The "Incident" Before Christmas

Before I blog of all of our Christmas fun and craziness I feel compelled to share this very special story...you know because I do this for the kids, this is one I really want my son to remember.

The last day of school before the Christmas break Elizabeth had a birthday party.  Grant and I dropped her off and then headed to a friend's house to see them before they headed out of town for Christmas.  Our boys are 10 days apart and have begun playing remarkably well together.  We had a few problems over the summer...crayons thrown at the wall and busting an older brother's Lego sets, but that is in the distant past.  They are four and half now and really mature (insert sarcasm)!

My friend, Jessica and I were reviewing our holiday plans when another friend Jamie dropped by to pick a few things up.  We stood in the kitchen chatting when Brady came downstairs crying, his mouth open and bloody.  Jessica and I ran to him and began looking inside.  I pulled a small black piece out of his mouth and concluded that he had bit his tongue...there was so much blood, it had to be his tongue.  Jessica sat him up on the counter and I told her to get a washcloth and some ice and to get the bleeding to stop.  As Jamie and I are discussing the situation, Jessica interrupts and says "He is missing a tooth."  My heart sank and an e-card flashed in my mind that read something like "The moment you realize your son probably has something to do with this" (as he mysteriously had stayed upstairs).  I turned to Jamie and said "Go upstairs and find the tooth!" and she said "I think you better go up, I will call the dentist."  Oh yeah, good call, maybe I should deal with the upstairs situation.  I enter to playroom and find Grant with his head hanging and Brady's older brother Gavin with an open palm holding a perfect little white baby tooth.  Oh my gosh, oh my gosh....what the (insert bad word) happened?! I took a deep breath and got down on Grant's level and asked him what happened.  His answer (they had been playing Wii) "they were trying to pick my man up and throw me and make me dead." Your Wii guy????? Ohhhhh, um....ok..... "so you.....?" His response "I pushed him."  Fantastic! He got mad over a video game and pushed his friend and knocked out a tooth.  It was my turn to cry.  Then I glanced down at the TV stand.  The corner was missing little black piece....the little black piece I had pulled out of Brady's mouth.  He pushed him and he fell into the TV stand and knocked a tooth out...over a video game.  I wanted a deep, dark hole to crawl into.

I went downstairs sobbing "It was all Grant's fault. He pushed Brady." By the time the whole event was over I think it is possible I cried more than Brady! Getting a hold of dentist on a Friday afternoon proved to be challenging.  I ended up calling my dad (who knows someone in every possible profession!) and finally got connected with a pediatric dentist.  They went in early Saturday morning (before leaving town for the holidays) for x-rays and everything appears to be fine at this time.  After a follow up visit this week they learned that the adult tooth may be delayed 6 months from when it would have normally come in :( He has to smile pretty wide to notice, but it could be 3 years before the adult tooth descends.  The good news it was a baby tooth, but that is a very small consolation prize in my book.  I can't even tell you the about of guilt I feel over the whole situation.

As I was sharing this story at a family Christmas, my cousin asked what kind of punishment you give a child who knocks out his friend's tooth.  Well....the circumstances and the emotions he went through knowing what he had done was punishment enough.  He could barley look anyone in the face.

To make the day even worse when we got home Elizabeth ran into the house and fiddled with the door and managed to turn the lock.  Grant, after his afternoon of emotions and good bit of crying himself, had fallen asleep in the car.  So I was talking to Brandon on the phone in the garage when she came out to find me and when we tried to go in found that the door was indeed locked.  Her first words "I didn't do it!!" Really doors don't lock themselves.  "I don't think I did!"  Well you did, so own it and let's figure out how we are going to get into the house because we have the neighbors coming for fondue in 45 minutes!

In order to keep all our little sleepwalkers in the house at night we had special locks installed at the top of all of exterior doors.  This is great when you are all inside the house...not so great when you are locked out.  So even though I have a house key to unlock the front door, the security lock was not budging. I tried different things on several different doors to no avail.  Finally, I went to the neighbors and asked for help.  The result was a shoulder into a door and the interior trim being pushed/ripped slowly off releasing that oh so special lock!

What was left to do other than hug my kids and think this too shall pass and in the big picture of life these were not huge problems.  And as a bonus and it was then time to burn some cheese and pour the wine and forget about this day!!! More holiday fun just around the corner!