July 27 – “The Adult”

We got to spend the day with a horde of grandkids yesterday.  Never a boring experience, even with just one of them, but this time we had Kel’s three boys (Christina had a doctor’s appointment in Houston) and Cailyn (Mom and Dad were both at work).  Cailyn actually arrived first, around six, but she soon disappeared into the bedroom with Chris and went back to sleep.  Didn’t take her long to wake up after the boys got here, though.  The noise level rose a few decibels, to be sure.  And when she came in she had to show off some of her gymnastics moves.  A couple of tumbling runs started things off, but her grand finale was apparently going to be a handspring after a running start.  The running part went well.  Her arms went up above her head as planned.  But when she went into the actual flip part of the move, her upper body strength completely deserted her.  It was as if her arms were non-existent.  I have seen gymnasts do no-handed cartwheels before.  This wasn’t one of those times.  With no support from her arms, the next item in line to break her fall was, sadly, her face.  She smashed to the floor.  You could have heard a pin drop for a long second.  Two.  Three.  As we all awaited the outcome.  Finally she jumped to feet and raced into the bedroom.  No, that wasn’t the planned grand exit.  She began crying as soon as she was out of sight.  Good old DadDad was elected to go check on her.  Once I convinced her to come out from under the covers I took a look at her face.  Nose looked straight.  Check.  No obvious black eyes.  Check.  Chin still intact.  Check.  And then she opened her mouth.  There it was.  The blood had chosen to stay inside, but the problem was definitely present in there somewhere.  Best I could tell it was coming from where her two front teeth attach to the gums.  Since I had her calm for the moment, I convinced her that we needed to get some ice on it.  We also needed Nurse Nani to take a look at it, but I figured one thing at a time.  We made our way back to the kitchen and I went for some ice.  Chris met us and Cailyn let her check it out.  The bleeding continued, so Chris gave Nathan a call at work and they decided she really should be checked out by a dentist.  Chris made the call and got an appointment right away.  Nathan pulled some strings and headed home to take her.  To make a long story short, the teeth stayed put, but might be loose for a few days.  She has to eat only soft foods, which meant a trip to the yogurt shop, of course.  Her permanent teeth below the gum line looked fine.  That was where Cailyn had an epiphany, a discovery, a revelation.  She was listening, you see, always listening, when the dentist was explaining things to her Daddy.  And what she heard was, “Cailyn’s adult teeth … blah, blah, blah, blah.”  She had adult teeth.  Adult.  That meant she was an adult.  Why else would she have adult teeth?  Now that’s a sure source of pride for a four-year-old girl in the mix with a bevy of boy cousins.  Not that she has ever had problems holding her own or figuring out wily ways to have her way.  But now … she was the adult.  Hold on to your hats, gentlemen.

Psalms 103:6 says, “The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.”

Father, thanks for protecting Cailyn.  Her angel was working overtime.  Amen.