mother of the year update

Well I think I'm out of the running for MOTY. This afternoon after church, Mac and I were having a little wrestling match where I got to practice the WWF (formerly World Wrestling Federation, not the World Wildlife Fund) moves from childhood wrestling matches with my brother.

While we were in a wrestling maneuver, Mac had his mouth open and I noticed something wrong with one of his canine teeth. We immediately stopped wrestling and I got him to open his mouth where I saw the most distressing thing of my parenthood: he has a tooth growing out of his gum over a baby tooth that's still in place.

This tooth has not just broken through, so this means that I, formerly in the running for MOTY, have missed the most significant mishap in my child's oral health. I think I'm going to have to go back to brushing his teeth for him.

And beyond the inevitable loss of the MOTY tiara, the tooth just looks terrible and abnormal. If we'd given that tooth another few days, it would probably be a buck canine tooth and who has those???

I panicked but stopped myself from calling the pediatric dentist's emergency number. This, after all, probably doesn't constitute an emergency for him, although I'm seeing an extraction coming tomorrow which is emergency for me.

I asked Mac if he'd noticed this excess of teeth and he said he had, but he hadn't told me because he didn't want me to get mad. I think (hope?) the real truth is that he knows one of those teeth has to come out and it's not going to be easy since that baby tooth is not loose.

I checked out the other canine and I think it looks like that permanent tooth might be trying to push out there as well. Are in for 2 extractions? We shall surely both need tranquilizers to get through this.

We were just at the dentist's office in early January for the 6-month cleaning. I can't remember if they did x-rays at that time, but after hearing stories from my mother about extra teeth having to be taken out of my brother's mouth and Jimmy's mom saying they have a family history of extra rows of teeth, I'm thinking we need to do some more x-rays pronto to see what we have up there. I foresaw orthodontia in our future, but I didn't foresee double teeth. It's really horrific.

I shall keep you posted after we visit the dentist. But you can cancel your tickets to my coronation.