Share her pain

Our lives are not the paradise it may seem here at Prairie Sings.  Sure, we have chickens, heavy machinery, and woods with wild animals that might eat our children.  And I am blessed with a husband tolerant of a little thieving now and then.    But we have had our burdens —– death, destruction, near-destruction, blood, trauma, tears and red clay.

Always the red clay.

Lots and lots of red clay.

The death, destruction and blood may wax and wane, but the red clay remains constant. 

But more about dirt later.  This post is about trauma and blood, tears and destruction.

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And about a little girl.

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I am preparing you for the shock.  And giving warning ——– you may not want to see the first photo (though the last photo is exceedingly cute and will make up for the unpleasantness of the first).

This first picture will make you cringe.  Your stomach will clench.

It is unlikely you will be able to stem the impulse to rub the tip of your tongue across your top front teeth.

I am giving you every opportunity to turn.  away.   from.   your.   computer.  now.

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Okay, okay, just in case some of you are reading this too early in the morning, half-asleep . . . . . . .

or for those who read in the middle of the day, but habitually skim instead of savoring my word-craft (heathens) . . . . . .

let me give you a preview of what is to come . . . . . .

Those white things are teeth.  Look closely. 

Can you distinguish the roots, the parts that should be firmly entrenched in pink gums?  The roots make up more than half the tooth.

I should add that these teeth were not loose.  Before Sunday evening, they were fully-operational biters.  Then, a little girl decided to jump on a rebounder that was placed beside a window . . . . . . . . . a window with a window sill . . . . . . . .

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Stay strong now.  You have come this far.  This is the worst picture.  They get better.

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See?  Isn’t she gorgeous?  Even with 2 bloody, gaping holes in her mouth.  This picture was taken the same evening, maybe 2 hours after the incident.

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Sidney, Lincoln and Rachel were still traumatized the next day, but Prairie was essentially over it in about an hour (three-fourths of that hour was spent sleeping peacefully on Sid’s chest).

She’s a tough girl.

And an officially retired thumb-sucker.  She hasn’t tried putting thumb to mouth since the incident, though she has curled her hand and rested it against her chin.

And finally, finally, Prairie is ahead of her older sister in something —– Rachel’s upper front teeth are still barely hanging in there.