The Saga of ZimDee's Teeth

Once upon a time, there was a boy called ZimDee who had the most beautiful smile this side of creation.His Mommy and Daddy thought it would be fun to take ZimDee to Mount Rushmore to git some American histery lernin and kulcher and stuff like that there. In the summer of 2005 they piled everybody up in a rented RV and took off for sights unknown.

When they arrived at the magical place of Mount Rushmore, they learned that it was carved out of granite. Everything around them was made of granite, including, unfortunately, the walkway leading to the monument.

ZimDee and his beloved big sister Girlie thought it would be fun to chase each other around this granite walkway. Can you see, dear reader, what is coming next? Yes, indeed, little ZimDee took a tumble and went boom.

This next picture is very painful for me to show you, because I had gone to ZimDee when he fell down and checked his little knees and elbows for scrapes. He looked fine. He wasn't crying; in fact he was very quiet. So Daddy said let's pose for a picture in front of the presidential monument.Daddy snapped a picture, then zoomed in for a close-up. Then he said, "Katrina, I think something's wrong with ZimDee's mouth." I bent down to check, and all his teeth were there, but when I looked further, I found that his two front teeth had split in half vertically. (Hey, I know it's cringe-inducing, but I have to tell the story, and if 3-year-old ZimDee could handle it, surely you can keep it together too).

I scooped him up and ran to the nearest park ranger and asked him if they had any emergency services available. They did not. The ranger recommended that we take ZimDee back down the mountain to an urgent care facility. We quickly loaded everyone up for the 20 minute drive down to Rapid City. As a former dental assistant, I knew that urgent care would just refer us to a dentist anyway, so during the drive, with ZimDee's head on my lap (wer'e in an RV, remember?) I called 411 on my cell phone for the closest dentist to us. It was nearing 5:00 pm, but somehow I got referred to a wonderful pediatric dental office who was willing to stay open and wait for us. When we arrived at the office, x-rays were taken, and it was determined that the right front tooth would need to be extracted immediately, but they would try to save the left front tooth. (I'm trying to speak in layman's terms here--those are teeth E & F to me). Thankfully, the x-rays showed no discernable damage to his permanent teeth.

When they pulled my baby's beautiful tooth out of his mouth, it was me that was crying. ZimDee never even let out a peep. Here is a picture of him post-extraction, with his sense of humor still intact.We then made our way to our final destination, where ZimDee's older cousins pronounced him "cool" and "tough-looking" and made him laugh some more. God bless them for that.

Eventually ZimDee learned to live and thrive without that front tooth. The permanent ones are not scheduled to erupt until he's 6 or 7 years old. That didn't bother him. He never once complained about his teeth, even when the remaining front tooth started to turn purple, as the dentist warned us it might.

Then one day, not so long ago, ZimDee and his beloved sister Girlie were--you guessed it--chasing each other around the house when that remaining tooth got knocked loose. I kissed him and comforted him and figured I would let the tooth come out on its own time. When I meant on its own time, I figured it would happen here at home. I was wrong.

I took ZimDee to preschool on what seemed an ordinary day last week. When I picked him up, I had just enough time to load him in the van and scurry home to meet Sissy's school bus. (Isn't scurry a fun word? I don't think it's used often enough. But I digress...) ZimDee's teacher said something to me about thinking that his mouth might be bothering him, and I shouted a thank-you over my shoulder and told her I would check it when I got home. I asked Zim about it during the ride, and he said he felt fine.

Upon arriving home, I sat ZimDee down to get a closer look. Here is what I saw:It didn't register with me immediately, because I was used to seeing a gap in his smile, but his tooth was gone! I called his teacher and told her his tooth was missing; did she know that? She said no. I asked her to please look for the tooth. She called me right back and said she found the tooth over by where ZimDee had been playing, and she would keep it for me.

When I asked ZimDee what happened to his tooth, he was quite helpful--NOT. What he said was that the monster took it and and put it in his pocket. Umm Hmmm.

So the tooth has been collected and the tooth fairy consulted and ZimDee is once again symmetrical.

And they lived happily ever after. THE END

p.s. And I bet you thought this was a knitting blog!

p.p.s. Yes, those are Farmer John bib overalls I'm wearing in the Mount Rushmore picture. I was on vay-kay-shun. In an RV. With three small children. Don't you judge me!

My love to all.