dave & janet horsman ::: keepin’ it real since 1998

Zeke lost his first tooth!  Right after his sixth birthday.  If memory serves me correctly, that’s about when I lost my first tooth.  I also remember being so scared to go to school with a loose tooth, and crying, begging my mother to let me stay home!  The boys have been so brave about the whole loosing teeth thing.  Zeke’s tooth actually fell out at school (the reason for the little envelope) and he thought that was so cool. 

(It looks like we’re going to have two lower central incisers growing for the one that Zeke lost.  Phoebe is getting her first tooth…in the very same spot where Zeke lost his!  It will be interesting to see if Zeke’s tooth loss/Phoebe’s teething pattern will be the same.)

Some of you may remember this comment, from way back in April of 2007…

How many teeth has Zeke lost and when did he start? This usually has more to do with small motor skill development than anything else.

I had written a bit about Zeke’s preschool teacher saying that he needed to work on his small motor skills, and about his general disinterest in things like drawing, printing, coloring.  His Grampie left the above comment in responce.  

And then there’s this one from even farther back, in September of 2006, also from Grampie Horsman…

The chemical change in your body which causes you to loose teeth is the same change which helps you develop coordination and concentration. That’s why, in the Academy, we never pushed the children to do what we felt was “good work” until they started loosing teeth. 

I am now truly a believer!  I had started to notice just a couple of months ago that Zeke’s dexterity had gotten much better, and that he seemed to actually like drawing and coloring now!  Very interesting.

And also on the topic of lost teeth, remember this post, about Elijah losing one of his top front teeth, and the little, twenty second video that we linked to - “Elijah The Toothless Whistler?”  Up until about a week ago, it had had about 70 hits, but now, mysteriously, it’s had over 1500!  How wierd.  And some people aren’t very happy about being “forced” to watch a twenty second video of a kid who “can barely whistle!”  We’ve deleted some of the nastier comments, but some of them we left, ’cause they’re just so silly.  I wonder what exactly they thought “Elijah The Toothless Whistler” would be about, anyway?

Overheard last evening…

The sound of running water, and the whir of electric toothbrushes coming from the bathroom.  Then the sound of someone gargling. 

Zeke:  Eli*…how do you do that?  How do you gargle?  Can you show me?

The sound of water being spit out.

Eli:  Oh…Zeke, you just get some water in your mouth and then make the “G” sound.  Just go “ga-ga-ga.”

Zeke:  Okay.

A few seconds pass, then came the sound of the attempted gargle, then peals of hilarious laughter from Eli. 

Eli:  Zeke!  You’re getting water everywhere!  You’re supposed to put your head back!  (more laughter and attempted gargling)  Zeke…stop!  Stop it!  You’re making a mess. 

Zeke:  Oops…c’mon, let’s go to bed.  Can you read me a chapter from The Magicians Nephew**?

Eli:  Okay.

*Zeke started calling Elijah “Eli” a few months ago.  Strange sounding to me.  I guess we knew that he would probably eventually be called “Eli,” and actually, we intended to call him that, but he just always seemed more like an Elijah to us. 

**We got the Chronicles of Narnia box set for Christmas, and the boys and I have been loving the The Magicians Nephew.  (Which I now know is the “wrong” book to start with, but once we started it, we just couldn’t stop!) 

We have a family movie night every Friday night, and this past Friday we watched Meet the Robinsons, a movie about a young inventor who goes on a time-traveling adventure.  So, Elijah and Zeke decided they would like to become inventors, which led to an exorbitant waste of duck-tape as they experimented with various prototypes. Finally, they came up with the idea for a long straw, one that you could drink from while standing (because really…who likes to sit down while drinking?)…

Let me know if you want one.  Supplies are limited.  We only have enough duck-tape to make a few dozen more.

We’re really glad that you were born six years ago Zeke! We love you.

 ”I really like our tree.”  said Elijah with pride.  “I like how all the ornaments are different.”

“I do too, Elijah!  You know, I have a perfect word to describe our tree:  eclectic.”

 ”What’s that mean?”

“Ummm…it kind of means that nothing really matches.  Like…how the ornaments on our tree are all different.”

“Oh…eclectic.  I like the sound of that word.” 

Our tree is very eclectic.  We have ornaments from my childhood, Dave’s childhood, strings of popcorn that I strung four years ago (yeah, you can keep it from year to year…if you air pop it, and put nothing on it, it’ll keep forever!), candycanes, sentimental ornaments that we’ve collected from year to year since we’ve been married and had kids, apples that I got at a yardsale, beads that I got on clearance, and some very pretty, icicle-like ornaments that I got from Ikea last year.  I’m very partial to our eclectic tree…but have you ever noticed how your tree is always the prettiest?! 

Of course, adding to the eclectic nature of our tree are the kids’ homemade ornaments.  We’ve collected several over the years, and display them with pride on our tree.  This year, Zeke decided that we really needed some more.  He got his little “Bible” out (a little book he made last year at preschool), and started copying some scripture verses out to hang on the tree… 

I like this one…a good reminder for me in particular.  (Thank you, Zeke!  …My little prophet!*)  I love the fun of Christmas.  I love giving fun gifts to my kids, and watching them enjoy them.  Gifts that I’ve given to them because I love them, not because they deserve them. 

When Jesus came to earth on that first Christmas, he came on a mission.  He gave us an extraordinary gift that we truly did not deserve!  It’s really mind-boggling to ponder.  He came knowing that he would die for us; wanting to die for us.  Whoa!  When Christmas gets too much fun (and by too much fun, I guess I mean materialistic) I need to deliberatly remind myself of this.  What an amazingly huge, sacrificial gift the Lord gave us!   

*We’re always telling our kids that they can be prophets.  After all, a prophet is primarily someone who delivers a message from the Lord, right? 

“Well,” said Zeke with an air of haughtiness, “I’m gonna find out for sure this year whether Santa is real or not.  We wrote letters to Santa at school today, and I asked him for a Segway.”

A month or so ago, someone showed up at the park across from our house riding on a Segway.  They very generously let Elijah and Zeke try it out, and they thought it was hilarious!  Since then, they’ve been saying they’d love to get one for Christmas.  They retail for about three thousand dollars, so we told them that would be just a little out of our price range!

We’ve actually never encouraged a belief in Santa for any of our kids, so I’m not sure where Zeke’s pseudo-belief in him comes from.  I think it’s safe to say, though, that this year will mark the end of it!