To start off I just spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out if today was Tuesday or Monday. At least that lets you know how far gone my mind is :)!
My little girl lost 2 teeth this past week!! The first one really wasn't all that loose. It was one of her front uppers, I am sure that my more dental savvy friends have an actual name for it! She was playing with a friend in the dark and he didn't see her an accidently punched her in the mouth! They recovered the tooth and showed up downstairs to his mom with a bloody mouth and a tooth exclaiming, "He punched my tooth out!". She was actually glad at first that it happened! She has 2 VERY loose teeth on the bottom that have "shark teeth" behind them. They really need to come out but until the punching in the face incident she was afraid to let me try. The next night we tied a string around loose tooth #1 and gave a tug and it came right out - no pain! Then we tied the string around loose tooth #2 and right before I pulled she freaked out! She started screaming to get the string off and that this one was going to hurt and the worse thing she screamed was, "I don't trust you". Broke my heart! I had a knot tied in the string and was so afraid after that comment I would not be able to get it off! I reminded her that both other teeth had not hurt but she was sure that this one was not even loose and continued to scream! I had her pray out loud that God would guide my hand as I carefully untied the string. We were able to get the string off and then she jumped up to look in the mirror. Instantly I saw her face fall further. I was not sure what was wrong and she was not ready to talk so I put her to bed. A good hour later she came to me in the kitchen saying she needed to talk. She wrote on a paper that she had hurt her feelings and was afraid she had hurt mine. She then explained that when she looked in the mirror she saw how loose it was and was disappointed in the way she acted. She said she realized the second she saw it that it would not have been painful to remove it and now she was going to have to keep it there until I was ready to try again. I told her she was right but that it was ok - and then I explained what anticipation was.
We all deal with it. She had anticipated the worse causing her body to rush with emotions she could not contain. Sometimes we anticipate good things and good emotions take over. Anticipation is not bad. Yet, when we anticipate irrationally - it turns bad. She had evidence from the last few teeth that nothing bad would happen when it came out. Yet for some reason she could not think rationally.
After this past week I have had some negative anticipations. I have just been anticipating the next "incident" within our unit. How awful is that?! I have all of these harmful emotions running around inside that do not need to be there. I have consistently anticipated the worse will happen regarding M2 coming home early. I have no rational cause to anticipate that!! I have LOTS of evidence that says things will work out fine!
Lots of times we don't do what God asks of us because we anticipate the pain that will be involved. Later we look back and see that it would have been better to have done it and now the blessing is gone. I learned a lot from this little tooth pulling incident!
After Emma and I talked and I told her that I have done the same thing and freaked out over nothing and that is was ok she seemed relieved. Although I was a little bothered that she said that she was afraid she had acted like a "you know what". No, I don't know what!! I was afraid to ask and even MORE afraid when she said she would have to write it because it was a very bad word. Then she scribbled in the smallest writing she could manage, the word jerk. She said she gets called that a lot at school. BROKE MY HEART ALL OVER! I told her she was the least jerkiest kid I know and wanted to say, "And you can tell all those jerks calling you a jerk that". But I refrained!
The next morning she dealt with more negative anticipation over what the kids would say at school about her now snaggled tooth smile. Since she skipped a head a little most kids in her class already have grown up teeth back in. I was able to remind her about our talk and then she was fine. She came home and told me kids laughed at her but that was ok because she needed adult teeth and this is the only way to get them!!
I can see her growing up. A few months ago she would have thrown a fit like that and never thought twice about it. Here she is - thinking her actions through without even being asked!
Thank you God for giving me this child!
Tell her Uncle Roo says that's why you don't play in a dark room with a boy that's not your husband. And if that happens again he may lose more than his teeth. Also that we are really proud of her for realizing how she acted and that she talked to you so openly about it.
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