First lost tooth

My oldest daughter lost her first tooth today - very exciting business. I know she's getting older and smarter and growing up faster than I think she should - every time I turn around she's doing something new - reading books, writing her own stories, skipping rope, blowing bubbles with bubblegum, and I wonder when that happened. Those things are happening too fast, no doubt - but this tooth-losing thing happens literally overnight. Sure, a few weeks ago she said her top tooth was wiggly - it was still really solid but if I really pushed, I imagined that it wiggled just a little tiny bit. *sigh*

Earlier this week I was looking at some kids' pictures and I realized - it should be the bottom teeth that fall out first, not the top ones. And sure enough, yesterday she comes to me and says her bottom tooth is wiggly. And I didn't need my imagination this time - it really was. I did what any mother would do and ran for the camera to get the last picture of her pretty full set of teeth for what I knew would be the last time.

With all of her teeth, yesterday afternoon

Then I went to take pictures of 6- and-under and 8 -and- under hockey teams and I am sure they thought I was obsessed with teeth. "Show me your teeth! Do you have all of your teeth? You're missing most of your teeth! Oh, look -*you* still have a full set of teeth! Are those your new teeth, or your old ones?" I couldn't help but notice. This is normal - all the kids are doing it.

Today, she was sad. This tooth-losing thing hurts a bit and is kind of scary when you taste blood in your mouth. She cried through lunch when it hurt to eat macaroni (macaroni?!??) but managed to eat ribs for supper with very little trouble. She couldn't leave the wiggly tooth alone and had her fingers in her mouth most of the evening, kept looking in the mirror to see what it looked like.

Still there, just barely hanging on

Just the teeth fall out. The tongue stays in. Usually.


(If you look closely, you can see the legendary hexagonal forest green bathroom sink with built-in staircase. Its great when you have three kids brushing their teeth three times a day. Always looks fabulous.)

Her dad said "Let me see!" and I had this horrible vision of him just yanking it out which made me feel faint and somewhat nauseous. I didn't want her to be scared because I realize *some* kids actually think its fun if you just yank their tooth out. I am not one of those kids. So I told my husband she gets to decide how she loses her tooth and he's not allowed to decide for her.

Thankfully, I had to run out to a meeting so I didn't have to witness whatever happened next - but when I got home there were photos of my little girl - minus one lower-front tooth, on my camera. She looks pretty happy so I guess it all went well. Her dad says he did yank it out, I still feel nauseous at the thought. That's it - she looks different now. This isn't like learning to read or growing out of her clothes. Its something that was the same yesterday and is different today. She's growing up and there's not a thing I can do about it.

There, finally lost it!