And then things took a turn for the worse

First and before I start lamenting my life, Happy Family Day to all of our Travelmates with USAA Groups 96 and 97! We know where you were 2 years ago today!

When I arrived at the school to pick up the girls tonight, my mind was full of the things that needed to be completed before our family dinner. For Family Days, we do a small gift, a cake and a special dinner of the honorees choice. We were celebrating Maggie joining our family tonight and she selected spaghetti, green beans, chocolate cake and blue frosting.

La Nina and I had talked this morning and she wanted me to get Maggie a Snow White Barbie as a Family Day gift from her. So, I reversed my normal pick up order today and went into La Nina's class first. I needed to tell her I'd picked up the surprise and that I even found a Tinkerbell bag to wrap it in. I found La Nina in her classroom playing and told her the news. She was excited, so I went to the book to sign her out.

As I was signing the book she said, "I bumped my tooth today and it was bleeding and everything."

"Really?" I asked. I had already been to her cubby, and there was no note from the school about an injury so I figured she was being dramatic. She nodded her head and ran to the door to get her sister.

We picked up Maggie and discovered she had an accident during her nap and was in some back up clothes. The teacher and I discussed how Maggie can wake up crying and put herself back to sleep during naps as long as you get to her quickly. We bid her teacher good-bye and headed to the car.

La Nina and Maggie charged ahead of me and as always, La Nina tried to climb the gate to let us out. We got to the car. Maggie got in first. I boosted La Nina into the car and when she got in her car seat, I got my first good look at her. I kid you not, 1/3 of her front right tooth was missing. Her gum above it was bruised and bloody.

"OMIGOD," I said, trying to remain calm. "Your tooth is chipped."

Immediately, La Nina started sobbing.

"Let me see."

"No."

"Does it hurt?"

"No."

"When did this happen?"

Shoulder shrug. Not wanting to leave the kids or get them out of the car, I called the school's office from the van and asked if they knew anything about the injury. The site manager put me on hold to check with the teachers.

"Mom," La Nina said from the back. "It happened on the bars. I didn't tell the teachers."

I look around at her and asked when it happened,. Her response was another shoulder shrug. Yesterday, this kid was wailing over a mere shot. A day later, she chips off a good portion of one of her front teeth and she is tough enough not to let on to her teachers? I tell her its going to be okay, but I'm dumbfounded.

The site manager comes back on the phone. "No one who's here saw anything. She never acted upset. Did she say where it happened?"

"On the bars."

"Omigoodness, the children played on the bars around 10am this morning and not since."

"Did she eat lunch?"

"I would have heard if she didn't."

Anyway, you get the gist of it. I called the Dentist and we have an appointment tomorrow morning. The portion of her tooth that is left is wiggly and to me, it looks a little discolored already.

She told me the story slowly over the entire evening. She was trying to climb up a bar, when she bashed her tooth into the bar. She said that the bar made a funny sound and she felt something in her mouth. She spit it into her hand and it was part of her tooth. She was afraid of getting in trouble, so she didn't tell her teachers it had happened. When outside time was over, she went into the bathroom and saw her tooth was chipped.

From there it's simple to deduce she just kept her mouth shut all day. Is that determination or what? We can't blame the school, she never asked for help and hid the problem. How were they supposed to know? It isn't like she took a big spill.

Anyway, we'll get the prognosis on the tooth tomorrow and for now, our daughter resembles a hockey player.

And poor Maggie, I should be writing something nice about how she's blossomed over the past two years (and she really has), but instead, she's relegated to a bit part in her sister's drama.