Smashed Face

We went to Ruby's third birthday party on Saturday. It was awesome.


The kids had such a good time and every detail was perfect.

As the party was winding down, Ruby either invited Norah to come over and see her new playhouse or Norah invited herself (they made this plan without consulting us). Even though they were clearly tired, we thought what the hell, and agreed to let them continue playing. Ava, Caleb, and Lucas came over to check it out too and for a bit all was well.

Apparently, Norah got really tired and decided that she would just head on upstairs and take a quick nap in Ruby's bed. Somehow she managed to trip on the way up and smashed her face into the first step. There was a lot of screaming and a lot of blood. At first I thought she just hit her lip and figured that some ice would take care of it. Any kind of laceration on the face or head bleeds a lot, so I knew it likely looked worse than it was. But, I made her let me look in her mouth and there was also a cut (and a ton of blood) on her upper gum. That entire side of her mouth on the inside was quickly swelling and turning purple. And one of her front teeth was definitely not in the same place it was the last time I looked. Crap.

I decided to take her to urgent care and because there was still so much screaming and crying, Pamma offered to go with us and sit in the backseat with Norah (BVZ and Louis went home straight from the park). I am really glad I took her up on her offer because Norah was so upset and shaken up that I think she would have completely freaked out while I was driving. We didn't have to wait any more than about 10 or 15 minutes at urgent care, and the doctor said that while her tooth was indeed loose, as long as she didn't injure it further (or eat an apple anytime soon), it would tighten up again. Who knew teeth could tighten up again? The bigger issue was the laceration on her gum line, but there wasn't anything they could do for it (not bad enough for stitches). That part is pretty painful for her. The doctor said there is always a chance that she damaged the nerve when she hit it and if that's the case, the tooth will die and turn gray. He said he would be shocked if that happened here.

I felt kind of like a jerk, but I have to admit that I was really, really, really worried and upset at the thought of her losing a tooth. I know that they are just her baby teeth and in the scheme of things all that matters is that she was okay, but I was just not ready for my 3 year old with the gorgeous smile to be missing a tooth. Perhaps a bit superficial, but realistic nonetheless.

And to make matters worse, she WANTED her tooth to come out! She's been looking forward to a visit from the tooth fairy since she was introduced to the concept of the tooth fairy, and told me that she was going to try and pull it out. Argh! I told her that the tooth fairy doesn't bring anything if you lose a tooth before you are 5, but she does bring something if you get a boo boo and you are very brave. I put a new book under her pillow after she was asleep that she discovered this morning. Let's hope that takes care of that little complication.

Here she is in the car on the way home from urgent care. Poor thing.

We gave her ibuprofen every 6 hours because she was in quite a bit of pain last night. This morning she woke up with the side of her face caked in dried blood (SO GROSS). The swelling is a lot better but she's still pretty busted up. Her gum is so swollen it looks almost black, but thankfully her tooth looks fine (it's still a bit loose, but I am not that worried about it anymore).

She's talking a little funny, but in good spirits. Stoked that there's an entire carton of ice cream just for her. I felt so bad that we wrecked the end of Ruby's special day. She was so sad that her friend was hurt, she was crying just as much as Norah was. Not the way I want Ruby to remember her party day! (We'll make it up to you Rubes. I promise.)