Pizza, friends and fingernails

Yesterday I was surprised by a phone call from Amy inviting us to meet her and the kids at Gatti Town. We never go to Gatti Town because buffets sometimes creep me out and the noise in the game room is sometimes overwhelming to a person like me. BUT, I always want to see my BFF so we went and met them. Also, the kids were driving me crazy because we have been staying at home the last few days. Which means there has been lots of fighting, crying, whining and carrying on. I thought we could use a little outing. And my sweet friend offered to pay for the kids. And it was mom's eat free day. Do you see how the stars all aligned for us and Gatti Town? And you know what? It was delightful. Amy and I got to catch up, the kids all played well together, and as far as I know no one got sick from anything growing on the pizza in the buffet line.

When we got home I took Emma Mae aside to examine her finger. The day before she told me that her finger was broken. I was all "oh, that's awful. should we cut it off?" being the sympathetic mama who has heard way too much complaining over minor ailments in my mommyhood. But this was Emma Mae and I should have known better. She really only complains about things that are pretty bad. Like broken glass in her knee, nursemaids elbow, or the inhumanity of older brothers not being very nice. Anyway. The fingernail on one of her fingers was completely bent back and merely holding on by a thread down at the bottom. My first instinct was to scream and make an awful face. My second instinct was to run away as quickly as possible until Mike came home to let him deal with the problem. But in the end I opted for the "oh my! that might need a band aid!" approach.

So after Gatti Town, the nail was almost off. I wanted to yank it free so badly. Instead, Jake led us all in a family prayer time. It was the cutest thing ever. It was all totally his idea. He said he felt very bad for his sister and asked if he could pray for her. So then he very eloquently asked God to make Emma's finger feel better and help her regenerate a new fingernail. (I love it when he uses regenerate in a sentence!) Later she let me clip off most of the dead nail and today the rest has magically disappeared. Let the regeneration begin!