Why kids should wear helmets at daycare

I'll remember this past Friday as the day our sweet little boy made the hockey player's hall of lost teeth gallery, along with Alex Ovechkin, Chris Connor and Duncan Keith!



But let's start at the beginning. 

During school breaks Colin is at daycare on my work days. I guess I shouldn't call it daycare anymore, cause that's for babies. What is the pc term then? After school program?

Anyway.

Friday around 9:30am I saw a bunch of kids walking past our windows and dashed out to say hello. They were on their way to catch the bus to the castle. 

Awwww… so sweet how they walk in pairs, holding hands! And I didn't have a camera! Maybe I could sneak out during the day, drive up to the hill where the castle is and snap a few pictures? Turned out I couldn't, and what's more, I shouldn't become that embarrassing paparazzi mom anyway, right?

Mid-afternoon, the Villa's number flashed up on my phone. Villa = Villa Villekulla, the name of Pippi Longstocking's house and also the name of C's daycare for little and big, cool kids. Not a good sign getting a call from them; my heart was pounding even before I answered to phone. 

"There's been some kind of an accident" Stephanie said… "They were playing, and D didn't do it on purpose, but he knocked out Colin's front tooth, you know, the one that was loose?"

D??? Not on purpose? D is known as a bully! He shoves and slaps younger kids on their way home, takes away their caps and throws them into the bushes. I know girls at kindergarten who pray they won't be in his first grade class!

"So Colin is bleeding and crying, I think you should come and get him and maybe go and  see a dentist, just to make sure!"

I want to cry, as well. Nobody is supposed to make my baby cry!! He doesn't even have a dentist yet! He's only just lost his first baby tooth a couple of weeks ago! And he was so proud, too!



I call my regular dentist. The voice mail message tells me they are on vacation, please try number 0848 555 555, they will tell you who the  emergency dentist on duty is… 

While I am on hold with that number "all of our agents are busy right now… please stay on the line… we'll get to you as soon as we can…" I text Steph and ask if he's still crying. 

"No, but he's really upset because he can't find his tooth on the forest ground, there's so much old leaves and rubble…"

Now this makes me smile again. He's worried that the tooth fairy won't visit if he can't put his tooth underneath his pillow!



The agent tells me that the closest emergency dentist is a half an hours' drive from here. Half an hour, but not in Friday late afternoon traffic. Me no like. What should I do? I call our health insurance and ask if they've got some kind of partnership or anybody close-by that they recommend who would give us an appointment on a Friday afternoon?

As a matter of fact there is an emergency dental clinic 10 minutes from here. And they ask if we want to come by right now? "Make sure to bring your kid's health care card or some other piece of ID" they say. Geez, not again. Remember the episode at the mall? Ever since that day I carry Colin's passport in my purse because I couldn't find that  @#$%^& health insurance card. Today this comes in handy.

But before I can leave, a customer walks in. Please not him again! Drives a  @#$%^&  fat Mercedes but can't afford a virus protection software? 2-3 times a year his computer is full of malware from surfing on dirty websites. In addition to this, it still runs with Windows XP which is not supported anymore. Can we still help him? We may, but I don't wanna deal with it right now!!!

I am about to leave when two lines ring at the same time… What is going on? Usually Friday afternoons are slow?! Friday afternoon, wait… I was supposed to do something, what was it? Ohhh… publish my "use your words" post. There. Done. Quick message to Karen to let her know I had to post an hour early. 


Then off to Colin's first dentist's visit ever. He isn't sick much, and even when he is, he doesn't like to see a doctor, so I am all the more surprised when he walks in there and climbs on that dentist chair like a boss.


He is first seen by an assistant, then the doc comes in, he's German and therefore speaks high German. "So tell me exactly what happened?" And Colin goes - in his best 5yo high German - "You know we were at the playground, the one by the castle, and D was the bad guy, and I was the cop, and I was just about to arrest him when he tried to escape, and he hit me with his elbow, and my tooth fell out!"

"I see. Did it hurt? Does it still hurt? Go aaaaaahh!" The doc quickly checks him out, removes the last piece of string that was still in there and then gives us the thumbs up. "Everything looks fine, the other front tooth is loose, too, so you'll go without front teeth for a little while, but give it a couple of weeks and you'll be able to bite those carrots again, young man! High five? Attaboy!" 

Comments