Something pretty dramatic and sad happened over the weekend.
My baby girl had a little accident. She was running and tripped over her own feet and fell down flat on her face.
The next moment was a big mess of blood and tears.
She and I headed straight to the emergency room right after that.
The good news is that there were no head injuries or lacerations or stitches needed.
The bad news is that she broke her front tooth.
It was a pretty major chip so they could not save the tooth. So they removed it. They tried to cheer us up saying that it’s just her milk tooth. A new one will be along in a few ‘short’ years.
I think I’m the one who is most devastated over the whole thing.
The scenes from my first baby’s major scar kept replaying in my mind over and over. And layered over that were more replays of my own accident (item #3 in this post) involving the loss my front tooth.
A hundred whys flashed across my mind.
A thousand ‘should haves’ repeated in my head
And a searing angry pain just kept gripping my heart.
In between there are moments when it all seems okay. After all, in the bigger scheme of things, this is just so small and inconsequential. “It’s just one little tooth” I tell myself, “It’ll grow back in no time”.
But then I catch sight of images like this and this and this, and I get that familiar lump in my throat and the tears start welling up again.
She of course, doesn’t mind one single bit.
After my baby got home from the hospital and had a rapturous greeting with her big brother who had just arrived home from school, Nathan said to me…
“Mummy, Grace is so beautiful.”
And I cried. Because it was so, so true.
Sigh.
I guess we’ll just be singing this song for a few extra Christmases for Grace.
![[image%255B6%255D.png]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgklTcgdp4ShiuQFXLk9XWEUawGTavh-b5e48CCxOF8lfmadTD_nvl09fLGF8KTblHJSkUilWdkIG4YzBdQnQZvjN0ENv8W-I74RTVTI40g8YPzAr3cJpD__khQpvH6CAVYg_piGw/s1600/image%255B6%255D.png)
![DSC06501A_thumb[1]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKrS5bShBTbRbdHdNATztRt1iTHkM1k1lM8f5DfxA6qCmGyLSaig1LW7BHAnrZnD_F0P4o-bh7ZFGNf4RdtzM3cTY26f6HLcGmrbmL-MQT3u3N2iVJ1JZKqdUgoirav8eppFwVeg//?imgmax=800)
And thousands of ' whys' and ' what ifs' will keep ringing in your ears each time you see that toothless grin. And you console yourself : "This too shall pass." Children are resilient. It's hard on the parents and yes, one day, years from now you too will look back and say : :I survived it all." No pearls of wisdom from me but just to say : "Hang in there, Love!"
ReplyDeleteShe has been so resilient. Didn't even phase her one bit. Maybe she can pull off that tough gangster look with that gap toothed smile. Or that's what I try to imagine!
DeleteOh, dear, dear friend! Emeth chipped her front tooth as well. I remember the HORROR that swept over me, seeing the blood and the tiny piece of tooth. Ugh. And a few days later, the rest of the tooth turned gray. Hanan, too, fell on his face. knocked his tooth out of place. Here are some hugs for you, dear friend. =( Nathan is so sweet to see his sister as she is -- beautiful, now and always. <3
ReplyDeleteOh Irene! I feel strangely comforted knowing that you went through almost the exact same thing. I feel kinda bad dsaying that because of course such a thing should not have happened. I sometimes felt like a bad mother or wonder if there was something fundamentally wrong with our house that such a thing could happen. But knowing that someone close to me had the same thing happen makes it feel slightly less catastrophic.
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