tooth trauma

It's taken me nearly a week to recover from *my* trauma enough to finally post about it.

On Sunday evening, right after dinner, I got Olivia out of her high chair and was right behind her when she fell. It happened so quickly that I didn't have time to reach out and catch her (oh, the guilt!) and she didn't have time to try to catch herself with her hands. Face met ceramic tile. There was the telltale moment of silence where you know that either they're totally fine or screaming is about to ensue in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... Ah yes, there it is.

I picked her up and she was holding her mouth. When she moved her hand, I saw the blood. A lot of it. At that point, I was doing a decent job of remaining calm when I noticed something white on her lip. A piece of her tooth. Her front tooth.

Hello freakout.

The pediatric dentist she saw once for her checkup was out of town for a week, so I called their emergency backup dentist from a different practice. I think the call went something like:

surly: Hi, Dr. Phillips. My daughter is a patient of Dr. Carol's, but she's out of town. A few minutes ago she ... she [voice shaking] fell ... on the tile [embarrasing crying begins]

dentist: Oh, please don't cry! It's ok. Can you tell me what happened?

surly: [crying worse from hearing sympathetic voice on phone] Her tooth! [deep breath to attempt to compose self]

I believe I said something about being pregnant/hormonal/crazy and told her I was going to put my husband on the phone. Look up "calm under pressure" in an encyclopedia and you'll see my photo, folks.

Long story short, we took her in the next day. X-rays showed that the roots seem to be fine, but she has a 2nd-degree fracture of one front tooth, exposing the pulp, and chipped the enamel off the other front tooth. We go back in 6 weeks to have her rechecked and discuss possible restoration of the tooth so she doesn't get cavities. I just assumed they'd pull a baby tooth, but apparently they like them to stay in as long as possible to serve as a placeholder for the adult teeth.

She's a trooper and really hasn't complained at all about it, other than when she whacked her face with her baby doll and caused the bleeding to start up again right after we'd gotten it under control the first time. I haven't been able to get a pic of the snaggletooth yet, but will of course keep trying.

scary things

There must be a lot to be afraid of when you're 19 months old. Olivia continues to proclaim lots of things to be scary ("Oooooh, that's-a scarrrrrreeeeee!). Among them:

* a purple and green polka dot elephant toy. We should probably just put it away, because it apparently haunts her toybox and she hates when we even open the lid.

* having her diaper changed when the changing pad cover is in the wash. Tears and everything.

* green beans. She'll eat the pureed stuff (yuck), but put a whole one on her tray? Terrifying!

* putting toys away. We asked her to put her toys away before bed. Her reply? "No toys away. That's-a scarrrrreeee!"

I think she might be playing us.

19 months old!

Our big girl! These are from earlier in the weekend on my birthday and today. Truly, how did she get to be so big?

mid wave

hamming it up during dinner

She met some new friends at the park today: Oggie, aka Audrey, and Ah-duh-wan, aka Allison. They liked her bucket and shovel, and she shared graciously (as graciously as a toddler can share, anyway). Ah-duh-wan set a bad example by shoveling handfuls of pebbles into her mouth; Olivia attempted to follow suit but only briefly sucked on a pinecone instead.

I keep meaning to post something separate about Baby #2, but always end up forgetting. So, an update: I'm 26 weeks today. Baby is a girl, healthy as far as all the available Testing for Very Elderly Pregnant Ladies can tell (triple screen, level 2 ultrasound) and is so far without a name. I'm in serious denial that she'll be here before the end of the year, which will also cut about 15 days from my usual "only X shopping days until Christmas" panic.

I also have some serious guilt already about how I'm surely ruining Olivia's life as she knows it ... and mine. She finally sleeps through the night after a miserably long year of little sleep and then we go and do this? I just keep reminding myself that I have a sister who I adore and can't imagine life without, and any therapy I've needed in my lifetime has had nothing to do with her. ;)

words and phrases

I wanted to jot these down while I was thinking of them. Her vocabulary is changing every day -- it's wild how one day she pronounces something one way, and the next morning she can actually say the word. This age is so much fun. :)

uppy-down = upside down

ba-ba-boo = peek-a-boo, said in a really high-pitched voice

uht = elephant (this one is extra funny to me, because she says iguana and lawnmower and other words just fine)

ah-deh-poos = octopus. Probably my my favorite word of hers right now.

She used to say bagel in the cutest way: bab-eeeel, sort of with a French accent. Now she just says bagel.

OK is still ah-dey.

airplane recently went from meh-mayne to ah-plenne.

She just looked at the squirrel hanging off the birdfeeder and yelled, "Get down, squirrel!" And this morning when I asked her if she remembered her new schoolbus toy we bought her yesterday, she said, "Ohhhhhhhhhh! New kool-bus! Et, daddy!" (Et is how she says thanks; she always accompanies it with the baby sign.)

She likes to look at ants on the ground, but doesn't touch and instead looks at me seriously and says, "Ants alone!" When I reply that yes, it's nice to leave ants alone, she follows that up with "Bees alone!" Oh yeah. Not going to argue her on that one at all. The less bug touching, the better.

If I tell her that we're going somewhere in the car, she replies, "Mama Starbucks!" I don't know whether to be embarrassed, proud, or both. She's already succumb to the branding, I guess.

In an attempt to wean her from having to constantly hear Baby Signing Time songs in the car (while fabulous, and I'd recommend the DVDs to anyone, I started to feel like if I heard those songs one more time, blood might gush from my ears), we began hyping up music we like by exuberantly saying "yeah," "uhh!" and "woo hoo" during those songs. Now she does it unprompted -- and let me tell you, listening to your 18-month-old uh-huh and yeah along to a Jay-Z song makes the heart proud. :P