The pain of growing up %

The littlest man of the house started teething this weekend. :( Poor baby, and poor mommy! haha. Yeah.. not sure why all my children decide to get their teeth so early (you know, because it IS their choice ;) .. but he sure is, and hopefully it won't take too long for them to break through. At least I got a couple of months of good sleep before this started. And it definitely helps that he is still an awesome baby, but you can really tell he it's hurting the poor guy!

Another hard thing about this weekend? Well not only did poor Keri dislocate her shoulder, but Jack wrecked on his scooter and ended up with 12 stitches!! I don't know who it was harder on, him or us!

It sure is hard to see your little man in pain, and there is nothing you can do about it. And looking back, knowing there is nothing you could have done to prevent it from happening.

But despite the pain, Jack was an amazing patient. We had first taken him to the instacare, where they told us it was too deep to stitch up there - so we headed to the ER. Jack was such a good little guy. He sat on my lap while we were waiting and kept saying things like, "Let's look for the doctor! Is she the doctor?! Oh I bet that's the doctor!!" Or randomly pointing at people asking about what they were doing.. in NOT such a soft voice ;) .

He enjoyed putting the side rails up and down on the bed, and watching the Olympics on TV ( which we saw the USA girls Gymnastics team win Gold, and Michael Phelps become the most decorated Olympian ever ). When the doctor came in and was talking to us, Jack kept saying he was practicing holding still.. what a good kid. When they put the stitches in, he did great. The hardest part was putting the irrigation in the wound because Jack does not like water on his face! Afterwards, while getting into the car with his sucker, Jack exclaimed, "That was fun Mom!" lol. I am glad it wasn't a horrific experience for him. But poor little guy. Hopefully it won't leave much of a scar!

We sure love Jack .He is such an amazing kid, and we love him so much. I hope he always knows just how much. Hopefully there won't be lots visits to the ER!

People come and go, pain comes and goes. But so does joy. And if our hearts are closed because we don't want to suffer, they won't be open enough to recognize the joy as it flies by.

GENEEN ROTH, Good Housekeeping, Dec. 2008