what a night!!!

Last night is NOT a night that I would ever want to re-live!!! We were FIVE MINUTES away from bedtime -- I was putting Luke's braces on, and then we just had prayer, good night songs, SLEEP! Seth tripped over my feet, though, and landed on the humidifier. The gash in his top lip took a while to stop bleeding; but when it did, we could see that it was open pretty deep (not all the way through, though). We ran over to ask Aunt Amanda's advice and then went to the ER. Seth was PERFECT through the entire ordeal! He sat on my lap nicely and quietly through all of the waiting. He stood nicely on the scale to get his weight and let the nurse get his temperature under his arm. He gave everyone smiles. He didn't complain a BIT about the anesthesia being taped to his face or even about the doctor stitching it up. He did better than I did!!! It's a good thing we were lying down for the sutures, that's for sure! I was concentrating all my mind on holding his arms completely still and breathing deeply enough to not pass out and to not hear the whole pulling/tying/clipping process going on. There's most definitely a good reason why I never even considered being a nurse! The doctor's normal procedure is to tape or hold a cover over the child's face so that he can still see Mom and still breathe, but not see the sewing. Seth did complain about that; he WANTED to watch her sew his lip. He watched the whole process. We were at the hospital for a little over two hours -- not too bad, I guess, especially with Seth behaving so angelically. I'm glad that's over!!

On a more comfortable note -- last night's sermon was FANTASTIC! Luke and Makenzie went to the service with us, and I wish that Joel would've been in there, too. Makenzie was really listening. She had brought her book to read (I let them bring almost anything to keep them quiet and still), but she didn't read at all because she was listening to Preacher. He was talking about not complaining and about being thankful. At the end of the service, the ushers passed out little bracelets for us to wear to remind us of the three-week fast (no complaining for three weeks). I can hardly even imagine how different life would be if I and everyone else in my house lived life giving thanks instead of complaining! In the Haley Mills version of "Pollyanna," the main character tells her pastor that her father found several hundred "rejoicing texts" -- verses in the Bible that tell us to rejoice, be thankful, be glad. I looked up a lot of those at one point, but have I obeyed them? Sadly, no, I haven't. When Joel was a baby, I started singing "Rejoice in the Lord Always" to him whenever he started throwing a fit about something. It really worked, and I don't know WHY on Earth I ever stopped doing it -- frustration breakdown would have to be my excuse, I guess. I've started doing it again with Seth. He's getting quite independent, wanting to do things on his own and getting loudly angry when I don't let him. Singing "Rejoice" quietly in his ear while I continue carrying him, putting him in his carseat, or whatever he's upset about almost always calms him into cooperation. It's so much nicer and more effective than spanking or yelling. I'm hitting my head, saying "why didn't I stick with this method for the past nine years with all the kids????????!!!!!!!" So anyway -- November's theme is BE THANKFUL. I'm hoping it'll become a habit, our way of life instead of such an effort at which we so often fail to succeed.