It Ain’t All Roses

I write a lot about the good in our lives. What accomplishments the children well, accomplish, the wonderful family time we spend. All things that I want to remember and enjoy writing about. It’s not all like that, and boy do I have a whopper, with video, of today’s spectacle.

It’s Noelle’s birthday. She is 6. My little girl, the one that tossed me into the throngs of Motherhood, is growing up. It’s been a magical six years and as always, I will recall that moment when the doctor announced she was a girl and held her tiny body over the curtain, on her day. Oh, pure magic.

That moment was lost during this evenings shenanigans . She was in in rare form! Before this I enjoyed helping in her class Christmas party and picking her up from school on this last day before break. Then we went and picked up her cake. A grand horse cake.

A cake that had Noelle lighting up from the inside out. Her goofy, hole filled smile was plastered on her face and she stared at the cake. It was a exactly what she wanted.

We opened presents. She was smiles and enjoyed them all. Gracious and sweet, our Noelle.

And then it was time for cake. Noelle shed her adorable outer shell and a demon appeared. The cake, beautiful, and donned with horses was not about to be cut into and destroyed. She wouldn’t have it. She climbed and clambered with all her might to not let us cut it. Tom and I were in shock. It quickly wore off as we tried to get the situation under control. Soon we were annoyed and chalked it up to being tired and just overwhelmed with the day. She was out-of-control to the tenth degree.

And without further ado, for future blackmail purposes, I give you a ridiculous video. A video that will go down in history as a typical display of embarrassing magnitude!

Upon viewing the video Noelle was apologetic. She said, "I look ridiculous" then proceeded to give me a hug and say sorry for acting that way. Yep, that helped. It doesn't take away the sheer hilarity of the situation. This video will be stored in the, "BC" (blackmailing children) folder.

See, it's not always as lovely as I write about. Tantrums are frequent and situations are blown way out of proportion by little ones that are learning how to deal with emotions, disappointment, and life. You can only chuckle, teach a little life lesson, and move on.

Oh, Well

My girl.  My big girl.  I have to talk about her.  A fast approaching 6th birthday is next week.  A post about her over the past year was going to be written on her birthday, but after Monday I needed to write now.

It started about a year ago.  I noticed some adult teeth coming in BEHIND her baby teeth.  More and more came in and we would refer to her mouth as a shark.  It was bad.  The money signs of orthodontist bills spilled out of her mouth when she showed her teeth.  I made an appointment and left with a diagnoses of “severe overcrowding” with an appointment with our dentist to get three teeth removed.

We talked it over.  She was prepared and ready.  Heck, the Tooth Fairy is leaving $5 a tooth these days and Noelle thought of many things to buy with her money.  She tossed around the thought of saving money.  It was exciting and she was ready. 

Nothing is easy as we have learned, with children.  The dentist found an abscessed molar that needed to be removed right away too.  Only two would be removed, the molar and one other next to it this trip.  They were not loose.  They were not ready to come out.

Noelle sat in the chair.  One arm was gripping Special Puppy, the other was held in mine.  The numbing went off fine.  Her mouth was open wide and she took the multiple shots (I think four or five) with a grain of salt.  She giggled how large her lip felt and laughed how she was just like Zane with the drool that she couldn’t seem to keep in her mouth. 

It was time to extract the teeth.  Noelle inhaled and squeezed my hand.  The dentist picked up a large metal set of pliers.  My eyes widened and I controlled my fear.  She gripped the tooth and wiggled a little.  She glanced in my direction, eyes telling me that this was not going to be easy, but delicately said to Noelle, “this might take a little time, your tooth doesn’t want to come out for me.” 

Noelle’s eye’s shifted to me and tears formed.  She was strong with her mouth held wide.  The tears were dripping down her cheeks, fear was all over her little face, controlling her doe eyes.  I squeezed her hand and talked in a soothing voice, muttering that I loved her and that she was doing so well.

The dentist switched back and forth between a few pairs of pliers.  The wrenching was unbelievable.  The blood began to flow.  It seemed to spurt out and go all over.  It dripped down her chin and throat.  Noelle tasted it and a fear spewed over her face even more. 

The dentist had to stand up to get a better angle.  I’m not a squeamish person, but what was happening to my little girl was more than I could handle.  My face was set in concern and love, my stomach was in knots and completely nauseous.  I wanted  this to be over, and then a distinct “pop” was heard and out came the tooth.  Blood flowed even more and along with her more tears.  Noelle was a wreck.  She held her mouth open still and her body was stiff. 

One more tooth had to come out.  The same opposition was met and wrenching, pulling, and huffing by the dentist continued.  Noelle was in a full cry, but yet still held open her mouth and sat still.  I was in awe and filled with pride.  My nausea continued as I couldn’t believe how difficult of a procedure this was.  I wanted to switch places and take over for my girl.

The second tooth finally came out and gauze was placed in the bleeding holes.  We were done, for now.  She handled it so well, much beyond her almost six years.  I was proud.  She was hurting and hating it. 

The rest of the evening consisted of switching gauze over and over as it saturated with her blood.  Tom and I took turns holding her, pouring all the love we could over her.  It was rough and much more difficult than any of us anticipated.

Today it was better.  She was still in pain, but the bleeding was minimal and she was smiling.  That's my girl.  She can handle situations very well!

Last week Tom went to our first parent conference.  As known, she is academically at the top of her class.  But we found out something else.  She has confidence.  Yes, she is quiet, but she does stand up for herself and can speak up with no problem.  The teacher told Tom a story of a her and another little girl having a dispute.  They had to sit down and talk.  The teacher overheard Noelle saying, “You can’t talk to me like that.”  My girl knows when to speak up, knows when to defend herself, and knows how to handle situations. 

She is quiet, and wonderful, and strong, and confident.  Yes, she is dramatic, sometimes overly so.  She is young and we can see instances, like with the dentist, where a glimpse of this strong girl is there, present.  I’m proud of her!

Perfect In It’s Own Way

There was a time when I pictured myself as a Mother around the Christmas season.  Our tree would fill our great room, straight, tall, expensive coordinating ornaments would delicately be hung with equal space all around the tree.  White lights would be sprinkled around as the child (as previously stated I wanted only one child!) would be well groomed and attentive.  Reality has changed and molded everything I used to view as what I had wanted.  Perfection isn’t in the end result but in how we get there. 

This weekend we went and lumber-jacked down our tree.  Christmas music blared from the radio and we all sang along during the drive to the Christmas Tree Farm.  No, we didn’t all sing along, a few of the Little's were whining/complaining about something behind us.  Tom and I held hands and shared glances as we tried to ignore the normality of whining. 

Upon arrival we donned coats, hats, and gloves while waiting for the tractor ride out to the rows of beckoning trees.  The tractor was a thrill for the children as it bumped along the muddy trail.  This would be in my former view of what perfection was a horse drawn sleigh, snow falling gently onto our blanketed beings as we all sipped hot cocoa and giggled with glee.  We laughed and smiled on hay bales, they worked just fine for us.

Within the rows and rows of trees little ones ran around chasing each other.  Max found a stick and whacked at each and every tree around. The boy resonates “boy” and yields the stick like a pro. "Hi-ya” was heard through the trees.  Tom and I glanced at each other, admiring our oldest little man.

Zane desperately wanted to be like his older siblings and walked around even with his dreaded boots on his feet.  He longs to be as quick and mobile as his beloved brother.  Give it time, Little One. 

I chased children and played hide and seek within the bushy trees.  Their giggles gave them away as I pretended to not know where they were.  Soon, Zane was getting restless and we settled on a tree.  The perfectly symmetrical tree with no bare spots eluded us, but we found one that left a twinkle in the children’s eye. 

The tree was chopped and we hauled it to the trail to wait on the tractor.  I gripped one end and Tom the other.  The troops followed.  A blood curdling scream was heard behind us.  I whipped around and there was Violette, legs spread, screaming that she was stuck.  This was a true scream, one that I immediately assumed she was in pain, stuck in an awkward position.  The tree was put down and I jogged back to her spot, worried.  As I got closer nothing seemed to be holding her down and I asked her what was wrong.  A little weed was draped across her boot.  I laughed and picked up my girly girl!  What a little Diva!

At home my vision of matching outfits and children delicately attaching ornaments gave way to boys who climbed and stole ornaments as girls yelled at them.

The girls did get into decorating.  Noelle unwrapped each ornament, would stare at the tree, searching for the perfect spot.  Oh, she was really into it.  Violette placed them all in one little spot, rearranging the ornaments over and over.  She went for the sparkly ones, of course. 

In the end the tree looks like Our Tree.  It’s ornaments are not equally spaced, it leans a bit due to a crooked stem, but it’s perfect in just the right way.