Boy Sandwich: Tommy the Tough

The Tooth and the Nose

Yesterday Tommy lost his first tooth. Actually, it was super loose, so Dentist Owen pulled it out for him! He was so excited to tell me about it on the phone (it happened while I was gone) and show me the gaping hole in his mouth when I got back. At dinner time he commented that the only problem with losing a tooth is that "food can get stuck in there." Meaning, of course, the hole that is left behind. Owen, as a fellow "tooth-loser" quickly agreed. Then they started laughing over the idea of just how big the tooth would be that would come into the little hole. This was because Owen pointed to his two front teeth and said, "It will be as big as these!" and then chomped his teeth together.

Dentist and Patient

The Golden Moment

Tommy also almost (I hope that he really hasn't) broke his nose yesterday. It is super puffy and swollen, but it doesn't look crooked. Not that I have any idea what a broken nose looks like though! He got hit by Owen's head, which is not an unusual occurrence, but it just usually doesn't happen on the face. And there was no blood, which is usually my indicator of the degree of pain, but he was pretty sad for quite a long time. When he was in the bath, we were looking at all his bumps, scrapes, bruises, and blood. The poor child has been beaten to a pulp in the last week!

I love the stage Tommy is at. He loves to play hard with his brothers and friends, he sometimes back-talks to me a bit, but he still needs lots of cuddles, hugs, and reassurances. He thrives on every bit of praise he can get, and he Feels things, 100%.

Sleeping with his cousins in Edmonton--he came up to sleep in my bed in the middle of the night. :-)

As busy as he gets chasing down his brothers or playing with the neighbors next door, one of the best things about Tommy is he knows how to cuddle up with a good book and sit very still while he focuses in on what he's (or someone else) is reading. I love to feel his body relax beside mine as he concentrates on the stories. I also love it when I put him to bed at night and he says, "Mom, I forgot something!" This is usually a few hugs and kisses. By the time he gets into bed and stays there--sometimes a bit of a process--he is so exhausted that he falls asleep super fast. It's tough being tough sometimes! And he will usually sleep in the longest. One night he and James decided to have a race to "see who can sleep in the longest!" Tommy was excited to call James at work the next morning at 10:30 and tell him "Dad, guess what? I just woke up! I won the race!" :-)

Tommy loves to read with his brothers. I love that they all enjoy this.

On Monday we went on an adventure. We rode our bikes (and Tommy did not want to go in the bike stroller, so he rode his) down a steep scary hill (Whoop-Up Drive), across the big river, to the BMX track. James and I were standing and talking together for a bit, when we realized all the boys had gone on up to the top of the track without us, in spite of there being a few other bigger boys there who were flying down the track. Pretty soon the boys started coming down the track. I was very nervous when I saw Tommy was going to do it. In fact I couldn't believe my eyes! He did very well the whole evening--just had one crash where he tried to go up a hill but didn't have enough momentum and went down and back instead. :-( After about an hour there, it was time to head home. That's when Tommy's toughness revealed itself even more. He was pretty worn out (his legs had been pumping about 10 times faster than anyone else's just to keep up), and there was this big hill to go back up! Everyone was ahead of us except Owen--he kept stopping to catch his breath--and Tommy started to cry. For a while we rigged his bike onto mine and put him on my seat. He thought that was pretty fun, and we enjoyed talking together as we went up the hill. When we got to the top, he was ready to ride again, and he rode all the way home.