Jello Anyone?

With the tooth binding contraption Caroline has attached to her four front teeth, she's limited to a soft foods diet for a week or so. The doctor said five days, but I think it's probably best for her to be especially careful to insure tooth reattachment success.
I'm paranoid extra cautious.

This morning I stocked up on anything I could find that would be easy for her to eat.
Yogurt, jello, pudding, smoothies, applesauce, mac and cheese, spaghettios.
She can handle anything on the softer side as long as it's cut in small pieces. Grapes, strawberries, cheese, broccoli, chicken nuggets. Basically the things she eats anyway.
I even bought her some of those Gerber Graduates snacks that melt in your mouth.
Those yogurt meltaways taste really good!

It's a good thing she's not a meat and potatoes girl.
Gnawing on a chicken leg or tearing into a big hamburger are not things that she's likely to do, so she really won't be missing much.
You won't hear her complaining that she can't bite into her hot dog or a piece of beef jerky.
Meat bad.
Well, except for chicken. And only in the form of a nugget.

Caroline's pickiness is one battle that I've put off fighting for way too long. I keep holding out hope that one day something will click and she'll just suddenly start eating real dinner food.
I try. She sort of tries.
It'll click eventually. Maybe?
I'm just happy that the foods she does like are healthy. Fruits and vegetables are mainstays in her diet.

Sigh!

Food issues aside, I'm happy to say that we all woke up with a positive outlook, especially Caroline, who was free of pain and ready to play.
We know that her teeth will be fine, but it just might take longer than we'd like, to see the end result.
It's hard to be patient. Especially when you're a control freak and want things done. Yesterday.

This is very unlike me to say, but I feel oddly at peace with all of this. Not 100% at peace, mind you. For that would be asking way too much of me. I guess I realize that I have NO control over this. Nothing I can do will erase what happened. Nothing I can do will make Caroline's roots heal perfectly. Only the dentists can repair her teeth, not me.
I can't do anything and that feels somewhat freeing.
I'm not ready to quit worrying altogether; that will never happen.
I am the Neurotic Housewife, after all. I have a reputation to maintain.
However, knowing that I can't do anything but hope and pray takes some of the pressure off of me.

Maybe it's this tension tamer tea I'm drinking?

Despite this new found relaxed attitude, I'm still planning on being hypervigilant on the Caroline's-face-meeting-something-hard-or-sharp front.
You can never be too cautious.

I'm seriously considering taping bubble wrap over her mouth when she's outside.
We'll just teach her sign language so she can communicate.
Wait, she can spell. We'll just write notes back and forth. I welcome the silence.

Craig suggested buying her a catcher's helmet to wear.
All I know is that once this is all done, I'm definitely getting her a mouth guard.
Seriously.

I figure this contraption is good practice for when she has braces.
Her dentists haven't mentioned the B word yet, but I'm sure it'll happen.
It seems like they're prepping kids earlier and earlier for them.

However, she has great spacing, so maybe we'll get lucky and skip the whole journey into orthodontia.
The possibility of two root canals at age seven is more than enough mouth torture for one kid.

Those will be costly enough. I don't want to even think about the bill for braces.

I know that even twenty years after the fact, my dad still makes reference to my neatly aligned, yet very expensive teeth.