Maelstroms and Mayhem

Elijah has become a walking maelstrom in our house.

If you're not wanting to open your Webster app, the definition is: a powerful often violent whirlpool sucking in objects within a given radius

That's Elijah!

Each of my kids demonstrated a particular ability early and earlier than their brothers. Judah was fine motor skills. His pincer grasp came very early and he could feed himself before he could even sit up alone. Gideon was verbal skills. He was imitating sounds at 2 months and hasn't shut up since! Elijah is my gross motor skills. He rolled over early, crawled early, walked early. He could climb our spiral stairs before he could even stand unassisted. He has a desperate need to keep up with his two older brothers and that keeps him in band-aids and us in constant motion.

Thus his maelstrom-like tendencies. Only mayhem follows a child that is physically ahead of his mental development. When they walk before they understand "no" sufficiently, there's going to be disaster.

Last Wednesday, Elijah was showering in the upstairs shower. He put his hands on the glass door to tell Daddy he was all done. Jonathan, not used to Elijah in the shower, swung the door open. HOwever, Elijah was pushing on the door. When Daddy opened it, all of Elijah's weight fell out through the open door, his wet feet slipped on the shower floor and he fell. Luckily, he caught himself...with his front tooth! Knocked it loose. Blood everywhere.

At first we couldn't tell what exactly was wrong, the lip and gum were swollen. But as the swelling went down, we could tell that the tooth wasn't really that loose anymore. We hoped that it would firm back up and he could keep it.

But accident prone as he is, that was a silly wish. Sure as the dawn, 3 days ago, he tripped again (this time on dry land) and hit his face right on that tooth, knocking it loose again. If he'd just have the good grace to knock it all the way out, we'd be done with the drama. I'm not really concerned about him losing a baby tooth. He'll grow another one in a few years. But what I don't like is his little snaggle tooth (he looks like Nanny McPhee...before the kids like her) that he keeps biting his lip with.

So, we gave in and called an old family friend, Dr. Boyd, today. He is the best. So gentle with kids and so sweet. He told us it would probably come out on its own, but since we're moving, he doesn't want us to have to try and find a dentist in Madison to pull it if something goes wrong.

So, next Thursday our already goofy child will get some laughing gas and be even sillier. Jonathan is dying to video tape it and put him on YouTube. Something like David after the Dentist is what he's hoping to achieve I think. Since it's Elijah and not Gideon, that might be a long shot. Maybe we can get some laughing gas for Gideon too!

Keep Elijah in your prayers. He doesn't like people messing with this mouth!