Lost Teeth!

The reporter in this house (me) should be fired! She's been prioritizing her running and working over blogging. Teeth have been dropping - and not one word in this space. Forgive me, Helen, I do realize it was a really big deal. You played it for all it was worth - and even now, as the new tooth grows in, you still tell me at least three times each day how strange it feels to have a hole in your mouth where there used to be a tooth!

On February 28, Helen lost her first tooth. She started wiggling the tooth and worse, regularly sticking her fingers in her mouth (eek!) probably 6 weeks ago. She assured me her tooth was loose, and I assured her that was impossible since Connor did not lose his first tooth until after first grade - and I didn't lose my first tooth until I was 8. Clearly, the girl is an overachiever - at least in the loss of unnecessary body parts.

While at the dentist a few weeks ago, the dental hygienist mentioned Helen's loose tooth and I assure you, the "I told you so" look from Helen was fantastic. Now that she had a professional on her side, she became emboldened.

Not one to back out of a good story, Helen opted to milk the loose tooth for all it was worth. Regularly, she informed us that it was extremely difficult to eat particular foods. Regularly, she told us how loose her tooth was but DO NOT TOUCH IT! And regularly, I told her I would pop it out if she wanted me to.

She sent notes to each of her grandparents with their box of valentine's cookies letting them know she had a loose tooth. I believe she announced this fact to her Aunt Linda as well. On Valentine's Day, Helen and I worked together to design and make a pillow for her tooth. The back has a tiny heart where the tooth gets placed after falling out.

Despite our readiness, the tooth held on.

Finally, it was so loose that I was certain it would fall out that night, and I didn't want to miss it - so I mentioned trying to wiggle it out once more.

She gave the tooth three wiggles and out it popped!

Connor, on the other hand, not one to play up the drama these days, is so used to teeth falling out that twice, he has mentioned "my tooth sort of hurts" and then gone into the bathroom and just popped it out. The first time, before he did this I confidently told Ed there was no way Connor was in the bathroom pulling his tooth out because he would never do that.

Turns out, I was wrong. When he did it a second time, I wasn't home, so he left this note for the Tooth Fairy.

He was so nonchalant about the loss of this tooth, that after writing the note, he promptly forgot about the tooth entirely. Luckily, the tooth fairy was able to find the tooth on our family desk and replace it with a gem and a dollar. Connor was shocked when he went to retrieve the tooth about a week later, only to find it gone. You just can't trust the tooth fairy, I guess.

Elaine