Broken Teeth and Halloween

I apologize for the big pause in blogging. It seems like my "everyday" is now "busy day". After the Farm experience, we had a minor dental issue with Tommy. Those who knew him 1.5 years ago know that he fell at 2.5 years old and banged up his teeth. They were displaced at the time. Lots of blood... scared the daylights out of Mommy! After a three-adults-to-hold-him-down struggle, a cast-like bandage was applied to his front teeth. It took several months to chip away, but eventually the bandage fell off and his teeth were back to being cemented in place. Yeah! He managed to keep them... but about 6 months ago, they turned brown. :-( At his checkup, we were told to watch for abcesses, but in general it was good to keep the teeth in place despite the color.

Here is a picture of my baby boy (almost 3 at the time) with his fat lip and dental-bandage (hard to see, but it puffed out his lips for months):

On the Saturday that we went to the farm a few weeks ago, I noticed that his left front tooth had a chip. The chip was brown (due to the discolored tooth). I figured I'd call the dentist on Monday, since it didn't bother him. On Sunday, I noticed him playing with his mouth. I looked inside... half of his tooth was gone! So after calling the dentist and going in on Monday morning, we learned that there wasn't much to do. I had filed it down a tad with a nail file. He has no feeling in it since the nerve is dead. The X-ray showed that the root is all but gone. Basically we're just awaiting it to fall out on its own. The dentist did say she could wiggle it out if it became painful to him or if it bothered him, but she wanted to keep it as long as possible to hold the place for the permanent tooth. Here is Tommy now... imagine that the left half of his tooth was gone. That's what it looks like up close. The root (or what's left of it) is still in the socket, but the visible tooth is down to just the right half. Kind of funky looking. In the photo, you may think he's missing a tooth... no that long skinny thing in the middle is the remainder of the tooth. (Yes, the boy needs a haircut! LOL) Oh, the bang-up on his face... a fall on the sidewalk... a few days after losing the tooth that started with a fall on the sidewalk 18 months ago. Oh, I love my sweet little Tommy, but he's all boy!

Halloween was nuts this year, but fun. Ben dressed as a mad scientist (looks a bit like Einstein, eh?) He went to a birthday party that night and trick-or-treated with them.
Reagan also went as a mad scientist, though she looked more like Frankenstein's bride. :-) Gracelynn was my little cowgirl, and Tommy was a pirate. Here they are, moments before the chaos of walking around the block. Three kids don't walk at the same pace, and Mommy was left going mad trying to keep eyes on all three in the dark! We survived though.

Gracelynn had a ball, once she got the hang of it. Tommy pooped out early (as always). We came home so that Mike could be relieved of handing out food so he could go get Ben. After 8:30, we just left the candy bowl outside (hoping the candy would be gone quickly... I totally expected the first kids along to take a bunch if not all... c'mon... what kid DOESN'T take a ton when there is no one looking?) About 10 minutes later, the doorbell rang. It was two teenagers asking for treats. (...in terrorist garb talking in middle-eastern accents... how sickening!) We looked around... the bowl was gone! OK, I can see dumping the candy in your bag... but taking the bowl, too? It was our Halloween Mickey Mouse bowl! C'mon! I gave the two kids some candy I still had, and we shut out the light. It took me awhile to get used to teenagers dressing up (we never trick-or-treated after middle school when we were young), but I got used to it... seems to be the norm around here. Then to see them dressing like terrorists or in other vile costumes is bad too. (The ones that don't even bother to dress up bug me too... at least put some effort into it.) But, then to STEAL my candy bowl on top of the dozens of candybars left in there... give me a break. Granted, I'm assuming it was an older teen, but most younger kids were with adults... I can't imagine an adult allowing that. OK... my fault... shouldn't have just left it out... but I'm irked.

Ok, time to move on. Here are our pumpkins this year. The face was designed by Reagan (carved by Mike). The other one took about 1 minute. Ar ar ar (ala Tim Taylor). I got out my drill and put holes all over. How cool!