The tooth fairy is early and cheap!

We never imagined that there would be a reason for the tooth fairy to come to our house before the kids were 6 or so. In fact, we figured that the kids wouldn't have any need to see a dentist before they turned one so we contemplated not even putting them on our dental insurance. Boy, were we wrong!!

Let me set the stage.....February had been a crazy month with Alex missing a week of day care from being sick, then a couple weeks later I got a call from day care that Olivia had a fever of 101 but seemed to be acting fine so they would allow her to stay for the rest of the day and would just monitor her temperature. It seemed like every time I turned there was a reason why I either had to leave work early or a reason why I couldn't come into work which made me feel horrible since I just started my job on February 2nd.

So a few days after I got the call about Olivia's fever, my phone rang at work and caller ID showed it was day care...my first thoughts were "what now?" I picked up the phone to find the director on the other end, so I figured she was going to let me know what I missed at the prior night's parent support committee meeting....once again, boy, was I wrong!

She started off with "Alex had an accident". I am sure you can only imagine the thoughts that went through my head.

As it turns out, Alex and Olivia (why couldn't it be another child at day care rather than his own sister?) were fighting over a toy, Alex lost his balance, fell forward and hit his chin on a table. He ended up hitting his chin so hard that he knocked out his top tooth (a tooth that had just come in and we had just gone through what seemed like 2 weeks of sleepless nights as the tooth came in!). His tooth was hanging by a string (or should I say root), and he ended up sucking the tooth out of the socket.

Their pediatrician gave me the name of a dentist, who saw him right away. The dentist informed me that they don't put baby teeth back since it could potentially damage the permanent tooth developing underneath.

Alex had to go strictly on baby food for a few days to make sure no food got into his gum that was cut, but other than that he was fine. We have his tooth in a little treasure chest that the dentist gave me, and we figure we get off easy with not having to give him anything from the tooth fairy since he doesn't know what the tooth fairy is (at least until he is old enough to read this!).

I am still in shock and I don't think I will realize how real all of this has been until he has more teeth and it is evident that he is missing a tooth.