All I Want For Christmas Is

On Wednesday afternoon when I picked up the kids from school they asked if we could have Chick-fil-A for dinner. I was okay with this since Chet was out of town and I hate cooking for just myself. We headed to Chick-fil-a and then to Target. When we left Target and were back in the car Harris wanted to finish his Sprite so he reached across the back seat to the cup holder and got a hold of it by the lid and of course the Sprite spilled all over his lap. So I of course told him that he was going to have to shower when we got home.

When we got home he got into the shower and proceeded to do what 6 year old boys do in the shower, karate. All seemed to be going well when all of a sudden I heard a loud thud followed by a blood curdling scream followed by frantic calls for MOM!!! I ran in there and was confronted by Harris standing outside of the shower covered in blood. I freaked out and yelled (frantically not mean) "what happened?!" As he tried to tell me what happened he spit blood and teeth into my hands!  Crap! is what I was thinking at this point. I got him back into the shower to get him rinsed off and to evaluate the damage. It was bad. I got him out and immediately called the dentist. It was already 5 o'clock but he agreed to stay until we got there. Usually it takes about 15 minutes to get there but of course there was a car accident and it took us almost 30 to get there!

I took this while we were sitting in traffic on the way to the dentist. You can see the three holes on the outside of his lower lip and his missing teeth. And if you look closely you can kinda tell that the top left tooth doesn't look quite right.

When we finally got to the dentist and got into an exam room most of the bleeding had stopped but he was in A LOT of pain. When the dentist began the exam Harris actually asked him to numb it! The dentist looked at me and I said "if he's asking you to then go ahead." It took 2 whole vials to get him numb enough for the dentist to get a good look!

The first thing he took care of were the 3 holes he bit into the outside of his lower lip. He cleaned them really thoroughly with special antiseptic for teeth bites and then had to use a coagualnt to stop the bleeding before he could close them up. He decided against a stitch in each one and used surgical glue to seal them shut and minimize scarring. After the outside of his mouth was taken care of  he moved to the inside of his mouth. It was ugly. His gums on the top and bottom around his 4 front teeth as well as his lower lip were dark purple and looked like hamburger. His bottom gums and lip were so torn up he had to debride the torn up tissue from them. When he was finished with that they gave his mouth a good rinse before taking a look at his teeth. As he was looking at his teeth I commented that it looked like he had chipped one of the teeth on the top next to his fron tooth. He took a look at it and said it's not chipped but I want to get some x-rays of it. When he was examining the x-rays he said everything looked fine except that one tooth which was inverted! As in he hit it so hard it went back up into his gums!!! He said it wasn't a huge deal because it was a baby tooth and it would either fall out or come back down. So far it has come back down most of the way and gotten loose so we will see what happens...

When we were done at the dentist Harris asked if we could stop and get a smoothie. I obliged and got him one. We quickly discovered that he was too numb to drink it though. It kept dribbling out of his mouth! He gave up and decided that he wanted to call Gram Wendy and Auntie Lindsay. (One thing I forgot to mention is that the next day was school picture day...) As he was talking to Gram Wendy they were talking about school pictures the next day and said "It's school pictures tomorrow. But don't worry Grandma, it will be a good memory." And then while he was talking to Auntie Lindsay she told him "to smile real big for pictures so he can always remember he knocked his teeth out the day before. Harris said in reply, "Looking at those pictures later will still be really painful for me." Haha! He's so cute!

I took these the next morning, it actually looked a million times better. I was so glad.

It was quite swollen though!

Although it was a very traumatic experience Harris was really brave and handled it very well. I'm glad that he's all better now!

Off

Liv got her braces off today! I remember the day I got mine off! How can it be that she is that age?! It was fairly quick and painless and her teeth look fabulous! Although now she thinks she needs to have them whitened... I told her when her last 2 baby teeth fall out we will do it. :)

Right after they took them off

Putting her permanant retainers in

A pic with Dr. Jorgensen

Gorgeous!

First Lost Tooth

On Valentine's Day while Chet and I were at dinner, Harris lost his first tooth! I know that this is going to sound dramatic but it made me sad that he lost a tooth. I mean how can my baby be losing teeth?! He's not that big is he? I guess he is...

Adorable!

Any way... The next morning Harris had forgotten that the Tooth Fairy had come! When we reminded him he ran down to his bedroom and found a crisp 10 dollar bill under his pillow (that's what happens when the Tooth Fairy is out to dinner and comes home late and only has a 10 in her wallet). Lucky boy!

He actually has 2 more that are ready to fall out any day! So I guess the Tooth Fairy will be back again soon and will hopefully be more prepared next time. ;)

Expander

Just before Christmas we took Liv to the orthodontist to see when would be the best time to get her braces. After several x-rays and a consult with the doctor we learned that the sooner we did it the better. The reason being that she still has 13 teeth that need to grow in! 13! Her mouth is so crowded already that there is absolutely no room. So we set up an appointment for the first of the year to get started.

Last week we went in to have her molds done and to have one more look at her teeth. After she got the molds done they gave her a bunch of sticky candy (Starburst, Skittles, Laffy Taffy, etc.) that she wouldn't be able to eat while she has her expander and braces. It was really cute.

That brings us to today. Today we went back again but this time we finally got started. The first step in the process of braces for her is an expander. Which does exactly what the name implies. For the next 3 months it will spread apart all of her teeth so that the 13 that haven't grown in yet can. When those three months are done she will get her braces on. The whole process is only going to take about a year.

 Can you see her white knuckle grip on the chair? She was so nervous that it was going to hurt even though I kept telling her it wouldn't. 

No, she wasn't scared to death. ;) They are drying her teeth to cement the expander in.



All done! And it didn't even hurt!


So now every night for the next 6-8 weeks we will turn that little wheel in the middle of the expander to spread her teeth apart enough for the others to grow in. As we were leaving the doctor told her, "It's like working out. At first you hate it but when you are finished you love the results." :)

Bye-Bye Retainer!

In June 2007 we had a family party at our house for Harris' birthday. The party had gone from inside to outside and some of the fam, including Olivia, decided to play some baseball. It was all fun and games until someone got hurt. That someone was Olivia. She was standing a little too close to cousin Trev and got whacked in the cheek by the baseball bat. At first we thought that she just got a good bump and bruise. It wasn't until a couple weeks later that we learned the extent of what happened. At first she just complained about a toothache. I didn't pay much attention to it because the pain just came and went. I thought that it was still hurting from the bump. A couple days later she woke up one morning and the whole left side of her face was swollen. So swollen that her eye was closed. I immediately called her doctor, Dr. Knorr. When we got to the doctors office he told me that she must have an abscessed tooth and I needed to take her to the dentist. Dr. Knorr called the dentist and they fit us in. When we got to the dentist they took a whole bunch of x-rays. When the dentist came into the room he asked us if Olivia had been hit in the face. We were like "no" and Liv was like "yes I was! Remember when Trevor hit me with the baseball bat?" What had happened was the bat had hit her so hard that it broke the roots of her tooth which in turn got infected. The infection spread through her face and had gotten so bad that she had to have antibiotic shots for a week! After the infection was gone they had to remove the tooth and put a retainer in so the teeth wouldn't move together. The dentist said that it would take about 5 years for the tooth to grow in. The other day however Livvy couldn't get the piece of "food" out of her retainer. So she asked me to help. To make a long story short it was a tooth, so I called the dentist, and today she got it taken out. The dentist told me that now I need to call an orthodontist so they can get started making room for molars and braces!

The Robinson Men

On Monday we went to the Robinson's new house for family dinner and Family Home Evening. We had a really good time. The kids were in heaven! The new house has a full size basketball court and full size pool. Too bad that it is winter and not summer! They did brave the cold, however, and play basketball for about 45 minutes before they were frozen. The picture is of the guys playing Harris's new favorite game Hungry Hippos. I bought it for him after his dentist appointment. He was so good getting his cleaning and (unfortunately) first filling. He did it all without sedation or gas! So he deserved a "prize". What handsome guys!