Eve has a loose tooth! Her very first one. She’s pretty excited about and and keeps telling me about how it feels. Often starting with, “I don’t know if this is usual or not, but…” then onto her story. She is an awesome child. She also has four molars coming in all at once. There’s a lot going on in that mouth of hers.
I wonder if that explains the fevers, headaches, and earaches from a few weekends ago…
A few weeks ago the kids went to the dentist for their regular cleanings. Eve had no missing teeth and no wiggly teeth, but upon looking at her x-ray the dentist said her big teeth are “right there” and ready to come through at any time. We left with instructions to call him if big teeth poked through before little ones fell out.
Well, of course, they did! This past Sunday Eve said she thought maybe a new tooth had come in. Sure enough, she had a big tooth poking through behind her little ones!
I called the dentist and scheduled an appointment to have her four front teeth removed, something we’d discussed at the last appointment. It sounds scary, but I think it makes the most sense to get them out so the big teeth can grow in as straight as possible. Hopefully!
Today was the day. You know it’s urgent when they’re booking routine visits six months out, but manage to find time for you in two short days. Most mornings I’m dragging Eve out of bed at 7:00am and forcing breakfast into her before school. This morning, when she has no school and isn’t allowed breakfast, she’s wide awake at 6:00am! Of course. Alan took Lex to school and Eve and I headed to the dentist.
She was SO BRAVE!! She got shy and quiet when they called her, then stuck to me like glue for a few minutes in the dentist’s room, but she settled quickly and barely flinched when they took out those tiny teeth! She just had nitrous oxide and novicane, not Valium (like Lex had when he lost his first tooth to the dentist as well!) Since she was older and calmer they didn’t think the Valium was necessary. She was a champ through the whole process. Laughing and chatting. When we got in the car at the end, her mouth full of gauze, she started crying again. We cuddled for a few minutes, then headed home and cuddled on the couch for a bit, changing the gauze frequently. An hour later she said she was hungry so we got up and she’s been going ever since! She had pudding and a soft PB&J. We played outside, played a few board games, read some stories. She’s having quiet time now and I keep asking if she’s tired and wants a nap, but “No!” is all I hear.
Eve’s new smile! (sort of. the bottom half of her face is still pretty numb here!)
A mere three hours after dental surgery and this girl is up and at ’em already!
I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect for recovery. Lex was four and had Valium so he slept a lot of the afternoon after his procedure. I remember sleeping a lot after I had teeth pulled, but I know I had general anaesthesia for that procedure. I guess she didn’t have any drugs that require serious recovery. I’m glad for that! I love seeing her up and grinning so fast. I’ll post a picture later when things are a little more healed up, but there is no way four grown-up teeth are going to fit into the spot that opened up today. She’ll be lucky to get two teeth in that hole! I think both kids inherited my small mouth!
Alan and I were counting our teeth last night (normal couples do that, right?!) and he has 10 more teeth than I do!! Isn’t that funny! Anyway, back to Eve. She’s doing well and eager for the tooth fairy’s visit this evening!
Lex’s class did an assignment where they had to make and write about an invention. Or, to be precise, a “contrapawackinvent.” I have NO IDEA what that means. He hasn’t told me anything about it except that he was pleased his teacher let him write straight through snack time. He apparently had a lot to say about his contrapawackinvent!
The long one in the middle is his.
A close up. Can you read it? You may have to click on the picture to zoom in a bit.
Tonight was the annual ice cream social at his school. Sort of a final farewell, hosted by the PTO. The kids had a great time, of course. Ice cream and playground after dinner, lots of friends, what more could you (as a child!) ask for. :)
Yum!
The excitement of the evening however came when Lex did a face-plant off the monkey bars! He stood up, spitting out wood chips and missing a tooth! Fortunately it was the one that was hanging on by a thread anyway! He was hoping to loose it this week, at school, so he could get a little treasure box from the school nurse. He lost it at school, but won’t be getting a treasure box. Oh well. Several people jumped in and tried to help him find the tooth, but he seemed relatively indifferent.
Looking for a tooth. I didn't get any pictures of the wood-chip filled face, too busy taking care of the boy to be taking pictures of him, but once I knew he was ok I whipped the camera back out!
Is this it? Nope, just a wood chip.
A face-plant didn't keep him down for long!
Oh yeah, we brought this smiley girl as well. :) She was smiley until she got her little toe caught in the slide. Then it turned to tears (two ice cream cones and half hour past bedtime may have also contributed to the tears!)
Sweet.
The left lateral incisor (bottom, left of the front teeth) was kicked out by Miss Eve during a wrestling match yesterday morning. Good thing it was super loose already! Lex said it didn’t really hurt. :)
One thing I wanted to do on this blog but never did was make a list of milestones and dates down the side. Something quick and easy to scan. So far hasn’t happened and probably never will. Sigh. Anyway, I do want to keep track of the teeth, in case it ever matters. On Tuesday Lex lost another tooth. That’s five total now. This one was his bottom tooth, just to the right of the two front ones he lost first. He was eating a bakery bagel. Part way through the bagel he quietly tapped me on the arm and handed me a tooth. It was loose, but nowhere near as loose as the top front ones that hung on for so long. They make cute tooth fairy pillows… I was going to post a picture from Pinterest but the Internet is being annoyingly slow tonight that will have to wait for another day.
Lex lost another tooth this morning! The front right tooth. One of those wiggly, sticky-outy ones :-) He refuses to flash a toothless smile for the camera though.
First permenant tooth cutting through.
That picture reminded me of this one…
Lex at 7 months, showing off his new teeth
Lex has a loose tooth! Eek! He’s growing up so fast. It’s the bottom, front one, right next to his gap. There is a big tooth growing in the gap and I’m sure it’s pushing those babies out. He told me this morning that I hurt his tooth with the toothbrush. When I checked things out, there it was, wiggling back and forth. I tried to take a picture of it today but he isn’t very excited and didn’t want to show it off. Oh well, maybe another time. This will be a whole new experience in parenting!
I’m so tired, but I know everyone will be looking for this in the morning, so here goes!
We had an exciting day at the dentist today. As planned, I gave Lex a small dose of Valium an hour before our appointment and he was nice and relaxed… until it came time to get in the car! Then he fought like he hasn’t fought in along time! It was rough. We got him buckled in to the carseat and he settled down. We did a lot of talking about what would happen and the process. When we got to the dentist he just cried. I carried him in and he cried (thankfully the hitting and kicking had subsided) and, amazingly enough, when we got into the dentist chair he calmed right down. He was intrigued to go into a different room than they normally put him in. For cleanings he’s in an open-ish room with several chairs, for this procedure we were in a room with a closed door. Soundproof, perhaps? :) I was really impressed with how well the dentist did. He tends to talk down to Lex a bit and I think that confuses Lex sometimes, but it seemed to work well and he did an amazing job of calming Lex and he seemed really tender and attentive. No medical talk over Lex’s head, no “sit still!”, nothing. He called Lex “Lexi” many times, but that’s ok. He stayed in the room the whole time, with me and two nurses. He had me sit on the chair, legs off to the side, and Lex lay across my lap with his head positioned in the chair. I think Lex was really comfortable and I got to hold his hands. I had to turn my head a few times (needle injections in many places around his tooth, tooth pulled, something stuck deep inside the hole, eek!) but the whole thing went so well. They even gave Lex his tooth in a little green treasure chest because Lex told them that green is his favorite color.
I know you’re all wondering if the tooth fairy will be visiting our house. I’m sorry to disappoint, but I think she’ll be flying right by tonight. Alan and I struggle (ok, I think I struggle and he’s ok with it) about how much to encourage the lies/fantasies. I usually have no problem playing along, but I can’t bring myself to bring it up. Lex knows nothing about the tooth fairy and he’s a pretty logical guy, so I couldn’t figure out a way to build the story. So I didn’t. He is excited to take his tooth to school tomorrow and I think that is a better solution for all of us. :)
He wasn’t in the mood for a photo this afternoon, but I’ll get one for you soon. We spent the day relaxing. Lex napped and then played with play-doh for hours, I baked bread and mini carrot cakes (and I’m ill from my complete and total lack of will-power!), and made dinner. Eve was bored silly by the end of the day. She’s protesting daycare tomorrow, but I think it will be good for her. I’m hoping all goes smoothly getting him to school and daycare tomorrow. He’s still awake up stairs now though (it’s 9:49pm) so we’ll see how tomorrow goes!