all he wanted for Easter...

...was a new front tooth.

A grand time was had by all on our long weekend in Bemidji. Okay, not all of us.

Friday afternoon, it was nice enough to be outside to play. Well, not exactly nice, but not freezing. Charlie and his cousin Riley are playing football, running around as 10 year old boys will do. I was in the cozy house with my mom, a fresh cup of coffee by my side. I was just settling in to do some knitting, when Riley burst through the sliding door, "Kristi! Charlie fell and lost a tooth!"

At the same time, Charlie is coming in through the front door, holding his mouth, blood dripping through his fingers and down the front of his sweatshirt, sobbing. His other hand is holding out a tooth. Or what I thought was a baby tooth, but turned out to be the bottom half of one of his front teeth. His lip is bleeding profusely, as he bit it with the broken tooth as his face hit the ice.

Grab some ice! Get a towel! Hold the poor crying child while trying to figure out the smartest course of action in the next few minutes! Do we put the tooth half in water, or milk? Let's find a dentist! Mom tells me her dentist doesn't work on Fridays, so I just start going through the phone book and calling every dentist in town. Turns out NO DENTIST IN BEMIDJI is open on Good Friday afternoon. Who knew they were so religious????

Heather calls to say she is leaving work early, and is there anything she can bring out? How about a DENTIST??? She makes some calls, while I call Urgent Care. They can't help either. One of the dental offices that I did get a hold of, before they closed, said we needed to get a sealant on the broken part, and get him to his own dentist as soon as we could on Monday.

So we spent Friday afternoon in the emergency room of the hospital.

Luckily, there were not a lot of bloody patients coming through, and we got a very nice doctor from Detroit Lakes. He informed us he had very little dental training, but would do his best. As he was looking through what I can only imagine is called "The Dental Emergency Handbook, A Visual Aid to Dental Trauma", he looked at Charlie and said, " I guess you must think I don't know what I'm doing ". We all laughed, nervously. He finally found the picture that must have matched Charlie's injury, and applied a lovely sealant. Painlessly, so he must have SOME idea of what he was doing. And so what I can only imagine is about $500 later, we were on our way back home.

We asked Charlie if he wanted us to put his slice of pizza in the blender for dinner.

He survived, and even kept his date for a sleepover with his cousin that night. He had a very sore, giant lip, but not too much pain. But he really misses his tooth. And asks to see the broken part every so often. So I guess we will be spending tomorrow trying to get in to see Dr. Bob, so Charlie can get a new tooth.

I guess as far as First Emergency Room Visit With Your Child goes, this was a pretty easy one, compared to others I have heard. But let's face it, had there been a dentist open we wouldn't have had to head to the hospital at all!

Anyone know a dentist who is looking for some new business? Because I gotta believe you would do really well in Bemidji, what with all of their ice. And especially if you were open on Good Friday afternoon.

Hoping all of YOU had a memorable Easter too!