Wednesday, February 02, 2011

headless & almost toothless

*okay, so the word "toothless" really isn't that accurate, but it sounded good in the title, so there you go.



tristan has only recently become very interested in drawing. i think his cousin sarah got him into it when she visited because she loves to draw and is very good at it. i wouldn't say tristan is terribly good at it yet, but he is practicing a lot and its fun to see his imagination take the form of illustrations. yesterday he brought this picture upstairs to show me and josh. he pointed out who everyone was (mommy, sam, daddy and tristan) and, when josh asked if tristan was a stick, he replied "no, i look like a gun." ...i tell ya, boys and guns, they must learn all about them in-utero because samuel is already picking up random pointy objects and making shooting noises....but that is a whole other post.

so, then i noticed that it seemed tristan had drawn a frown on josh's face rather than a smile. i asked tristan, "is daddy sad?" "yes", he replied, "you, sam and daddy are sad." "Why?" "you are all very sad because i don't have a head." both josh and i burst into laughter and couldn't stop, which made tristan a bit perturbed. we had to assure him that we weren't laughing at him, but that he had drawn a very funny picture.



having a blog is handy for all sorts of reasons, but i especially love the fact that if i ever forget when something happened in the last 6 years, i can just do a quick search on my blog to find out. i was surprised to find that tristan fell and hit his front tooth only 6 months ago; i had thought that it was longer ago than that. last month, josh noticed that the area on his gums above his "grey tooth" was looking almost blistery. it went away and then reappeared, so we had josh's mom (who works for a dentist) take a look at it. she immediately made an appointment for him and, a week ago, he had another x-ray that showed that not only is his tooth pretty much dead, but he has an infection in his gums. he was put on antibiotics and we were given a referral to go have his tooth pulled. before the dentist left the room, he mentioned that the root of the tooth is pretty far gone, so he said that it may be quite easy for us to pull it out ourselves.

and so we've been wiggling. well, not we exactly, because just thought of wiggling a loose tooth is enough to make me gag. i'm very queasy about things like that for some reason. josh has been wiggling the tooth and tristan tries to, but its been a whole week now and it doesn't seem like its gotten very loose at all. which means.....i have to make an appointment for him to get it extracted. ugh. i've no idea how it will go, if he'll be a champ, or be traumatized for life. all i know is that parents are not allowed in the room during the procedure and that makes me want to cry. tristan is excited to put his tooth under his pillow like his big cousins do and he asks me every day if we can go to the dentist RIGHT NOW to get his tooth out. i'm thankful that he isn't frightened of it yet, but i have a feeling that the tears will start once we get there and he realizes that it may hurt and that mommy won't be there to hold his hand. any advice on how to prepare your children for a painful procedure would be appreciated!

8 comments:

Kathy said...

I love kids' art! Hey, Steven had many teeth pulled as a child. Poor buddy got bad teeth from the get go. Anyway, it always seemed like no big deal to him. I hope it is the same for your boy.

Julie said...

Funny pictures! Love kids' drawings and imaginations. My oldest has a kidney problem and he had to get tests done on it from ages birth-4 or 5. When we went for the monitoring tests he had to get stuck with an IV that had dye in it then lay under a scary looking machine for about an hour. I always told him if he was really brave we would go do such and such or get a special treat. It helped.
At kids' dentists they usually have tv's for the kids to watch... Maybe that will distract him some. Hope it goes well. Its hard to watch your babies be scared and have pain.

M.R. Tumnus said...

Gotta love that dimple - cute smile too. Hilarious explanation of his picture. Ask him about the multiple extra fingers too - should be an interesting story there.
I have a feeling he will be a champ at the dentist.

Jessica LaTour said...

I LOVE the drawing! Too funny! And it'll be more difficult the more they learn to draw and deciding what creations to keep! (Or where to store them all!)

I'm sure he (and you!) will be totally fine at the dentist, but it isn't easy to wait & wonder!

Anonymous said...

Oh Tristan.....my heart is absolutely broken over your plight. I had surgery on the same front tooth two weeks ago and found out that I'm still traumatized by my earlier experiences. Heidi, you might give him a story (one you make up about your family) - keep it short and simple - that he can be thinking about while he's in there. He can add parts to the story which will help him focus on something other than what's happening. Although, I'm sure they'll be giving him happy gas, so he really won't be too coherent for most of it. I always felt like my arms and legs were rotating round and round in space when I was under the happy mask.

I'm praying for you all.

-Tamara

onewomanstreasures said...

Hi! lurker here... Korinne Tj's friend in BC... Jennifer :)

My oldest daughter has had 9 teeth pulled, 1 root canal, 4-5 fillings, etc since she was 3 (inherited bad teeth I choose to believe). My heart broke for her many times.

However I've learned a few things.
1) Without mommy in the room, they really are braver. I just had to believe that, but it turns out to be true.
2) I was told by the dentist to NOT prepare them for the procedure. Just say nothing at all about it.
3) And finally promise to have something really fun after (like a mcD's milkshake), this helps them remember the fun associated with the dentist.

Every time it's gone so smoothly for my daughter, and I always wonder what I get worked up about. So your little boy will do wonderful, I'm sure! I hope you can get through it with minimal anxiety :)

Neha said...

That's a very cute drawing and more so is Tristan's explanation! He sure has his imagination soaring!

I have had four teeth pulled out when I was a kid and I only remember the tasty juices and the pampering I got after those. So don't worry, Tristan will sure take it fine. Take care :)

Anneliese said...

I love how your write, Heidi!
The picture cracks me up... actually the discussion that follows is what is funny! Did you ask him why you all so many fingers?