Other, Happier Things

Or at least other. Just as the siding project is almost done--days away from being done, Brad decides (and to be perfectly honest, I agree...) to re-roof the house himself with a friend instead of hiring it out. We would have had to shell out $3000 to $4000 dollars to have someone do it for us, and this was on top of the insurance money. So, Brad's got a friend at work that has done 5 roofs or so, and he offered to help. We bought all the materials, and we'll pay him whatever's left of the insurance money at the end. This just means that Brad is back outside at every moment working on the house. I was gearing up for having him around some more! The other day Brad took Leiden up on the roof to see what was going on, and then she was promptly put back on the ground. Our roof is not very steep, and he held on to her the whole time, ( I guess except for in the picture right below!) but mothers are generally more cautious types than fathers.

I took Leiden to the dentist today to make sure all will be well with her mouth. They took an x-ray and poked around in there a bit, and said everything should be fine. The permanent teeth above sustained no damage, which is a really good thing. You can see on the following pictures the line on her face. The gums underneath are all banged up, too. The tooth to her left of the gap is a bit loose, but the dentist seemed confident that it would firm up. Leiden can't bite into anything until her gums are all better, but that's only about 2 weeks or so. Leiden did such a great job at the dentist. She wasn't scared, she did what the dentist and helper asked her to, and was such a brave girl while they were looking up at her gums. She did so well we went to get an ice-cream afterwards.

The pictures are really sad for me to look at. It's a cute gap, but it's still not how my child's face 'looks' to me. I was thinking about it today, and she'll probably be gap-toothed for another 3 years or so. That's as long as she's already been alive! Oh, for heaven's sake, it's making me tear up just to type it in. She doesn't seem to bothered by it, so that's a good thing. She has started talking about it, bringing it up at random times during the day, so you know it's on her mind, but she just repeats facts--no editorializing. My dear, sweet girl.