Looth Tooth

Logan got home Thursday evening and refused a half of a biscuit for a snack. That's all you need to know to understand why we went immediately to high-alert status. Logan has a No Biscuit Left Behind policy from which he does not waver.

It soon became clear that Logan was refusing not just biscuits but all food except yogurt. And after a general health inspection with the symptoms of swine flu (oh, fine, H1N1) ticking through my mind, I realized that his left front baby tooth was crooked and bleeding and his gums were swollen. In other words, at some point between the cookies he ate at around 3.30 PM and his arrival home a few hours later, he loosened a tooth.

There were no other bruises or cuts so we called our doctor's office and they advised us we could wait until morning, but we definitely needed to see a dentist Friday. Hmmm. We don't have a dentist for the boys yet. I was planning to find one in a few months.

And...pediatric dentists, as it turns out, like to take Fridays off.

My anxiety turned to panic as I called dentist after dentist and found none of them working. Finally, I called my own dentist in desperation and they helped us get an appointment at a pediatric dentist on the other end of town.

Turned out this dentist was terrific and I'm bummed that he's so far away. Logan was extremely brave in the chair, as was Elmo, who also received a brief inspection.

And the story ends well: It looks like Logan's tooth will be fine; it doesn't have to be pulled and is likely, says our new best friend the Dentist with an Office Really Far South, to "resettle" itself.

So it's going to be about a week of Tylenol, yogurt, shredded cheese and chocolate pudding for Logan until he's feeling a bit better.

And you know what, that doesn't sound half bad.