Evan is the EASIEST kid for Christmas. If you asked him what he wanted from Santa he would usually say, "A present!" And if you asked what present he would say, "A toy!" He is not picky. When he woke up Christmas morning (or rather, when Isaiah woke him up because we needed to get on Skype with Austin), he came out and saw his new bike. "Santa got a bike for me!" We could've stopped Christmas right there and Evan would be no less happy. I would hand him a present and say, "This one is for you!" and he would hand it back and say, "No, it's for YOU!" He loved everything he got and wanted to play with it rather than open more presents. I'm so grateful to have an appreciative child. Christmas was awesome this year.
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| Making cookies for Santa with Grandma |
Little did we know that these would be Evan's final full-toothed cheesy smiles for a while...
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| This picture was taken about an hour before the accident. |
On the day after Christmas, Evan was helping me make dinner in the kitchen. He was standing on a chair by the counter and I had turned to stir something on the stove. He turned around on the chair and the chair tipped over. He fell forward and hit his mouth on another chair. I saw the whole thing and quickly picked him up. I first checked his head/shunt area and saw it was all clean so I thought we were in the clear. Then I noticed a spot of blood on the floor. I looked back up at Evan's face and noticed his mouth was bleeding. I opened his mouth and immediately yelled for Isaiah to come over from the other room. There was tons of blood and I could see one tooth hanging. Isaiah came over to lay him down and clean up his mouth. Evan was able to spit out some blood and the tooth that was hanging. I paced the kitchen, not knowing what to do or how to help. "Is it just one tooth?" I asked Isaiah. He shook his head. "Is it two?" He nodded. I cried.
I called Evan's dentist's emergency line (since this was after hours) and left a message. Next I called my mom. She called an uncle who is a dentist. He had me call him to explain the situation and for him to walk us through everything. He confirmed what I already thought--that there wasn't much we could do about the missing teeth. For now we needed to keep Evan comfortable, and then as soon as we could get into the dentist for x-rays we would be able to better assess the situation. After I hung up with him, Evan's dentist called back and told us he could meet us at the office immediately. We went and took x-rays which revealed that the second front tooth had been pushed up into the gums but was not affecting the permanent tooth above it. Everything permanent still looked good. The tooth that is up in his gums should eventually make its way down, a little crooked and maybe gray. The gums will heal. And we will wait, toothless, until the permanent teeth make their way down, and enjoy gummy cheesy smiles for the next few years.
Evan got a crash course on the Tooth Fairy on the way home from the dentist.
Isaiah made a run to the store to get soft foods for him to eat.
Family Reunion:
The next day was our family reunion near San Diego. We were maybe a little crazy to decide to go with such a little baby and then with Evan's tooth situation. I figured the baby would sleep most of the time, and that Evan would have top-notch dental care by any one of my 100 relatives who are dentists. Minus a few screaming sessions from Seth during the drive, that was mostly the case. We enjoyed spending a few days with family. Grandma and Grandpa loved spoiling Evan.
If anyone knows anything about Evan, it is that he LOVES temples. Everything that is a pile is a temple ("Make my cereal a tall, tall temple."). Every tall building is a temple. He looks at his temple book daily and talks about getting married in the temple and which temple is the "tall, tall, tallest ever" and how the temple has a steeple and "Angel Roroni up top" and on and on. Therefore, the highlight of his trip was visiting the Los Angeles temple on our way home. I think it surpassed his expectations and he did NOT want to leave.
New Normal:
Evan's recovery was slow--lots of blood, crying, ibuprofen, sleepless nights, bad breath, colorful gums, falls to the mouth that re-opened the bleeding, more tears... But now he's healing really well, the gums are mostly pink again, and I'm relieved that he's back to smiling, even if it's a little different smile now. Sometimes I feel like he can't catch a break, but this kid is seriously tough. He has not complained about his teeth missing or how it's hard to eat some foods. He just deals with it. I try to give him extra love (sometimes in the form of balloons and candy) because goodness knows he deserves it.
Everyone asks about Seth. "How is he doing?" Well, he's cranky quite a bit and no, of course he's not sleeping through the night. But when he's not crying I absolutely adore him and stare at him and love him. Some people are surprised by how dark he is, but I think he is seriously identical to Evan as an infant. (okay, minus Evan's oxygen tube and giant head.) Take a look.
I got a new point-and-shoot camera for Christmas to have something a little more portable than our "fancy camera." One bonus is that Evan is now learning how to take pictures so Isaiah and I can be featured more prominently on the blog. Here's a few normal-life pictures from this month. Hopefully I don't have to specify which pictures were taken by Evan.
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| Regression, much? |
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| All 3 Hudson cousins |
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