Toothbrush

by

And she drooled pink…..

Parents are uniquely qualified for investigative research.

A beautiful Saturday morning in the McKenzie household- I was giggling with Oz on the couch and Lily was helping daddy in the kitchen. Then I hear my husband say, “What is coming out of your mouth?” In true toddler form, she ran away to the living room as he tried to get a better look at her.

My husband exclaims, I think she is bleeding! As I grab her and plop her on my lap, I see that her shirt is covered in countless drips of a pepto bismal-looking pink. Following her stained shirt up to her mouth, I see her chin covered in the same pink drool and more in her mouth. After a brief debate about the color (I won) we confirmed it wasn’t blood. Unless of course my daughter is part faerie, in which case pink blood may be normal.

The next step was figuring out what in the world it was….this meant a more invasive technique. We chose the lay her my lap and use her toothbrush to help us look in her mouth. Anyone who has ever dared to put their finger in their toddlers mouth, never did it again and probably lost part of their finger! In case you are unaware, they BITE! So the toothbrush dicovered a small clump of pink behind a tooth. We lost the wrestling match at this point though and had to retreat for a minute. A drink of water to flush out the remainder and we were confident that whatever it was, was gone.

But as scientists, and more importantly, still new parents, we were compelled to uncover the source of the pink drool. She could not have gotten into any medicine or chemical. It looked like candy but had no discernable odor like candy. What would dye my daughters drool pink? Since we had ruled out anything dangerous we relaxed and began to gaze around the room.

Then I saw it. Smack dab in the tray of her easel was a pink crayon, with a small chunk missing. It looked so innocent just lying there, silent.

I realize that we are only at the beginning of stories like this and you can believe I will be honing my observation skills!

photo

Advertisement
by

Teething- a cruel necessity

20131016-214006.jpg

Teething has got to be one of the cruelest rites of passage for children to endure and they must go through it TWICE!

Children with Down syndrome can have missing teeth, extra teeth, oddly shaped teeth, out of order teeth and delayed teething. (That was a mouthful) 😉

Lily began teething when most babies do but didn’t get her first tooth until she was close to a year old. She got them out of order – her upper eye teeth were first and looked like fangs (she could’ve been the Twilight baby!) but she got quite a few in all at once.

You would never know this kid was teething while she cut her incisors, eyes, and even pre-molars! But when she began cutting her 2 yr molars and canines- oh boy! She now has 14 teeth and has 6 to go. These last teeth have been awful- creating high emotion, restlessness and even a hunger strike!

They say that as teeth begin to emerge they cut through the gum and go up and down a little before finally agreeing to stay out. Now that’s just plain mean!

All this work and guess what? They will just fall out and she will have to endure this all over again! What was the plan here? The only bright point I have to give her is that when she begins losing these hard earned teeth, a magic faerie will come and take these precious teeth and leave her some money…..:)

But with teeth come new things to discover- different foods, a smile that looks so much more grown up, brushing your teeth and of course, the dentist!

Lily’s first visit to the dentist was fun. Well playing on the pirate ship in the waiting room was fun, getting a goodie bag was fun, laying in the lap of the dentist- not so fun! The dentist counted her teeth and looked them over much to Lily’s dismay. We received a good report and were sent on our way.

Seeing the dentist may not be on Lily’s list of fun activities but brushing her teeth sure is! She brushes her own teeth in the morning and I brush her teeth at night. Any time anyone runs the bathroom sink, she races over and points to her teeth signaling she is needing to brush! I sure hope we can continue this enthusiasm!

20131016-213950.jpg