It’s been _____ days since our last accident

Well…we went 904 days without breaking the kid.

Today the counter resets.

Let me jump to the end here and say everything is fine, she’s okay (now), and there will be no lasting damage. With that said, today was a scary day.

This morning, Monki was running around, as she is wont to do. I had gone out to run an errand and had just come back home and Rasa was about to go out for an errand of her own and in that in-between time, the little one was running around and having a great time, laughing and yelling and hiding and being her normal self. 

Then she tripped and face-planted. We watched it happen. There was nothing we could do about it. But then, this is a kid who likes to “scare mommy” by running full speed into the couch (she sets up pillows, but doesn’t always hit them) and thinks it’s just hysterical to take a header, her legs flying up until they’re level with her body, propelled by her own momentum. So when she went face first into the floor, we stopped for a minute to see her reaction. It didn’t look like she hit very hard so we waited.

It took a few seconds, but then the tears began. Naturally, we ran to her, offering comfort and solace and hugs and kisses. That’s when Rasa saw the blood. And picked up the small piece of tooth which had broken off. Seems she hit harder than we thought. The blood was from her lips, where she had bit down and her front tooth was now the definition of “snaggled.”

So, an emergency trip to the dentist was in order.

Now, this is where I brag a bit on my 29.7 month old daughter. Yes, she was hurt. Yes, she was scared. Yes, when we went to see the dentist, she opened her mouth and let the doctor examine her with nary a peep. She even sat (with mommy) in the chair and let the dentist drill and (mostly) fix the damaged tooth. Yes, the noise of the drill scared her, but even then, she was a trooper and still kept her mouth open. Even through tears, she tried to be strong and brave. Turns out, the damage was only to the enamel and didn’t break through to the pulp or nerves, so that was a huge plus. And the doctor was able to grind down the sharpest points, leaving the rest to wear on their own.

Then we went for strawberry gelato (dentist said it was okay).

So in the end, all was okay. Monki has a slight chip on a baby tooth, so no permanent damage. But this was the first time I’d ever experienced an emergency with her and to say it knocked the wind out of my sails is a bit of an understatement. I was fine, I was the voice of calm and reason while we organised a car and got to the doctor. I was able to calm Rasa down just fine. But as soon as we knew everything was going to be okay, then it hit me and I (virtually) collapsed. It was only then I could allow myself to let go a little and feel the fear and panic Rasa had been feeling since it happened. Of course, by that point, she was fine, so we just traded, really.

As for the little girl, she’s been recounting the story, talking about how there was “vroom vroom on her teeth” and how she wasn’t scared. She’s a good kid.

Anyway, the count begins anew tomorrow.