Baby Jesus, Accidents and a Missing Tooth

What do these three things have in common? All are events from our last week! First, Jeremiah received a Kings Cake from a co-worker and it actually arrived on the Day of Epiphany, observed on January 6. All throughout the middle ages, Epiphany was the final day of the Christmas Celebration. It came to be known as the "Twelfth Night". The Kings cake is prepared in honor of the Magi or the Three Wise Men or Kings. For a long time it was eaten on the day of Epiphany with the main meal or with friends and family. A feature of the Kings Cake is placing a coin in the dough before baking. The person who has the piece with the coin is declared "king". More recently, the cake may contain a bean or a plastic infant. In the New Orleans area, the Kings Cake is prepared beginning around the day of Epiphany and enjoyed all the way to Mardi Gras. Jeremiah spent many years living in the New Orleans area and was thrilled to receive this gift from a New Orleans bakery overnighted to him! What a treat it was! I would have a picture of it for you but we enjoyed it way to much and ate it very quickly. However, Madi Beth was the one to get the piece with Baby Jesus and was delighted with her find. Thank you Bridget for thinking of us and for this wonderful treat!

Moving on to the crazy toddler that lives in my house. Today alone, he has had THREE major falls and countless minor falls! This picture has been kind to his face, as it is full of bumps, scrapes, red marks, blood and bruises! But if you look closely you can see the worst of the three accidents in the corner of his left eye (to your right). He was standing on the side of the couch trying to reach the Wii remote (this boy is OBSESSED with the Wii - he is 18 months old people! What have we done?) and fell off the side of the couch, hit his head on the amoire and tumbled onto a plastic container that cut his left eye, right up the the corner of the eyeballs. Thanks and praises to our Lord were given as the eyeball itself was not cut. Close call! The right side of his nose shows a little red but it was actually bleeding from a cut he experienced falling from his booster seat at the table earlier this evening. And just after dinner he fell off another chair, hit his head on the desk and gained a goose egg from it! Now mind you, I am usually just a few steps away (sometimes with my back turned, like when he was standing on the couch) but still just a few steps away. I am thinking about locking him in a soft, bouncy room where he can just bounce back up when he falls! Oh the anxiety!

This exciting day concluded when Gracie pulled out her first loose tooth! She was shocked and surprised that she pulled it out! It had been hanging on by a thread! Her permanent tooth is already pushing through the back. It was the very first tooth she ever got as a baby and the first to fall out! What a milestone. She can't wait to see what she gets tonight. Apparently one of her friends got a pair of princess sandals. How can I compete with that? It looks like it will be several one dollar gold coins for her tonight! Then she can go buy whatever she would like!

Yeah for Gracie's first lost tooth! She's growing up. Boo hoo! (Can you see the itty bitty tooth, it looks like a large leaf on the tree in the lower right middle of the box.) Tomorrow is our first Upward Basketball Game. I still don't know what I am doing but am praying for the Lord's guidance in coaching these precious girls. I've grown to love them all so much! They have so much spirit and talent!