growing up

We were all a little stressed. We had been sitting as a family in a florescently lit office signing papers with a notary in order to refinance the house we own in Oklahoma. Gotta take advantage of these good interest rates, right? We had to take the kids, because, well, we had no babysitter and we just had to take the kids.

I was laughing to myself about how grown up we are with our kids and our mortgage and our signatures, and yet how young we still feel, because we can never seem to get our paperwork done with ease and organization like real adults. I had just returned from driving all the way back home to retrieve our passports that we forgot to take with us the first time around. It was an hour round trip.

Not a fun hour.

I was waiting to sign my name one last time. Alaina was patiently waiting in my arms, and for some reason, I decided to let her nibble on my finger. That's when I felt something sharp. Her first tooth! It's amazing what a first tooth can do to a mood. I couldn't contain my excitement, so I interrupted Tony in his river of paperwork and Graham watching his movie on the iphone and said, "Hey, Alaina has a tooth!" Graham about came undone with excitement and Tony smiled big for the first time all day (it was a hard day for him in particular).

Why do these milestones incite such excitement in us? I mean, it's just a tooth. A tooth she will use to bite her first apple and her first piece of chocolate and to smile her many smiles. Smiles that will light up rooms and melt away stress and remind grown ups to chill out. So, yeah, I guess that's pretty exciting.