"I Hurt My Teeth at the Movie Store"

About six weeks ago, we took Gracie to Blockbuster to pick out a movie so we could have a family movie night. After she found her movie of choice, she was crawling around the floor pushing the DVD case when it slipped and she slammed her face, specifically her mouth, into the floor. Family movie night was postponed several hours while we took her to the pediatrician (thank heavens for her wonderful pediatrician's after hours service). Grace's mouth was pretty cut up and swollen around her top front teeth, which were both a little loose, and she had a puffy top lip, but she didn't need stitches in spite of the large quantity of blood and tears that followed the accident. Over the next few weeks, her mouth slowly healed. However, within a month one of her teeth had started to darken. So a Monday trip to a great pediatric dentist (thanks Mistalyn!!) resulted in a Tuesday dental surgery for our little girl. She was so brave when they put her in a wagon and wheeled her away from Mommy and Daddy into the procedure room, which almost made it harder for Mommy. One front tooth was completely dead and the other 90 percent so the dentist cleaned out the infection and fixed them so she again has two beautiful, white front teeth. Because they put her out by having her "blow up a balloon" rather than poking her with a needle but then had to poke her four times while she was out to get an IV in her, Gracie was quite upset about the pokes and bruises on her hands, arm and foot. You would never have known she had anything done in her mouth because it finally didn't hurt at all anymore!


Showing off her bracelet and her special new shirt while waiting for surgery.


Waiting patiently for a popcicle to help her recover.


Grace doesn't like bandaids at all, so she was pretty upset about the surgical tape that covered the spot where they put the IV in her arm. She wouldn't let us take it off and wouldn't even move or use her arm unless it was covered with her blanket so we tied it to her arm. She went to the grocery store, the mall - pretty much everywhere - with her blanket tied around her arm.

Super Saturday

Scott had a rare day off this past Saturday so we made the most of it! Gracie LOVES to jump, so she could barely contain her excitement all morning since Scott told her the night before he would take her to Jump On It. They had a great time, and Scott is the ultimate little boy in a grown up body so everything is extra fun with Daddy.



After we all took a much needed nap, we went to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point with Uncle Mike, Aunt Julie, their kids, and Aunt Julianna and cousin Collin who are in town from Houston. The kids had a great time feeding the animals and just running around. They got to pet lots of the animals and have a pony ride, which may have been a mistake in the case of Grace. One day last week, she came up to me and totally out of the blue said, "I need a boat and a horsey at my birthday." Since then, she hasn't wavered whenever she is asked what she wants for her birthday.

A Simple, Heartfelt Thanks

When I decided to have a blog, I planned to update it about every week. I did pretty well for a while, but the past month had some unexpected ups and downs. One of the biggest ups was having Grandma here for almost a week. Gracie loved every minute of it!!



The other thing that has really stood out in the past month is how lucky we are to have so many people in our lives who are so caring and thoughtful. There have been some especially meaningful calls and texts over the past few weeks that have meant more than I will ever be able to express. I feel that words are too inadequate to truly explain how much love and concern our family has received and the gratitude I feel. Thank you, thank you, thank you!