Dry January Day 24

Except for having no control over a pint of #Enlightened ice cream this afternoon, today has been a wonderful, reaffirming, milestone-making day.My daughter lost her first tooth this morning! Milestones are fewer and farther between nowadays, so this was a big one. The tooth had been very loose for several days and there was excitement, but also a lot of apprehension on her part. What would it feel like? Will it hurt? Will there be blood? All understandable concerns. You can’t forget the feeling of losing a tooth, but do you remember not knowing what it would feel like? Pretty crazy to see my own daughter grappling with that!In the end, it just fell right out. We were in the middle of a project this morning and all of a sudden she exclaimed, “My tooth just fell out!” She was ecstatic, giddy, and bursting with pride as she held the tiny tooth in her hand.I will never forget that moment. Not just because it is such a huge milestone, but because I was there. I was 100% THERE. Completely present. Not fighting a hangover, dehydrated, puffy, and full of regret. After what has been kind of a meh week, experiencing this milestone with my daughter this morning completely re-charged me and made me appreciate, truly appreciate, how much better my life has been without alcohol.There. I said it. And I mean it. My life is better without alcohol. EEK. I just typed that.I still crave it. I have anxiety dreams about it almost nightly. I still can’t imagine my life without it.But this morning I got to experience my daughter having her big kid breakthrough moment with such pure, crisp clarity and complete presence that I also can’t imagine going back to where I was. So to this profound gratitude I cling, and I remind myself to take this one day at a time. And this was an excellent day.... Oh, and I had the creative energy and wherewithal to make her a tooth fairy pillow (shown in this post’s pic)! I haven’t used my sewing machine in months and my day was jam-packed, but I got it done and she adores it. Woohoo!