A Beautiful New Smile

Molly had a terrible fall running up the stairs but resulted in a beautiful new smile.  Molly was home sick from school one day and when Casey came home for lunch, the two of them decided to surprise the boys with setting up the tent in the house.  In all of her excitement, Molly was running up the wooden stairs and fell mouth first on the top landing.  I heard a loud noise, screaming, and Casey yelling for me to come.  I just knew Molly had broken her arm or something, not prepared to see ALL of the blood.  Her front tooth was completely knocked out and the other front tooth was hanging.  Did I mention the blood that was everywhere??!!

Poor Molly was so scared because this was not the first time she has had a tooth knocked out.  When she was 3 years old, she knocked out a front side tooth on the slide at her preschool.  I tried to remain calm to calm her down, but I am not the one to call in an emergency and I do not do well with blood.  My heart was breaking watching how scared Molly was.  Casey was on the phone with our pediatric dentist while I was helping her with her bleeding mouth. 

We went straight to the dentist and because they are her baby teeth, they said the other tooth that was hanging needed to come out.  They asked us if we wanted to put her under and have them pull it or just pull it.  The problem is Molly understands and speaks Spanish and started yelling "noooo".  Casey and I looked at each other and said to the dentist "pull it".  We felt that would be the least traumatic on her.  They did put some numbing medicine on it and when the dentist was about to pull out, I almost knocked down the assistant trying to get out of the room.  The funny thing was she was scrambling to get out, too.  We did not want to watch sweet Molly in that much pain.  Pretty sure everyone in the building heard when the dentist pulled her tooth.  Remember the dentist scene on Finding Nemo when Darla is screaming and they show the people in the waiting room with horrified faces? 

I dried up my tears then walked in to Molly's room and loved on her.  Poor Casey also had that horrified look on his face - so hard to see your kids in pain.  When we were checking out at the dentist office, I am holding Molly and she says, "can we still put up the tent?".  A confirmation for me that we made the right decision to get it over quickly and just pull the tooth.  The dentist was wonderful with Molly and they gave her a Ratoncito Perez tooth holder with her 2 front teeth.  Raton Perez is the Ecuadorian Tooth Fairy. 

I believe that God prepared Molly's heart for this fall.  The day before the fall, we were talking about loose teeth because her 2 bottom teeth were loose.  I told her that my absolute favorite look on kids is when their 2 front teeth are missing.  Never would I have dreamed that the very next day, Molly would have that look.  Molly is now so proud of her toothless smile!  I am thankful that I get to enjoy the toothless grin a little longer now.

And for this grand occasion, Raton Perez and the Tooth Fairy both came to our house.