Boreal Witch

Wednesday was a pretty terrible day. We had to take Arthur to the hospital because he had gotten his upper lip frenulum stuck between his two front teeth. Apparently, this is a very common occurrence in children (particularly those younger than 2) because kids this age usually have such large gaps between their two front teeth. I've never heard of this happening before (and neither have any of the moms I hang out with, which makes me wonder if it really is as common as the mommy-forum people claim it is), and even the doctor had to leave the room for a good seven minutes while he surfed the internet trying to find out what to do with it.

In the end, we chose to leave it in the hopes of it just popping out again. Unfortunately, playing the waiting game has been pretty stressful for everyone. I've been praying non-stop, hoping that the Universe will finally have mercy on me and one morning I'll wake up and everything will be back to normal.

But, no. Not yet.

By Saturday, I had a feeling that the pain was growing progressively worse for Arthur because he was continuously crabby and wouldn't eat much.

So, Robinson and I took matters into our own hands and tried to pry his upper lip out from between his teeth. Long story short, by the time it was over, Arthur was hysterical, I was sobbing, and Robinson looked like he was ready to drive to the store to purchase fudgesicles in order to try and calm us down.

On Sunday, I bought Arthur some teething tablets that have helped tremendously. I just dissolved them in his water or juice. His gums look less inflamed and he seems to be eating more. I'm just hoping that things will continue to look up.

I'm beginning to understand why TEETHING SUCKS!

Blessed be.

Since my upholstery bags have been such a big hit with everyone (okay, all 3 of the people I've made them for), I decided to enter one in the fair this year under the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Division. I sewed it together in a few hours (under quite a bit of pressure - I had a baby quilt to finish) and turned it in the Saturday before the fair.

The last time I entered something in the fair was when I was 8. My mom helped me sew a little cross-stitch turtle. I won first prize.

This time, I won third prize for my upholstery bag, and when I went to pick it up Sunday after the fair, I was told to go to the Summer Fair Offices and collect my "premiums." I chuckled to myself: "Premiums?"

Maybe the guy should have said, "Pittance." I was awarded $1.00 for my upholstery bag! Now I know why I keep seeing the same names over and over again in fair exhibits. In order to win big, you really do have to enter every division possible, from cow breeding to photography.

Next year, I'm going to enter some of my quilts in the fair. I'll bet I could win at least $2.00 for a third place quilt next year! I've already decided I'll be entering Father and Son Star Wars quilts and, if I can manage, I'd like to enter Arthur's wall-hanging I finished this summer. I'm considering hand-quilting it...I've never hand-quilted anything before in my life (besides simple tie quilts), so I'm probably being a bit too ambitious. And, if I manage to make anything really great between now and next summer, I'll probably enter that, too.

Blessed be.

Today it snowed. Not actual snow, but little flecks of white ash. Everything is now covered in a white powder and the skies have been unnaturally gray the last couple of days. There's a fire close to Murphy Dome and several others around Fairbanks.

I'm just glad it isn't as smokey as it was a few weeks ago.

Blessed be.