The Inadvertent Dentist

 Let's take a good look at the state of Clara Anne's teeth.  Look at the above picture, taken on Valentine's Day.  Notice anything unusual?

Yes, did you see it?  Her upper right permanent tooth was moving in on her baby tooth, but the baby tooth wasn't willing to relinquish that territory quite yet.  At first I was a bit concerned about this--in the absence of dental care, what should I do?  Let it be?  "Help" it?  Encourage Clara Anne to wiggle it a lot?  I was concerned that I might be the source of future orthodontist's bills by not being more proactive in the situation!  But, I asked around, and many of my friends assured me that only old school dentists insist on pulling baby teeth; now the thinking is that the baby teeth (actually called "deciduous teeth") will come out when they're ready, and the permanent teeth behind will move into their positions afterwards, so not to worry. 

Well, bathtime with Chloe the other day changed that.  It was February 17, if you must know.  The girls were having a play bath, and I had already gotten Christin out and was getting her out when suddenly there was a loud cry from the bathroom and calls for help.  I ran to see what was wrong, and found Clara Anne with a mouthful of blood.  I quickly helped her spit, spit, rinse and spit, rinse and spit again and again and STILL there was blood.  I dabbed it with a tissue and found that not 1, not 2, not 3 but 4 of her teeth were GONE!  Oh my!

After the initial drama was over, I learned the story.  For some very odd reason, as the girls were playing, Clara Anne had taken a fuzzy hairband and put it in her mouth, and Chloe, for some equally unknown reason, pulled on it.  Pop!  Out went four teeth in one fell swoop.  One we found in the tissue I had used to blot her mouth, and three small, white teeth were found in the bottom of the bathtub.  After I exclaimed and laughed and threw up my hands, I ran for the camera.  Here's what I saw:

(Yes, she is wearing her swimsuit in the bathtub.  More fun that way, you know!)  Wowza, look at that huge hole!

Sister Chloe. . . the inadvertent dentist.  She didn't know that she was about to pull 4 of Clara Anne's teeth out!  They certainly would NOT have planned that if they'd known!

Bathtime obviously had been going on for some time--I love the wrinkled fingers and tiny teeth!  Silly Clara Anne!

Clara Anne couldn't be more tickled, though.  She's got an adorable lisp now and seems like such a big girl with her teeth out!  The funny part was that the bottom ones had not looked or felt loose.  But they were obviously ready to come out; when a bit of pressure was applied, out they came!

I'm telling you, parenting is always an adventure.  I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried!  Thankfully it all turned out fine and our big girl now just took another step to being bigger.  In the meantime, Clara Anne can most often be seen sporting this face:

Big smiles all around!