Tooth Trauma

Last week was absolutely crazy. Things around here are always pretty wacky, but last week topped the charts. As my dad once said when we were packing up to leave his house after a visit, "This is like herding cats!" And that's how it is around here. Trying to make order out of chaos. And chaos always wins.

Anyways. A week ago today Penelope was running in a church fellowship hall where Libby takes ballet and she fell on her face. She busted her lip. Normal kid injury around here. As I was trying to stop the bleeding and assess the damage another mom said, "Her tooth is on the ground over there." And it was. The whole thing. All the way to the root. I couldn't look.

My poor sweet angel. I felt so bad. Of course this happened at 3:45 p.m. right before we were leaving, and I had an infant at home waiting to nurse at 4:00. I knew dentists stop answering their phones at the end of the day...all of this made for a stressful trip home. But I made it (after driving like a maniac) and spoke to a pediatric dentist at the eleventh hour (4:45 p.m.). There was nothing to do right away, just take care of her best I could. We went to the dentist the next day.

She slept with me in my bed that night and only cried out a few times. I awoke to her looking like this...
This look says, "Mom, why are you taking my picture instead of getting my breakfast?"


I thought she looked like she belonged on the Simpsons. Jimmy was calling her Angelina Jolie. So then of course we moved to Octo-mom.

This is how it looked on the inside. I've made it really tiny so you can't zoom in on the disgustingness of it all. Okay, I thought I made it small. Just don't click on it.

And here is the tooth.
I will not be like TPW and comment about my cuticles. But they are terrible. I am aware.

She is so little she didn't even ask about the tooth fairy. Being a photographer I immediately (as she was bleeding all over me) thought, "I wonder what the last picture I took of her with all her teeth was..." and then there I was photographing her tooth. It is very surreal. When a piece of your child is lying behind them on the floor, it's just weird.

I know what everyone is saying. It's just a baby tooth. She has another one. But when your fat lipped three year old sweetheart is asking you "When am I going to get a new tooth mom?" you don't want to have to say, "In about four years!" But kids are resilient. She is fine already. Here is a picture I took just a few minutes ago.Her lip is still a little swollen but obviously much better. She has breakfast on her face. This is life.
And showing the gap. She is still cute toothless. As if I ever doubted that. You are one tough cookie, Penelope!