Tooth Trouble

"How am I going to eat pizza now?" he asks.

The second of the front teeth fell out a couple nights ago. I love snaggle tooth kids. He thinks the tooth should be worth 2 euros since, because of our shattering discussion about Santa Clause last week, he has deduced that the tooth fairy is me. And I guess he thinks I have a bunch of 2 euro coins looking for a new home. The last couple of times we've been to the bank he's asked me if he could have the money. It may be time for "the" discussion about where money comes from.

Then, Ben was eating a lollipop on the walk home from the grocery yesterday and, being a typical kid, had no patience for licking it. So he took a big bite to crack it and broke off half of an upper molar. Luckily the tooth piece wasn't crunching like the other little pieces of lollipop, so he gave it to me for a look-see instead of swallowing it. He says it doesn't hurt, but it bled a lot and it looks awful. I have fears that it may become infected and hurt his adult tooth below somehow, but searching for a dentist here sounds even more painful. My squeeze is in Poland right now, so I'll have to await his return for a second opinion. My friend Joslin looked at the molar, said "eeewwww" and gave me a sympathizing look that spoke volumes about our experiences thus far. It's hard to be a foreigner.