There were timtams for morning tea this morning. Yum! The children were very appreciative. But half-way through his, Fainjin suddenly pulled something out of his mouth and said, “I think my tooth just fell out!”
“Really?!” I was surprised, because he hadn’t mentioned a wiggly tooth at all. “Come here, let me see.”
He put the rest of the timtam in his mouth, and came over. I sighed. Now he had a mouth full of chocolately caramelly biscuity crumbs. I gave him a Look, and he giggled and looked abashed. When he’d finished, I asked him to open his mouth so I could see. He opened wide and stuck his tongue out – so I couldn’t see his bottom teeth. The thing in his hand certainly looked like a little tooth. Eventually I got to see his bottom teeth, and sure enough one of the front ones is missing.
I asked if it had been wiggly, and he said no. He didn’t seem in the least upset, more amused and rather pleased. It turns out that lots of other kids in his class have lost several teeth already, and he was feeling left out. Having lost one now he feels much more grown-up; it is a rite of passage. I just hope the Tooth Fairy remembers to come tonight. Ahem.
Meanwhile, things have been a bit shaky around here. Yesterday at 2:30pm we had a 6.6 “severe” earthquake, which shook our house pretty hard and knocked some light things off shelves. I was home with a friend visiting, the children were at school, and The Dad was at work.
My friend was very worried about her daughter at kindergarten, so we left almost immediately after the shaking stopped. That meant we didn’t feel the 5.7 aftershock just a few minutes later – you’re much less likely to feel a quake when you’re moving around. But more things were on the floor when we got back home!
Pearl hadn’t felt the quake, she was walking somewhere, but Fainjin & Babess had and their classes had done “turtles” very well I’m told. The school evacuated onto their fields and playground after the shaking, then returned to classrooms to collect their bags and be dismissed at the usual time. I did notice that there were more parents there earlier than usual – like me!
Our friends came home with us, for the company, and we took refuge in cups of tea for the mums and gingerbread men, lego and children’s TV for the kids. The Dad had left work early, but didn’t get home for nearly three hours because of traffic chaos in the city as everyone tried to leave at once. Luckily we were able to keep in contact and knew that we were all safe even if we weren’t together.
At 5:30pm there was another big shake – 6.0 and severe – that had all of us at home back in doorways and under tables being “turtles” again. The Dad was nearly home at that point, stopped at traffic lights, and felt the car rocking. He saw a woman in the car ahead of him put on her handbrake and get out of her car, looking very uncertain about what to do.
The children have been remarkably settled. We had a big shake a month ago, and Babess was very upset by that, refusing to go to the toilet by herself and waking at night for weeks – she’d only just stopped again, so I was worried we might be back to square one. But apart from wanting me to escort her to the loo a couple of times, she has been fine. Pearl woke at 2am and told me there had been another earthquake, but it was a much quieter night than I dared hope.
We expect days and weeks of more aftershocks – and are very thankful that, like last month, there seem to have been no injuries caused by these quakes. There has been property damage and there will be disruption, but let’s hope this is the worst of it.
© UpsideBackwards 2013.
Just before 7am, there was another report about the quake – 7.4 they said, it was later downgraded to 7.1 – and then a music break. The Dad laughed at the first note. It took me a few seconds longer to recognise The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations”. About half-way through the song, the announcer apologised and changed to another song… I suppose someone hadn’t really looked at the playlist before pushing the button.
