Kharma

So, Karma came and bit me in the hiney this week. Let me explain:

Rewind my life to October 1996. I am a senior in high school and needing to sow my wild oats. (without alcohol, drugs and sex, I find it a little difficult to sow these oats.) On a "wild and crazy" night we decide to go pumpkin smashing (whoo-hoo, what crazy kids we were). I go to a front door, take the pumpkin and smash it in the street. What a thrill! My friend Alisa won't even get out of the car, she totally reprimands me like she's my mother, "That is so rude, I just can't believe you'd do that! That is vandalism and stealing!" To which I reply, "Oh give it a rest Alisa, it's no big deal, it's just a pumpkin!"

Okay, skip forward to June 2008. We have our new yard! I make a special trip to the store with my kids to buy pumpkin seeds. We excitedly plant the seeds and watch the seeds sprout, flower, and turn into pumpkins. We joyfully wait for our pumpkins to turn from green to orange. As a family, we make a ceremonious trip to our pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkins. We carefully wash them and place them in specific spots on our front porch. Everyone has picked a special pumpkin and we all know whose pumpkin is whose. We are so excited to carve the pumpkins when Halloween is closer! . . . Then comes UEA. It's 11:30 at night and all are peacefully asleep in bed when the doorbell rings. I get up, get dressed and go to the door. GRRRR! AHHHH! BLAST IT! MY PUMPKINS ARE GONE and I've been doorbell ditched! I am so flaming mad. My heart breaks just thinking about telling the children the horrible news. In my usual fashion I totally overreact and can't even go back to sleep. "It's just pumpkins, Kristy." Ben says to get me to calm down. "Just pumpkins? Just pumpkins? No it's not JUST PUMPKINS! It is months and months of my children's entertainment, joy, fun, learning and excitement!" I am furious, when suddenly, my mind sees the faint vision of Alisa's disappointed face in the dim light of the car. I hear my own voice, "Oh give it a rest, Alisa. It's no big deal, it's just a pumpkin . . . " Holy cow. It's karma, what goes around comes around. Crap.

Braces at three?

Oops, she did it again. I don't know if I have the most accident prone children or what. I've still never had stitches (outside of surgery) or any major accident, but my children just seem to love whacks, bonks and bumps! Saturday, Aubrey ran full speed into my closet, tripped over a shoe and smacked her face on the shelf. The worst thing is, I was putting on my makeup and saw it all happen in the mirror. It was awful. I scooped her up and she was a bloody mess. Her bottom lip was split in four places and her front tooth was up in her gum and bent all the way facing the back of her throat. It was really sick. Her mouth was full of blood and white chips. I thought she shattered all her teeth! Luckily (sort-of) the white bits were pieces of the shelf! We had Dr. Mattinson (an awesome dentist in our ward, and a good friend of Ben's) come over to our house to check her out. (Ben and I were in a heated battle over whether or not we needed to rush her to the Urgent Care or not, we settled on agreeing with whatever Mattinson said). He said we need to wait and see what happens with the tooth and they won't stitch lips so that'll just have to heal. My poor baby. Her top lip started to swell. By Monday morning her top lip was very swollen and her nose was HUGE! I called my dentist and he said I have to take her to a Pediodontist. I took her to Dr. Wall in Syracuse. (I know it's not a direct reflection of his work, but he did have a really cute office that was painted in Dr. Suess. All the techs wore matching scrubs in Suess colors and the office was very fancy and kid friendly, I was impressed). He x-rayed it and said it was pretty bad and needed to be worked on tomorrow. So, Tuesday we went back and they put my little darling under. First, they gave her a shot that separates the brain from the body. It totally sucked. I was holding her in my arms and her little eyes glazed over and started to twitch. She was awake, but totally non-responsive, I hated it. I don't have medical bravery and I thought it was really sick. When they took her from my arms to give her the IV and start the procedure I was just sick. It was so awful to see her carried away from me. I don't know how people with kids with really serious medical problems do it. I knew everything would be fine, but it made me queasy. When I saw her again she was laying on a beanbag (picture). The dentist had "saved" her tooth, did something with the nerve and vein and bent her tooth back to place. He also had to bond the tooth to the other teeth so that it heals in place. To do this, he glued a wire from K9 to K9. (she basically has braces). Braces aren't cute on anyone and she looks kind of funny, but it'll have to do. She only has to have them for six weeks.

When we came home from the dentist I wanted her to look in the mirror. She never would, she was just too tired and worn out. I asked her many times to come and look (because I didn't want her to be scared and I wanted to be there to explain what the doctor did). She never wanted to see. My neighbor Lisa and her girls Grace and Ava brought over some puzzles and a mylar balloon for Aubrey. Aubrey was playing with the balloon and turned it over to the silver side. When she saw her reflection she joyfully exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, I have sparkly teeth! Mom look! Holy Cow! How'd they do that? My teeth are so sparkly!" Much to my relief she seems thrilled with her new look. (I'm sure I'll have to remind her of the thrill of sparkle teeth when she is thirteen and gets the real thing). So, for now, my sweet little rambunctious three year old has braces! Joy.

The cute dentist office. My sweet baby totally knocked out after surgery. (so does it mean I'm a bad mom because I took a bunch of pictures with my camera phone when I was bored waiting for her to wake up?)Wow! Look at those awesome sparkly teeth!