Extreme Veterans Day

Did you know that tap dancing is an extreme sport? Neither did I. Sleeping Beauty worked so hard on her tap dance for the school's Veteran's Day program. She, and her partner, N, practiced after school and during recess, even during some class time when their tap teacher, Michelle, came out to the school to help them. Intense instruction and extreme concentration. It was some extreme cramming to get the dance from start to performance in just under two weeks. However, I have decided tap dancing should belong in the extreme sport category for another unfortunate reason all together.

All week in their practicing, the tap teacher, N's mom, their school teacher, and I kept telling N to stop sliding around on his tap shoes and messing around. We were worried he would get hurt. So, it is ironic that Tuesday morning, right after N and SB practiced their dance, and SB was walking across the gym floor to change back into her street shoes, she was the one that fell and knocked off most of her front permanent tooth. Thankfully, I was there at the school, so I was able to take her in to the dentist right away. She broke the tooth off up to the nerve, so it hurt and you could see the little pink of the nerve on her tooth. (Shudder. It hurts my teeth every time I think of it.) The dentist put a "fake fingernail-like tooth" on, referred us to a specialist an hour away for the next morning, and sent SB back to school to perform for the Veterans.

It was traumatic. Snow White was more upset than Sleeping Beauty at first. I think it was because SW could see the tooth and SB couldn't. But, they both handled it, and performed well for the Veterans later that afternoon. I think that it is good that SB doesn't really grasp all the things that could happen as a result of the injury. She had to have a root canal yesterday on the one front tooth, (she was a trooper!) and hopefully that will save the tooth from falling out. There is still a possibility that the tooth will die and come out. But, we're praying that doesn't happen. Also, the other front tooth has a crack in it that can only be seen with a bright light shining through it (much like a stress fracture of a bone) that could result in another root canal at a later date. The two teeth next to the two front teeth are exhibiting cold and heat sensitivity, and show a little nerve damage spots in an x-ray, so the possibility that those could be affected is there too.

So, all we want for Christmas is SB's two front teeth. Which is good, because now that's pretty much all we're getting this year.

On a brighter, and much less stressful note, here is the video (not great quality, just from my little camera) of the girls' performances in the Veteran's Day program. They were great! Besides the video we have here, the girls also sang more songs, passed out programs, served the Veteran's lunch, passed out tributes to the Veterans, and helped with skits. Their teacher's class puts on the program every year. Snow White sang a solo of the Marine Corps song as they brought in the Marine flag. Sleeping Beauty tapped as a tribute to the WWII Veterans. I don't think the Veteran's noticed that SB wasn't smiling. They wouldn't have believed she had a traumatic injury earlier in the day. They all loved it. We'll never forget it, that's for sure.

In this picture, you can see that the doctor did a great job putting on her fake tooth. I bet you can't even tell which one she broke, can you?