But one of my biggest fears are tooth injuries.
I still have nightmares remembering my father pulling out my lose teeth and in college I was carrying my bike up the stairs and fell face first into my handlebars and removed the back of one of my front teeth. Every few years the bit of fake tooth falls off, usually on Friday night, and I have to go around with a hollow fang all weekend...
I have heard horror stories of kids falling on swing sets, slides, or seesaws and knocking out their teeth, so I always try to keep the boys' teeth safe. But the day before Christmas Eve my worst minor injury fear was realized.
My sister Heather and her family were in town, staying with my parents, so I was visiting with my boys on Thursday. The adults were sitting on the back deck, drinking coffee, and watching the kids play in the backyard. My parents live on the side of a small hill surrounded by woods, so it is very peaceful and beautiful. Their backyard gently slopes to a small creek (dry now). Often we sit out there watching the deer, or sink down in the soothing hot tub on their deck.
Duke had Nanny's huge metal RadioFlyer and he was riding it down the small sloping hill. I had my reservations, even though it was something I did in my childhood as a free-range kid. He wasn't going very fast, the hill is a very gentle slope, and there were enough trees to stop him from building up much speed; but I still instructed him how to hunch down, grab the sides, and protect his teeth in case he started going too fast.
He was having a blast and being very careful. He begged his cousin Maddy to ride with him, but she decided it wasn't worth the risk. Then he resorted to asking his daredevil brother Imp, but Imp also would have nothing to do with him and his flying wagon. No, Imp didn't want to take any chances...
Meanwhile, I am enjoying the coffee and conversation and decide he can go down the hill a few more times and then I would encourage him to do something safer, like play in the street ;-) when I suddenly noticed Imp go flying off the deck.
Yes, Imp. He was playing quietly on the deck and decided to run down the cement stairs to the yard. While I had my eyes on his older brother my little three-year-old had a pretty terrible accident. He was literally 5 feet away from me, but all I could do was watch in horror as his little foot missed a step and he went flying into space and went face-first into the corner of the wooden deck.
I jumped up and picked up my screaming little boy off the ground and realized that this was serious since Imp almost never cries. When he was two he fell head-first into one of my husband's metal weights in the garage and gashed his skull and had to have his head stapled and he didn't even seem to notice. But today he was in extreme pain and blood was gushing out of his mouth. All because he was going down some steps, steps he ran down hundreds of times.
Normally my husband takes care of these things because I get crazy when I see blood on my boys, but he was at work. My mother is a nurse and has a pretty strong stomach, but for some reason it is different when it is your grandson.
I carried him inside and noticed as I was washing out his mouth that he had a deep cut on his inner lower lip, so I grabbed a popsicle and told him to suck on it. He tried but started crying even harder so I knew that more was going on. I lifted up his upper lip and almost passed out.
The pediatric dentist that happened to be on the way to the ER AND open that late afternoon said my dear little boy not only almost bit his bottom lip through, but he also managed to "deglove" his upper tooth. I am wincing as I type this, but basically degloving a tooth is removing all of the skin above that tooth. When I looked at his upper teeth there was no skin and I could see his root. No one should have to see this part of the anatomy.
At the dentist office Mommy was sobbing quietly while Imp was peacefully watching cartoons on the ceiling while the dentist was checking him out. Imp is one of the bravest toughest little boy I have ever met, and has an incredible pain tolerance. He did not need stitches (since the cut was not completely through his lip) and the skin above his tooth should grow back. He front teeth didn't get knocked out, but there is a good chance that they will be discolored later due to the nerve and tooth injury. Thank goodness they are his baby teeth.
I realize there are so many horrible things that can happen to your children (much worse than this little accident). However, my worst-case minor accident happened and Imp and I survived.
Imp is going to be fine and you wouldn't even know from his behavior that he has so much mouth trauma. My husband is brushing his teeth twice a day because I can't face seeing my little baby's teeth right now and I wince when when he smiles at me now because his lips are so swollen. And because he has such deep cuts, any type of minor fall or blow to the face causes bleeding. Just today he rolled out of bed and started bleeding, got knocked by the dog's paw and started bleeding, and then slipped between the recliner and the lamp table and fell flat on his face and started bleeding. I told the boys no wrestling, but you know how that goes...
We can learn so much from our children. Instead of worrying about the "what if" and the future problems he might have with those teeth, Imp just goes on living and enjoying life. Sure his mouth hurts some, but that is easy to ignore when you are chasing the chickens or running through the fields or climbing hay bales. I want to be like Imp...
So Christmas with our families was wonderful and also sad/stressful. Well, sad/stressful for everyone but Imp and Duke. Imp just had a wonderful time and thinks his mother is a big worrier. And Duke got irritated because he felt Imp was getting special treatment.
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and had no major/minor accidents. I have more actions, storyboards, and other goodies coming. I took a computer break but I am back, at least until this weekend. Now if I can only get Imp to stop acting like a three-year-old... After this my balloon phobia seems pretty darn silly.
