Jackson takes a dive...

I got a call from the school nurse today. It was 12:17. I hate when I see the school number come up on caller ID. My stomach does a flip. Am I the only one? Anyway, I answer the phone and the nurse proceeds to tell me she has Jackson in the office. Immediately I'm thinking some crazy illness has hit because Jack never goes to the nurse (unlike his sister who goes if the wind blows too hard). She then goes on to tell me that he had fallen on the balance beam outside on the playground and hit his front teeth. She wanted to make sure he hadn't lost his baby teeth yet. I told her he hadn't which made her feel better. I guess I should have been more alarmed than I was, but I figured she'd make me come get him if it was bad. So I hang up and go about my day. When Jackson gets home from school I finally get to see the damage. And while at first glance it doesn't look too bad, if I touched his teeth they instantly started bleeding again. And he winced in pain. I was surprised that his front right tooth had come down quite a bit. I figured it would have been pushed upwards, but apparently he hit the gum line which pushed it down instead. He's got swelling and gashes on his lips and cheeks. But it's all inside so you don't notice it just looking at him. I decided to call the kids dentist just to make sure there wasn't anything we needed to do or be worried about. The receptionist told us to come in right away. Um, okay - that freaked me out. We got there and they immediately did an x-ray. After that the dentist came over and first looked at the x-ray. He saw it and said "Youch." Then he came over to J and took a look. He said that what he was worried about was a root fracture but we had been spared that nastiness. His teeth are really loose and the dentist said they wouldn't tighten back up and he'd have to learn to eat without using those teeth until they fall out. He's just now about to lose his first tooth on the bottom so he may end up loosing all 4 front teeth at the same time. Wouldn't that be so cute? For those that aren't squeamish - here's a picture. It doesn't do the damage justice. But it's the best I could get.



Can you see how the tooth on the left (his right) is lower than the other one?

Emma's first win

Emma's first competition. She is the one far back corner on the right. They are great little tappers!

Praise

Our God is so good. He tangibly answered prayer and I feel like He's holding my hand. With all the illness going around I was so afraid Emma would get sick before her competition last week. I prayed and prayed for her to stay healthy at least until Sunday. I knew that if she did get sick it wouldn't be the end of the world, but I just didn't want to put any more pressure on her dance teacher or fellow teammates. The little ones just don't adapt as well when one person is missing in the formation. Well, let me tell ya - not only did she stay healthy through competition, she's stayed healthy entirely! The rest of us all had something. Three of us had strep, the boys had the flu, and yet Emma remained completely unaffected. How amazing is that? I'm sorry, but you just cannot deny God's hand in that. By any logical expectation she should have gotten something, but she didn't. And her dance team took first for both tap and jazz in their age group, and their tap won third place overall in the junior division. Very exciting!
Another reason to praise our loving God is Emma is growing! We had a follow-up appointment with her endocrinologist yesterday and she has grown almost a full inch in 6 months. Her dr. said they should grow about 2 inches a year, so she's right on track. So for now we're in a holding pattern and just letting her be. If she has another drop in growth like the one that dropped her from the 50-75th% to below the 3rd%, then we'll go ahead with the growth hormone study to see if she has a deficiency. If she does, then we would go ahead with the replacement hormone most likely. If she does not, and the hormone replacement would be solely for esthetic purposes then we would forego that option. But who cares about that for now! She measured in at 45 inches tall and 47 pounds (although that was fully dressed in jeans and two shirts, but hey - we'll just ignore that fact). Those measurements still keep her below the 3rd % but she's maintaining a steady pattern and that's all that matters for now. Yay!
Jackson, while the sickest of us all, remained in good spirits throughout his quarantine. He never complained, ate well, took his medicine without a fight, and kept busy most of the time. You'd never have known he was as sick as he was if the Dr. hadn't told us. He's such a good little man! I'm just so thankful he wasn't miserable.
And just one more reason for praise(really there are too many to post). Brian is potty trained! And he did it himself! We still allow him to wear pull-ups simply because he's afraid to poop on the potty (sorry for TMI), and he's constipated most of the time so we never know when he'll go. I just don't want to clean up that mess. But he hasn't peed in his pull-up in almost a week, and he's telling us when he has to go now. So I'd call that done. I'll be honest, I was a little sad to see the last diaper go. I know, I'm pathetic. But I LOVE having babies and I think the Lord knew I needed a cutoff made for me because I'd have probably had at least one more if it hadn't been decided for me.
The kids have spring break next week but we'll be staying home this year. But Dave and I will be traveling in May on a much needed vacation. Our first "true" vacation since our honeymoon 12 years ago. We're both soooo excited.

Well, that's about all I have for now.