Ben vs. the slide

After a week + of being sick, we really wanted to take Ben out somewhere where he could do/see something other than sitting around the house.  We also wanted to limit his exposure to other kids/people because, germs - with a hint of a cough and a runny nose, we worried he was still potentially contagious.  

We decided to head the the zoo for a couple hours to get some energy out, especially since we hadn't been to the zoo in awhile and we thought he might actually be interested in it.  After a fun experience seeing the gorillas and some birds in the tropical rain forest, we found ourselves near the indoor play area that Ben definitely recognized from prior visits.  

On his very first trip down the twisty slide, something happened where he looked over his shoulder and managed to bash his face/lip/tooth on the side of the slide.  At first, I thought he had just bonked himself on the forehead or something, so when he came up to my crying I just told him "it's okay!" until Greg looked at his face and saw SOMUCHBLOOD.

We rushed to the family bathroom, where Greg (bless his heart) stood Ben on a stool right in front of the mirror (in order to wash away the blood and get a handle on the bleeding with some paper towels) - but unfortunately Ben found himself staring directly at the TRAUMA of blood all over his face.  Oops.  

When I finally got a look at his mouth, it looked like one of his teeth was jammed up higher into his gums (OMG) so we called the dentist who just happened to be at the office that day and we were able to have him checked out within the hour.

(I took this picture not to capture my sad child but in an attempt to be able to zoom in and actually see what was going on in there since he didn't allow me to get very close to his mouth).

The dentist was able to take a look and determine that none of his teeth were loose, that yes, it did look like his tooth had moved up a ton but that really, it's not that big of a deal since it's his baby tooth.  I was relieved to at least have talked to him.

Ben passed out on the way back, but we got him a milkshake that he devoured when we got home.

And in typical little kid fashion, by the evening it was like it never even happened.  He still has a cut on his lip that is healing, but his teeth look TOTALLY NORMAL (from what I can tell).

I keep telling myself that this is (likely) not the last time this type of thing will happen.  Time to stock up the first aid kit!