2 Things About Ellie

I was looking at the pictures I just posted of Ellie and Luke in the chair and noticed that Ellie's big cheese reveals pretty clearly her missing front tooth. No one may have even noticed, but I thought if any of you were wondering "Has she already lost a tooth?"-I would fill you in on why at age three, she has a missing front tooth. When Luke was maybe, at the most, 8 weeks old (Ellie at the most 18 mo.) I was at home getting ready to nurse Luke. He was in my arms and I was trying to get to the sofa to sit, and in doing that I kind of tripped over Ellie, knocking her to the ground. She was crying, but not abnormally hard, so I laid Luke down(crying because he was hungry) and noticed blood running out of her mouth. My first thought was that she busted her lip, so I took her to the sink to try and rinse the blood out and it hit me to check for teeth. (Luke still screaming, Ellie screaming) I raised her upper lip and beneath all the blood, there was definitely no tooth. My heart kind of dropped into my stomach and I felt a little nauseous(sp?). So, I walked back over by the couch and there it was, the entire tooth on the carpet. Now, you may think it would've been hard to find because baby teeth are so small. But it came out root and all and I am here to tell you that baby teeth roots are just as big or bigger than the actual tooth. My nausea increased a bit and I started making phone calls. I talked to a pediatric dentist and just FYI-you can put a tooth back in and hope that the root reattaches to the tooth, but it's very possible that it won't and it's an uncomfortable process for the child. And it could easily get knocked out again, possibly causing the child to choke on it. So, needless to say, we decided to let her go snaggle for the next several years. It's just become part of her now. (side note-Probably the most stressful moment I have had since having two children)

Okay, second Ellie story. This one is much happier. The other night Steven and I were going to have a night out to dinner at this fabulous new Mexican restaurant in Huntsville at Bridgestreet. Well, when Ellie woke up from her nap, she was not at all happy that I was leaving her for the night. So, because she had had a great nap, we just decided to take her with us. We had a wonderful dinner and then decided to go to the Chocolate Crocodile. Chocolate heaven! Ellie picked out two white chocolate covered pretzels, one with sprinkles, one without. She couldn't finish both, so we put the one with sprinkles in the bag and she wanted to carry it herself. We enjoyed our walk back to the car, passing the fountains and all the shops. When we got to the car, we realized she didn't have the bag anymore. She was pretty upset, so Steven went back to look for it. Ellie and I circled around in the car, waiting for him. We really weren't saying much and all of a sudden from the backseat I hear "Thank you for this day, thank you for my pretzels, thank you for Daddy" I looked in the rearview mirror and her eyes were shut so tightly! Now, she prays often, but it has always been because of prompting, she may pray on her own by herself, but I have never heard her do it. Because she was really hoping for Steven to find the pretzel, I said "Ellie, why don't you pray and ask Jesus to help Daddy find the pretzel." And she said, "Mom, I already did." It kind of confirmed what I was already thinking-that her saying thank you for everything was her way of asking God to show Steven where her bag was. It blessed my heart so much. I pray, and truly believe that the Holy Spirit can work in a child's heart, no matter what age, and through the simplest things. Well, I was convinced Steven would return with the bag, but he didn't. But Ellie really seemed okay about it. She kept talking about "a little boy maybe got it. " I don't know where she got that, but again, you just don't know if God gave her a peace in her heart about. These verses have come alive to me since I have had children- "And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, "Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it at all." Mark 10:13-15