Mystery of the missing tooth

For those of you who are observant you may have wondered if, in the pictures I have posted of Matthew, he was missing a top front tooth or whether it was the (all the) photo. Well, the answer is.... he is missing the tooth.

When Matthew was somewhere around 18 months old and still not super steady on his feet (Hmmm maybe it was a bit earlier since he started walking around 11 months) he was down stairs and just plain fell over. Unfortunately most of the down stairs is oak flooring and he pretty much fell flat on his face. He managed to smash his tooth into several pieces which were just holding together. But it was cracked pretty much right through and was bleeding through the cracks. The crack ran up from the bottom center of the tooth for a little while and then forked in both directions to form a Y shape. Of course it was a Friday and nooooo self respecting dentist around here works on a friday so we had to call one out. He took one look and said it had to come out. Matthew was way to young for gas and he could only give him a little novocaine. He was wrapped in this thing that just left his head out so he couldn't move at all. It obviously really hunt the poor little guy when the tooth came out. It was not a pleasant experience at all. But two hours after it was out Matthew was running around like nothing had happened. It took Margaret and myself two weeks to get over it.