Grinning and (hopefully) bearing it

A few months ago, in the chaos of our move, Peanut suffered a bit of an injury: She did a face-plant on our hardwood kitchen floor. Of course, both L and I were out of the room at the moment of impact. L arrived to find Peanut writhing on her back in the midst of the "stop-breathing" cry of terrible pain. We still don't know if Peanut just tripped or if Jellybean, ahem, assisted her in this fall.

At any rate, she bled a ton from her mouth, and we had her checked out by the doctor (we were actually moving the very next day). She split her frenulum -- a word I know thanks to the Barenaked Ladies kids album. Other than that, she seemed all right.

A couple weeks later, one of her front teeth noticeably changed colors, to a light purplish shade. Before I let myself totally freak out, I did what any good mother does: I Googled it. I learned that changing colors is a normal healing process for tooth trauma and that you should only worry if the child is complaining that it hurts, as it could be infected.

We took her to a pediatric dentist as soon as we were settled, and she confirmed my Googling (love that!) and took an x-ray. At the time, she said the tooth could go either way. It was either going to completely heal itself, or it was going to develop an infection and require anything from a root canal (egad) to removal so it doesn't damage the permanent tooth. We have monitored it closely since then, and other than a repeat face plant that about drove me to drink, it hasn't changed or bothered her.

Why am I recounting this story now? Peanut has a dentist appointment this week, for a cleaning and follow-up x-ray. We will have a verdict this week: Either the tooth is healed, or something drastic will have to happen. I have a good feeling that everything is okay. Oh please, oh please, oh please. I'll keep you updated.

On the up and up

I'm happy to report that Peanut is feeling much better. After looking and acting much worse than she had even when I posted previously, I called the doctor's office and took her in. She was diagnosed with a sinus infection and prescribed (gasp!) antibiotics. The medicine must have been exactly what she needed, because after a couple doses, she was back to being herself again, and she continues to improve.

And in case you're wondering how we're doing without Kleenexes, the answer is: surprisingly well. I have been diligent with the handkerchief for the kids, even through this pretty heavy-duty cold. Their noses haven't gotten sore, and they are still more than willing to have me wipe their noses. L and I haven't had a full-blown (pun intended) cold yet, so the jury is still out on our conversion to the hanky cloth.

We finally had Jellybean's much-anticipated preschool Christmas concert. It was fabulous! Despite the fact that it took place close to and overlapping her bedtime, she sang her little heart out for every single song. They were all so cute. The first line of each song was SO LOUD and then it gradually tapered off the further into the song they got. I loved it.

Hopefully we will all stay reasonably healthy and not contract Peanut's ailment, as we are going to fly the friendly skies this weekend to visit our families for almost three weeks. I even found an airport transportation service that has car seats and will take us door to door. It should be lots of fun. Already, L and I are grumbling to each other than next year will be the year we make everyone come to us. You heard it here first.

Updates

Tying up a few loose ends on a Friday afternoon. In case you've been wondering about a few things...

First of all, Peanut's finger is just fine. Not even a scratch remains, and she's just fine. (I'm far more damaged than her about the incident at this point!)

The porch light saga continues, although intermittently. The night after I blogged about it, the light was off for the night. I thought maybe they saw my blog and got paranoid. Yeah, right. It has been on most nights, but it has also been off a few, including last night. It still seems a pointless waste of energy to me. If you leave exterior lights on at your house all night, why do you? Maybe that'll give me some insight.

We tried one of the new wine blends, the Blue Jean red. We liked it and I would recommend it. It's flavorful yet pretty smooth, and I would say similar tannin to a pinot noir. We'll probably buy it again. We also like the Rosso Classic by Coppola with garlicky Italian food, less than $10/bottle.