Colton got up with his mouth bleeding. One of his top front teeth looked really close to coming out. We worked on it for a while and reluctantly sent him back to bed. (The mom in me was naturally afraid it would come out in his sleep and he'd choke on it.) Wednesday we worked on it some more and nervously sent him to bed again with it still barely in his mouth. Thursday morning he was eating breakfast and suddenly spit his tooth out in his hand and handed it to me. We got all excited, took pictures for the Christmas card, and went to Memaw's house so she could see his missing tooth. In retrospect, I did notice that the other top front tooth looked a little funny. It seemed to be at a slightly odd angle. Losing the first must have freed up space for the other to loosen a little. Then just after supper, my 3 children (Tim included) were wrestling while I cleaned up the kitchen. Yep, Eli's foot and Colton's mouth made contact. He came in the kitchen holding his mouth. I asked to see it, and when he moved his hands, there was blood everywhere. After rinsing the blood away, I could tell the top of his tooth was pointing left and the bottom was pointing right. I'm thinking, there is no way I can send him to bed with this one. So, for the next 2 or 3 hours we sat on the couch watching TV while I wiggled his tooth back and forth or in circles and twisted it 4 or 5 full turns in each direction. As bedtime approached, he went to eat a snack. Once again, he stopped mid snack to hand me his tooth. So two teeth in one day! Naturally, we had to retake the Christmas card picture Friday morning. You can't send out a picture with one missing tooth when there are now two missing teeth!
Now, we head into the weekend for my choir's Christmas program. I've been sick with a sinus infection/cold/throat mess/cough for about a week. I'm hoping it will leave at least long enough for the program. I can be sick again next week, but I just don't have time right now.
Let me end with a few prayer requests for you...
- Anna Grace is recovering from having her tonsils and adnoids removed.
- Debbie had her baby yesterday/today (a girl) 3 months early.
- Keely and Maggie need to come home to us. All we need is the money to go get them. (Paperwork is slow when the money isn't there to back it up when finished.) Pray that I can finish my medical transcription course and get some work right away.
