The land of hard

I had the impression that Singapore is really green, which it is - if you look up. But what you walk on is pretty hard. We've been discovering this primarily through our children making contact with the hard. For those of you with small children, you know that when little bodies and hard surfaces make contact, the hard usually wins.

Exhibit A: Megan. She currently has three scabs on her knees from a pretty decent trip on concrete which made us run through bandaids like water on a hot day. The right side of her face is primarily one large bruise with a red dot in the middle that looks just like a spot on the playground.

Exhibit B: Ethan is the proud new owner of a space between two teeth. Tonight as we were walking back up from the pool, he tripped on his towel and planted his face on the tile steps. From my viewpoint it didn't look like he'd even hit the ground, but when I heard him say, "Mommy, my tooth came out!" and I saw it laying there on the floor, I panicked a little too!

Fortunately, this is the tooth he knocked in last year, which he subsequently had root canal work on in February, and whose days were numbered already. I'm guessing it came out that easily because the root was gone. None of his other teeth are loose either, praise God. One of our staff friends is a dentist and gave us advice on what to do (he'll probably need something to keep the space open for awhile).

Ethan was brave enough to still go out to dinner with us and friends, but he stuck to his chocolate milkshake and chocolate ice cream (by the way, Megan pounded down a piece of chicken, carrots, french fries, ice cream and part of a brownie - where did that come from?).

Tonight Ethan is awaiting his first visit from the tooth fairy. I'll never forget when I found all my teeth in my dad's dresser. What a shock. They lied to me! And here I am perpetuating it. :)

So if you come visit us in Singapore, enjoy the green, but watch your step.