Kaydence lost her very first tooth this Monday. None of you will understand my eternally grateful heart for this phenomenon. I've been watching her permanent tooth rising up behind her baby tooth for quite a few weeks and that darn baby tooth just would not loosen up. That is because the tooth that should have loosened it was behind it. The dentist said she would pull it, but Kaydence needed medical clearance to be sedated. Then she got sick and the cough has finally went away almost a month later. So no tooth was ever pulled. I've worked to wiggle her tooth at mealtimes and check it often. On Saturday I realized that it was super wiggly. I had Abigail come hold her hands and had Wade hold her head so I could really look at that tooth. Low and behold, I knew it was about to come out, but it was still hanging on pretty hard. I asked my friend if she might come pull it, but then I decided it might be a little too soon. Sunday it was miraculously still in her head. By Monday morning I knew it needed to come out, but she was not allowing me to help the process.
When I dropped her off at school, I told Miss Hardee the tooth was ready to be pulled. Apparently it was because not too far into the school morning, Miss Hardee "pulled" (actually kind of flicked it from what I've been told) the tooth out. Kaydence was happy. Oddly, she has had a pretty good week too. I guess the tooth might've been irritating her. Bonus: no dentist required!
So I'm sitting here in the light of the freshly decorated plastic Christmas tree as I type. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in our house as this happens. Tommy wrestled the tree out of the attic space and he has admitted that as we age, we are gonna need a better place to store stuff. He set it up and then put more lights on it because the pre-lit tree isn't very lit anymore. I added the garland and red-checkered poinsettias and then begged my kids to help decorate it. Abigail actually loves it, but like most of us kind of flickers out after a while. She found her handmade, seriously super handmade, ornaments from last year and said, "These are so ugly! They cannot go on the tree!" That made us chuckle for sure. I finally peeled Wade off of his video games and he finished helping. He helped pick on Abigail is what he really did. They pick and she squeals and someone winds up crying. We heard him say, "Abigail quit! When you get hurt from doing that, I'M going to get in trouble!" A lesson he has finally learned. In his defense she can be super pesty as a little sister. I'd probably snap too.
I keep seeing on Facebook all of these posts about "give my kids experiences instead of toys." Great line of thinking. However, I want to caution folks about some types of experiences versus others. It struck me, that a lot of times, someone will think of this in terms of an entertaining event. Take my kid bowling, or to a movie or here or there. I think what kids miss out on now, is just learning to "be" with a family member. Kids now need LESS entertainment. It's all they know. If someone were to gift my kids an experience, I'd prefer it to be things like: take my child to feed the fish at the tank in the pasture, teach my child how to make your best recipe, just sit and read with my child, or teach my child to do something you love! We often forget that the best time spent with someone such as a grandparent, is time spent just being in their presence and visiting with them. I think our world right now is crazy partly due to the breakdown in families, especially the grandchild-grandparent relationships. It's because families are much more likely to move away from each other and kids don't all live in the same town with other relatives. As parents, we need to nurture those relationships so that kids feel a little more connected not just with their own grandparents, but connected to an entire generation for guidance and wisdom. We are lacking that in a major way, and it's time to help kids just be kids and to help close the generation gap we see so much of now.
When I dropped her off at school, I told Miss Hardee the tooth was ready to be pulled. Apparently it was because not too far into the school morning, Miss Hardee "pulled" (actually kind of flicked it from what I've been told) the tooth out. Kaydence was happy. Oddly, she has had a pretty good week too. I guess the tooth might've been irritating her. Bonus: no dentist required!
So I'm sitting here in the light of the freshly decorated plastic Christmas tree as I type. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in our house as this happens. Tommy wrestled the tree out of the attic space and he has admitted that as we age, we are gonna need a better place to store stuff. He set it up and then put more lights on it because the pre-lit tree isn't very lit anymore. I added the garland and red-checkered poinsettias and then begged my kids to help decorate it. Abigail actually loves it, but like most of us kind of flickers out after a while. She found her handmade, seriously super handmade, ornaments from last year and said, "These are so ugly! They cannot go on the tree!" That made us chuckle for sure. I finally peeled Wade off of his video games and he finished helping. He helped pick on Abigail is what he really did. They pick and she squeals and someone winds up crying. We heard him say, "Abigail quit! When you get hurt from doing that, I'M going to get in trouble!" A lesson he has finally learned. In his defense she can be super pesty as a little sister. I'd probably snap too.
I keep seeing on Facebook all of these posts about "give my kids experiences instead of toys." Great line of thinking. However, I want to caution folks about some types of experiences versus others. It struck me, that a lot of times, someone will think of this in terms of an entertaining event. Take my kid bowling, or to a movie or here or there. I think what kids miss out on now, is just learning to "be" with a family member. Kids now need LESS entertainment. It's all they know. If someone were to gift my kids an experience, I'd prefer it to be things like: take my child to feed the fish at the tank in the pasture, teach my child how to make your best recipe, just sit and read with my child, or teach my child to do something you love! We often forget that the best time spent with someone such as a grandparent, is time spent just being in their presence and visiting with them. I think our world right now is crazy partly due to the breakdown in families, especially the grandchild-grandparent relationships. It's because families are much more likely to move away from each other and kids don't all live in the same town with other relatives. As parents, we need to nurture those relationships so that kids feel a little more connected not just with their own grandparents, but connected to an entire generation for guidance and wisdom. We are lacking that in a major way, and it's time to help kids just be kids and to help close the generation gap we see so much of now.
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