the paquettes

Boys will be boys, and Asher proved that on Monday afternoon.

I was inside the house helping my girls with their homework, and Asher was in the backyard playing with a friend.  Unbeknownst to me, Asher was being naughty, and was playing on a backyard toy the wrong way.  He fell off, and must of landed mouth first on our cement patio.  He opens the back door crying, and blood was pouring from his mouth.  (I still have bloody fingerprints on my back door.)  Both my girls immediately start screaming, and I run to him, and lay him on the floor.  As I’m trying to assess the situation, (I know the mouth bleeds more than normal, so I’m trying not to freak out), I notice he is missing his top front tooth!!!!  Rilyn wants to call 911, and I tell her “no”.  So she asked to call daddy.  James said hearing that call from Rilyn flipped him out, because all he could hear was Rilyn screaming and mumbling, and he was wondering why I wasn’t calling him.  James then calls our neighbors, and the husband comes over to help me and have the girls walk over to their house.  I now don’t know if Asher swallowed his tooth, so I ask Rilyn to look for his tooth in the backyard and, praise the Lord, she found this:

Asher’s top front tooth, age 4 years 5 months

I called the emergency hotline at my pediatrician’s office, and thank goodness, they told me to call my dentist. (It’s hard to think clear in these situations!) It was 4:10, and my dentist office was about to close, (and they are 20 minutes away). I called, (in tears), and they said do not wash off the tooth, put his tooth in milk, and have him spit some of his saliva in the container. If I could get there right away, they might be able to save the tooth! (They said they have an hour time limit from the time the tooth comes out to put it back in.) My neighbor drove me right to the edge of the neighborhood when we saw James driving into the neighborhood!
We quickly jumped in James’ car, and took off! Asher fell asleep in the car, (probably from all the crying) and I was trying to keep him awake in fear he had a concussion. When we got to the dentist, (who stayed late for us), she had to put his mouth to sleep which meant a big long needle. I hate having to hold my son down while he is thrashing around in so much pain already. It’s the worst. And I could only pray, take his pain away. The dentist literally shoved his tooth back in and bonded it with two other teeth to stay in. It was a mess since his gums and lips were so torn up from the fall. We told Asher for being so strong and courageous at the dentist we would get him a new toy and ice cream. He was so traumatized from the whole afternoon though, that he just wanted to go home after the dentist.
The dentist said he needs to eat only soft foods for 3 months!! We go back to the dentist in a week to see if the tooth bonded to the bone and praying no infections will incur this week from all the trauma. If the tooth doesn’t “take”, she will have to take it out, and put a fake tooth in to keep the spacing right in his mouth since he won’t be losing teeth at least for another year. We will also see if any teeth died, and if there will be any damage to his future permanent teeth.
For now, I am cutting up his soft food into little bites, and Asher asked me if he was a baby again. Here is my little man, with the cutest fat lip I’ve ever seen!

The girls have been super sweet to their little brother and showing much compassion. Ella proclaimed that Monday was the worst day of her life, and prayed that God would make her forget about the whole day. (It was pretty intense to see Asher bleeding like that.) Rilyn has written Asher sweet notes that I read to him, and a friend came over yesterday to deliver a card and a new car. His cousin is bringing him a smoothie today. He is feeling the love, and I’m thankful that the accident was what it was, and not more serious.