Can't Win

We had a visit last night from the tooth fairy. I was of two minds about whether to invite her to our home or not. I don't mind having my children believe in Santa Clause, but I'm becoming more uncomfortable about the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy and others. However, we decided to give it a go. 

Sam walked into our room this morning very sad and whiney and pathetic. "Dad, the tooth fairy stole my tooth last night!" 

"Well, didn't she leave you some money?"

"But I wanted to keep my tooth for 9 days."(still whiney)

I explained to him that when he puts his tooth under his pillow that tells the tooth fairy that he's ready to give it to her. He wandered disconsolately out. 

A few minutes later he came back in...still sad

"Dad, I wanted the tooth fairy to give me dollars, not coins!"

So we're off to a rough start with the tooth fairy. Maybe it's a sign that we don't even need to have her here. Or maybe we just have an inexperienced fairy who doesn't quite know what she is doing yet!

First Lost Tooth!

Last night we reach other mile-stone in child rearing. After about a month and a half of wiggling and jiggling, Sam lost his first tooth!!

If you look REALLY hard, you'll see a little white speck in his hand. Oh, and also notice that Sam's eyes are closed. He seems to think that closing his eyes for pictures is really funny. We were lucky in the above pic.
.
In this next picture you might be able to see that the permanent tooth is already grown in quite a bit. In fact, we noticed it growing in before the baby tooth started getting all that loose. It's about 2-3 millimeters behind where the baby tooth was. Kind of weird, but there's not much that is normal about Sam's teeth. The dentist has already told us we should take him in to an orthodontist when he turns 7 or 8. He has cross bites, over bites, extremely narrow bridges, and who knows what else. We do have a savings account for him, maybe we should rename it the dental account. Oh brother-in-law John, why couldn't you be an Orthodontist!?!

On the second day of spring

This is what Pullman looks like this morning. Yeah, it's snow. Lovely. 

Even though it's not quite April

when faces called flowers float out of the ground

and breathing is wishing and wishing is having-

but keeping is downward and doubting and never

-it's april (yes,april;my darling) it's spring!

yes the pretty birds frolic as spry as can fly

yes the little fish gambol as glad as can be

(yes the mountains are dancing together)

when every leaf opens without any sound

and wishing is having and having is giving-

but keeping is doting and nothing and nonsense

-alive;we're alive,dear:it's(kiss me now) spring!

now the pretty birds hover so she and so he

now the little fish quiver so you and so i

(now the mountains are dancing, the mountains)

when more than was lost has been found has been found

and having is giving and giving is living-

but keeping is darkness and winter and cringing

-it's spring(all our night becomes day)o,it's spring!

all the pretty birds dive to the heart of the sky

all the little fish climb through the mind of the sea

(all the mountains are dancing;are dancing)

e. e. cummings

Culinary update and other things

My mint brownies were not the success I had hoped they would be. While the mint and chocolate top two layers were delicious, the brownie layer was rubbery and, strangely enough, salty, though there wasn't much salt in the recipe and I know I didn't overdo it. I guess you just can't make a low fat brownie and expect it to be all that good. So now I have a large pan of brownies that I had hoped to give most away. Luckily Sam seems to like them. 

Speaking of Sam, tonight at FHE we were talking about Easter. An FHE 'phantom' left us a basket of Easter eggs, each with a symbol and scripture describing some aspect of the Saviour's atonement, crucifixion, and resurrection. So for our lesson tonight we each took turns opening an egg and talking about what the symbol meant and what happened to Jesus. It was going really well and then at the end I told Sam and Grace briefly about what resurrection means and how we will all be resurrected because of Christ's sacrifice for us. Sam got really sad and said in the most pathetic voice imaginable, "But I don't want to die. Do I have to die? When will I die? How long do I have to be dead before I can be resurrected?" Aahh! Break my heart! I wanted so badly to be able to tell him that he would never die, that that sorrow would never touch him. But I knew I had to tell him the truth; that while it would be sad when we died, we could be happy knowing that we would live again and be a family for always. It was a difficult few minutes for me and Rob, and I'm not really sure what Sam got from it. He seemed happy afterwards, but that could have been because it was time for brownies. How grateful I am for the knowledge of the gospel, that I can promise my son that he will live again and that we can be a family forever. Especially that there can be joy even after the pain and separation of death.