Yesterday's Adventure

Every day is an adventure. Everyone has these adventures -- mine just happen to involve two very lively little boys, a third one doing his best to catch up, and a wonderfully sweet husband who somehow continually manages to successfully juggle being a husband, daddy, minister, and doctoral student.

Thursday's adventure was my first trip to WalMart with all three boys. When I found myself standing in the middle of the shoe aisle with Josiah crying, Conner lying on the floor throwing a fit, and Micah crying and fighting me as I was trying to see if a shoe fit, I felt like I was in more of a nightmare than an adventure, though!

Yesterday's adventure was a tough one, too. We had to have Conner's two front teeth pulled. After he fell and hurt them a few weeks ago (which, we have since learned, is called a tooth luxation), the dentist had told us that they might abscess. She told us what to look for and said to bring him back in if we noticed anything. Conner's gums started looking suspicious Thursday evening, and we decided to go ahead and take him in yesterday since the weekend was coming up -- better to be safe than sorry. After an exam and xrays, we were told that his teeth definitely were not tightening up like we had hoped and one of them was starting to deteriorate. Basically the two front teeth were not healthy and the tissue around them was in pretty bad shape. There is a third tooth that is not quite as bad off that we are watchimg. The dentist said that if it were her child, she would go ahead and have the two removed and explained what that entailed. Then, as the tears that had been welling up started to spill over, I told them to pull my baby's front teeth.

Conner was a trooper. He got to breathe the "happy juice" while they "wiggled out" his teeth. While on the "happy juice," he sang Jesus Loves Me to the dentist and told her the story of Zaccheus and the sycamore tree. Micah was good while we waited. Our dentist's office, Bippo the Hippo's Place for Smiles, actually has a playground outside, so he was in heaven. Joey got the best deal of all. He got to stay with his Daddy and did nothing but sleep and eat.

Conner got to bring his teeth home in a teeny tiny treasure chest to leave for the Tooth Fairy -- which was very exciting. The Tooth Fairy visited a couple of weeks ago to encourage him to do the things he needed to in order to try to let those teeth heal, but this is the first time she received a gift. She had to call an emergency meeting with her associates to determine the going rate for teeth in the Wells Household!

When Conner woke up this morning, I think he had forgotten that anything had happened. Then when I asked him if the Tooth Fairy had come, he jumped up and ran into his room. Sure enough, the teeth were gone (he looked long and hard for them!) and there was a note from the Tooth Fairy. He was totally excited when he opened it and found two dollars. "Dollars! Dollars! Doooollaaaars!! Wait -- how many cents is that?" I told him it was 200 cents. That was even better. "Two hundred cents?!" Then he made his "That blows my brain up" face and fell on the bed. It was pretty cute. He has been referring to his treasure as two hundred cents now instead of two dollars all morning.

The "that blows my brains up" face:

Being a mom is so hard! You want the very best for your children, want them to be safe and happy and healthy. Of course I wanted them to pull the teeth if that's what needed to happen. But did I want them to pull the teeth? NO! He will be missing his two front teeth for years now! Will his friends make fun of him? Will he be self conscious about it? Will he eventually be able to eat things like pizza, corn dogs, apples, corn on the cob? (I could go on, but I won't...) I fought the tears the whole time he was having the work done, worrying about him and feeling guilty, but then when he a did so well and ended up so excited -- was telling Bible stories while having his teeth pulled! -- I fought the tears because I was so relieved and proud. And then when he discovered what the tooth fairy left...gosh, it's crazy how you can love your children so much that it really physically hurts sometimes. I am so thankful that I been blessed with this opportunity to hurt!

...and not to leave them out, here's what Micah and Joey were up to yesterday.

Micah played in Daddy's boots:

Joey was working real hard on finding his thumb, and actually caught it a few times: