merriness

Advent festivities are in full swing! We opened the wooden house calendar to find an angel. Instead of reading the scripture reference I had put in for today, I asked Dennis what happened when the angel appeared to Mary. He replied "the angel told her she was going to have a baby." Right he was! Then on to the Lego Advent calendar, where he found and assembled a Lego snowman (loved this). Then to the iPhone, where Daddy had an Advent app waiting for him, and he clicked the box to find an angel again. Then to the computer, where he had a special calendar program from Nana Gaynell and Poppa Jim. He happily clicked on the number one and found a Christmas tree that he decorated with another click of the mouse. He liked this very much and decorated the tree four times. I sent them a thank-you email and they reminded me of the gift from them that he should have opened yesterday. He was over the moon to be opening presents today and discovered some ornaments, hot cocoa mix, a light-up snowman just like the one he wore the batteries out in during previous Christmases (and tried to do today as well until I snuck in during his nap to hit the off switch), and a Santa that holds the numbers that reveal how many days until Christmas. I did space all this out over a few hours, thank goodness, but he is very much in a holiday frame of mind now! Tonight, after church and time with Gran and Pop, he and his Daddy put the finishing touches on the gingerbread house. He is so proud of his masterpiece!

Sometimes we don't realize how blessed we are, how we narrowly avoid injury or misfortune. Tonight Dennis fell out of bed. He isn't hurt. But his room has a bamboo floor installed directly over the concrete slab--it is not a soft or forgiving surface by any means. I heard awful crying and rushed in to find him on all fours, wailing his loudest. He said "I was reaching for a book (and he knew he shouldn't have been) and I started to fall and I yelled and yelled for help but you didn't hear me and then I fell." Oh the guilt, the sadness over not hearing the initial call for help over the dryer and bathtub faucet noise and noise from the movie I was watching! And oh, what a realization of how badly it might have turned out. He's fine. He didn't fall on a limb, his head, or his back. He says his tummy hit the floor first. Yes, sometimes I still fall out of bed, and I don't have lasting injury, so I am all worried-in-retrospect over something that was not a big event. But there was a tiny chance it could have been, and I am so grateful, so thankful that he is slumbering comfortably and safely in his bed now. My Mommy Radar is working overtime because of a little one on our church prayer list, 16 months old and in extreme danger from bacterial meningitis, and she's been on my mind all day (please everyone pray for Zoey and her family, for the miracle we hope is coming). Life is so precious. I am so blessed.