A first...

This past weekend my mom and I, along with several relatives, took shelter in a church basement while gray clouds swirled and sirens blared loud. Nearly everyone was on their smart phone closely watching radar and texting loved ones. Three young sisters sang "Do Ray Me Fa So La Te Do" from The Sound of Music and between peeking up the basement stairs and finding folding chairs to rest on, we clapped wildly for those talented little ladies. Believe it or not we were all gathered for my cousin's wife's baby shower. They are about to welcome their first baby; a little boy. That first baby brings joy and excitement and lots of worry. Funny how a little time and two more babies put those first days with a newborn into perspective. How easy those days were compared to the busyness of a day with three. Still one baby is plenty of work. And having only one baby leads to lots of extra time for one-on-one snuggles.

My oldest baby isn't really all that babyish anymore. She stands at 4 foot 9 inches in her first grade classroom and she just lost her first ever tooth. I remember when that first tooth popped through without so much as a whimper. Kate was 13 months old. At 13 months she not only recorded her first ever tooth but she finally sprouted a wee bit of hair and learned to walk. It was a whopper of a month. And now...that first tooth is floating around in fairy land along with all the other teeth snatched up by The Tooth Fairy. Despite old, creaky wood floors and a 7 year old determined to stay awake the 6'4" tooth fairy tiptoed on his not-so-dainty feet and gently yanked that tooth from under Kate's sleeping head. She wrote the cutest note to the tooth fairy too.

(Yes, this all took place April 10th and I'm just not getting around to blogging about it.)

While this all good and exciting there is more to the story... 

{insert dreamy, wavy footage like this blog post is a 1990's sitcom}

Kate literally went from no wiggling teeth to running home full speed Road Runner style (meep, meep) to show me a tooth so wiggly it was hanging by a thread. All night she wiggles it. All morning she wiggles it. Finally in P.E. the gym teacher pulls it out for her, probably because Kate cannot for one moment stop playing with it. And for good reason... It was her first! The P.E. teacher lovingly put her tooth in a tiny white envelope and Kate deposited the envelope in her backpack. Fast forward to the end of the school day where I meet up with Kate at soccer practice. I pull in and Kate comes flying at me shouting, "I lost it! I lost my tooth!" We jump up and down and get back to soccer practice. Fast forward again to the middle of a scrimmage. Kate is on the sidelines, pulls her tooth envelope from her bag and on the windiest of windy days the wind takes away her first ever tooth and it blows out of sight. Kate comes running for me with tears streaming down her face. We scour all the soccer fields without success. With a sobbing 7 year old and two younger sisters we pile into the mom van to make the weepy ride home. I decided to drive slowly in the direction the wind was blowing. With one eye on the road and the other in the ditch (because I'm talented like that) I spy something small and white on the side of the road. I pull over, jump out and some how, some way, by the grace of God find Kate's missing tooth. What are the chances. How is that possible? I will never know the answer but I do know I found a whole lot of joy that day in a dirty ditch on the side of the road.

Here's to you, Kate. Growing up and making memories!