A Piano Bench, a 2 Year Old and Two Dentists Later

Today was quite the day for Marissa, and for me too I might add. I was sitting on the couch feeding Connor while Marissa and her little friend were playing the piano right in front of me. Somehow, as Marissa was getting off the piano bench she ended up falling face first into the top of a storage box. She immediately started crying and I could tell she was bleeding. I put the baby down and took her to the bathroom to wash the blood off. I thought she had split her lip or was bleeding on the inside of her mouth, but when I opened her mouth to check it out I noticed... HER TOOTH WAS GONE!!! Ahh!!

This is the scene: the piano bench, the box top, the bloody dress and the toothless two year-old (complete with an ice-pop, yogurt on the face and a freshly pulled-out hair-do)

This was a first for me, but somehow it seems like sort of a right of passage in parenthood. We've had stitches (when Erin split her chin open at age 3), a hospitalization for sickness (also Erin at age 10 months for croup), we've had a bloody nose (Alex a few months ago), we've had more than our share of people passing out (mostly Alex, and Jared, but also Marissa--I'll get to that), and now we've had a kid knock their front tooth out (Marissa, today). No broken bones though--yet.

I went back to the scene of the accident and found the tooth. I'd always heard you were supposed to put it in milk and take it to the dentist to see if it could be put back in, and for some reason I thought they would be able to. I called the pediatric dentist and got a recording saying they were out to lunch for another hour or so, but they gave an emergency number (FYI: they never even checked the message till 2 hours after I left it. What kind of emergency service is that?). I knew this injury didn't warrant a 911 call, but to me it was a true dental emergency. The tooth was already soaking in milk and I needed to know what to do. I ended up calling my old dentist who I'm not too crazy about (I'm in the process of getting a new one), but I had this guy's number handy and he is a dentist after all.

I took her in, along with the other three kids, and had Jared meet me there. Unfortunately, the dentist said that the tooth was broken at the root and it could not be put back. I don't know, I guess I was hoping. And I didn't exactly examine the thing before I put it in milk. He did say that the other piece of it was probably still in there and that we would have to call a specialist to get it out. So after we picked up Erin from school I called the pediatric dentist again and they told me to come in right then. I guess this part turned out better than it could have because they took an x-ray and found that there was no part of the tooth left in there, so no digging around for it. Phew. But they also said that if we want to get one of those false teeth for her, we can't put it in till around January because her molars aren't all the way in yet.

I know that nobody really cares about it as much as we do because she's not your kid. Hey, this happened to one of the kids in nursery and I didn't seem too concerned about it. But the reality is that I am a little bummed by it. I know it's just a baby tooth and that she'll get another one eventually, but she is only two and it'll be a long time before that new one comes in. Didn't she just barely get this one? When I told Erin and her friends about it they were so jealous of Marissa's luck, as any first grader would be. A good portion of their life is spent wiggling teeth, daydreaming about loosing teeth, putting teeth under their pillows and showing off their newest gap and tooth fairy loot to their friends. And the gaps look normal... at that age. Not as a baby. Marissa just looks so, different.

A close-up

This kind of reminds me of the time Erin cut her hair to the roots a couple of years ago. (FYI--it's all grown out now. Yay!) Your perfectly good and normal looking child is now, well... damaged. And that's a rotten feeling to have as a parent. Maybe this was how my parents felt when I broke my perfectly good nose two weeks before my wedding. I distinctly recall my mom saying, "I gave you a good nose, look what you've done with it!" (It was pretty crooked, I'll admit. I will also say that after the straightening I think it actually looked better than before.)

I'm still not sure about the fake tooth. Most people I've talk to think I should just leave it the way it is, and I would if she were like 4. But she has a lot of time to live without it and you know people are going to make all sorts of comments. Any opinions? Is it vain to want her to have that tooth again? She, of course, doesn't care a bit about it. She just keeps telling people matter-of-factly that she knocked her tooth out, then she proceeds to jump off the couch or do some other dangerous stunt.

Seriously, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that this happened and should be grateful it wasn't any worse. She is a daredevil and currently loves jumping off everything, to my dismay. Two weeks ago the other kids were jumping off a table at the church, for a reason that I am not entirely sure, and Marissa decided to follow suit. Right before she jumped I said, "Marissa, don't jump off that" and right after I said that she tripped as she jumped, fell on her head and passed out. Today she was even jumping off the coffee table in the lobby of the dentist, which I suppose is a good place to knock out another tooth.

That was the worst that happened to her today, but not the only thing. After returning from the first dentist, Alex and Connor were asleep, so I popped them in the stroller and had Marissa ride her bike to pick up Erin. Note to self: bad idea. Marissa rode off the curb and fell of her bike on the way home. Then after returning from dentist 2, she was taking off her shoes and holding onto the door jamb when Erin closed her fingers in the door! As if this wasn't enough, she cried so hard without breathing that she passed out again. Like I said, rough day for the kid.

Sheesh, I'm a little drained from trying to keep my kids alive today. Goodnight!

Side note: it wasn't till much later that I noticed that I'd been traipsing around all afternoon with blood smeared all over my shirt. I'm just saying...