Just over two weeks ago on an usually warm day, Chloe asked to ride her scooter to the neighbors driveway where she saw one of her little pals outside playing. I agreed and watched her go. Also, outside was the neighbor's HUGE puppy, Walter. Walter, is a friendly dog, but he is very much a puppy in a full-grown body. Chloe has always loved dogs, so she was eager to pet Walter as he came bounding over. After some amount of time, Chloe got a little nervous by all of his energy and decided to leave. She started to run toward her scooter and then stopped to pick up her helmet. When she stopped, Walter ran right into the back of her and knocked Chloe off her feet. Because she was already bending down to grab her helmet, Chloe was unable to catch herself and her face, nose and mouth broke the fall to the concrete driveway. I unfortunately watched the entire incident happen from two driveways down. :(
Chloe, who is generally very tough for her little size, burst into tears. As I ran to her, I could see that she was bleeding - A LOT. She was covering her face, so I could not immediately assess the damage, but I knew that it was going to be pretty bad. As I tried to calm & comfort her, she sobbed that her tooth was "wrong." {uh oh.} Chloe alternated between tears over her nose and tears over her mouth - both of which had plenty of blood pouring from them.
It was quite a while before I even tried to look at the damage. Once I did, I found that her front tooth had been pushed back and turned completely sideways. I could not tell if her nose was broken, but I was concerned that it may be... I called the dentist and we were encouraged to come in. We had an hour to wait so I just spent the time doing my best to comfort her. This was definitely one of those moments where I desperately wished I could take the pain for her - she was trying so hard to be brave.
At some point, Chloe asked for her blankie which she is very attached to and is a huge source of comfort. As I gave it to her, Chloe went to put her thumb in her mouth {as she is in the habit of doing}. But as her thumb reached her mouth, she got a look of horror on her face. I am sure that it must have hurt incredibly badly. I explained that she needed to keep her thumb out of her mouth to protect her tooth. She was sad devastated.
In a nutshell, the dentist felt her tooth would likely migrate back to it's normal position. And it has. He was hopeful that the tooth would not die. It has not. Her face was scraped up pretty badly, but her nose was only swollen, not broken. I allowed her to stay home from school the next day because she was still quite sore and a little self-conscious about her scabs. But praise the Lord, Chloe is healing well. Her scabs are now all gone and her nose just remains extra pink in some spots. But the greatest blessing that has come from all of this is that,
since her fall,
Chloe has completely
stopped sucking her thumb.
COMPLETELY.
I wish I could tell you what a MIRACLE that is...
Chloe had such an intense habit of thumb-sucking, that I often had to ask her to take her thumb out of her mouth while she was talking to me. We had tried all kinds of things to help her break the habit - to no avail. {See this post we've got thumb issues} Now it has been over two weeks without any thumb and we are so proud of her! We had an ice cream cone celebration and Chloe was able to pick out a special gift at the store. She chose a Bell bike kit that included a bike lock, water bottle & bottle cage, a rearview mirror and horn for her bike. {This girl loves her accessories!}
The pictures below are from a few days into the healing process. The last one is from one week ago with her pal, Alaina at their One Way Club awards night.
It is a kind of strange, now that Chloe is all done sucking her thumb
{which I desperately wanted for her}...
I am a little bit sad.
I know, I'm crazy.
It's just this constant struggle between keeping them little and encouraging them to grow.
One more sign that my little girl is growing up.
{Sigh.}
