All I Want for Easter Is My Two Front Teeth

I just do not know where to begin…

3:05 p.m. phone rang. I missed the call as I was searching for the ding dang missing cordless phone. I saw the school number. Immediately thought my son never got on the bus. School called back on my daughter’s cell phone. She still has my number. I never called the school with my new cell number. Giant fail on my part.

School nurse tells me my son was kneed in the mouth by a girl in his P.E. class. He’s 6…what exactly were they doing in P.E.?? She told me he lost one front tooth in P.E. She mentioned he is now missing two front teeth. Uh…wait a minute. The kid I put on the bus this morning had two front teeth. The kid I saw when I volunteered had two front teeth. The kid I saw at lunch…you guessed it…two front teeth.

How did he lose two front teeth in one day?? The P.E. teacher only found one tooth on the floor of the gym. I was nonplussed…so was the school nurse. She’s a sweetheart — cares deeply about the kids.

The bus pulled up outside the house. I walk out of the garage to hear my son chanting “I lost two teeth at school!” Big news day in 1st grade. I hugged him tight. Looked in his mouth. He had two red spots where the teeth were and his gums looked very swollen.

I asked him if he was O.K. He said Yes. I asked him what happened to his tooth. Not the tooth in the cute red plastic treasure box but the other tooth. He looked bewildered. I asked him if he lost it earlier in the day. Again…blank stare. I asked him if he lost it at lunch. He pointed to his stomach. I said “You might have swallowed it?” He looked pale. I carried him indoors.

I wiped his mouth. Found a soft snack. He made strawberry milk. He recovered enough to bound up the stairs to show his sisters. We talked about how his oldest sister was kicked in the mouth by a student while playing soccer — elementary school is not for the faint of heart at times. She had her permanent teeth by that point. So relieved that she didn’t lose a tooth. I remember clearly the same school nurse calling to tell me that my daughter refused to change her bloody shirt. She wore the bloody shirt for the rest of the day.

The school nurse called to check in with me. That was a nice thing to do! No 2nd tooth was found at school. It’s a mystery.

I did a review and retrieval after a bathroom break. Yuck. ‘Huff said. No tooth.

My son told me that the girl in his P.E. class did a karate kick…which knocked out his front teeth. Apparently he was talking about karate with her. So…we had a discussion about what we are not talking about in school…ever again.

The tooth and a note explaining the missing tooth are under his pillow.

To be continued…