I took this portrait of Leif early in his 15th month. I was inspired by a local photographer to use his quilt as a backdrop, which is a little distracting because it's patchwork. But, I still love this photo, and his beautiful smile. I especially love it because it is one of the last images with his perfect little front teeth. Unfortunately, this past weekend Leif chipped his front tooth. We're actually not exactly sure when it happened. As far as we can tell, he was crawling in the house pushing a large ball, and he must have had his weight on the ball and it slipped out from underneath him. He must have hit his mouth on the threshold piece between 2 rooms, or maybe his teeth hit together. I was nearby, and picked him up because he cried, and he was holding his mouth, but would not let me see it. There was no blood and he stopped crying, so I let him keep playing. A little while later, he was walking around and playing with his front teeth with his tongue, and when he pulled his tongue back, I caught sight of his broken tooth.
When it happened, I was hoping that we would be able to rebuild his tooth, and move on, but it seems as though we will have to get used to his broken tooth smile, at least for the next few years. According to the dentist, if we rebuild the tooth, it will inevitably chip off again and again taking more of the enamel from the baby tooth and eventually the tooth will die. In fact, the tooth may die just from this trauma, so at this point, I'm just hoping he'll be able to keep his tooth, and we can all rejoice in 5 years or so when he gets his normal adult front tooth!
