Beware of the Offerings of Children

Last night I had the opportunity to once again play the role of "Tooth Fairy" for DS. I had no idea he had a loose tooth (he had not mentioned it to me). He said he had no idea it was loose enough to come out. While I should have performed my role on Sunday night instead of last night, I can honestly claim that the delay was not my fault. DS forgot to put the tooth under his pillow (no, he no longer believes in the Tooth Fairy, but he continues to want to play along for the fun of it and actually put his lost teeth under his pillow in order to receive the customary payment for his teeth). I'm sure you're wondering what was so interesting about this particular lost tooth. Let me explain.....

Every previous tooth that DS has lost has been fraught with a bout of nervousness from him about whether or not it will hurt to come out. He's lost enough at this point that he knows it doesn't, but he still gets a little nervous. So I have removed all of his previous loose teeth for him as he has been unwilling to try to pull them out himself. Well, things were different on Sunday. I did not pull out that one. Neither did DS. The tooth was so loose that it fell out on its own while he was eating a snack in his Sunday school class at church. How did I find out about, you ask? I found out when he walked into my classroom, said, "Here, Mom, I have something for you." He then proceeded to drop the tooth into my open hand (with a huge grin on his face at the time). There were quite a few chuckles once the people sitting nearby realized what he had given me. It's not just every Sunday that a mom is presented with her child's tooth at church. Hmmm.....DD has a very loose tooth at the moment. Maybe I should be prepared next Sunday for another presentation.

Remembering....

I need to remember something tonight......DD lost her first tooth!! So I need to remember to play the Tooth Fairy. She was quite nervous about this occurrence (it had been very loose for several days but she wouldn't let me near it), but excited at the same time. This afternoon DD & I went to one of the local high schools to see their performance of "Once Upon A Mattress" which is a version of The Princess and the Pea. DD absolutely loved the musical (she loves going to the local high schools' theatrical productions), but about half-way through the first half of the performance she became panicked as her loose tooth wiggled enough to cause the gum to start bleeding. She was adamant that I not pull it there (she wanted DH to watch when she had the first one taken out) but was not happy at all about the bleeding. I quickly gave her a tissue to help staunch the little bit of bleeding so we could make it through the rest of the performance. As soon as we got home, she grabbed DH's hand, I reached in, and out the tooth quickly came. She looked up at me and said, "Did it come out already?" in quite a bit of astonishment. She was sure it would hurt, despite her older brother's reassurances that it would not (and despite having watched me pull out one of his just a couple of weeks ago without him even flinching). After getting over the shock, she ran to look in the mirror to see what she now looked like. Her comment? "Mom, I think that after a while people's smiles start to look a little boring, so losing teeth is one way to make them interesting again." Said, of course, with a big, gap-toothed grin.