6 beautiful ‘holes’

“Mommy ~ I have 5 holes.”

I noticed several days in a row that the girls would be playing in front of a mirror and FireCracker would open her mouth wide and count. Finally, I asked her what she was doing. She went on to excitedly explain to me that her little sister only has one hole because she is little. But, since FireCracker is big, she has 5 holes. She was talking about the gaps between her teeth, but in her little head a hole is a hole.

There was a time many months ago that she first looked at a photo of her sister and cautiously asked about why her sister’s lip looked different. She was concerned her baby sister was hurt. Once I explained that God just made her sister’s lip a little different and that her sister was okay…well, then FireCracker was okay. She hasn’t mentioned her sister’s cleft since. That is until she noticed her own ‘holes’.

She’s says she’s got 5 holes and that Little One has one.

I am going to take a million pictures of all their “holes” because one day they’ll both have smiles without any precious gaps. I am confident that their teenage smiles will be just as beautiful as the smiles I adore now. Oh, but the thought of all these little holes being gone one day just makes my heart break a little bit.