Thursday morning, on the way to school, I was caught completely off guard. What started out as nervous whining from the backseat, soon became full fledged tears. I couldn’t imagine what had happened that was so upsetting. Just a minute before, everyone was quietly listening to music on the radio. I checked my rearview mirror and asked what was wrong.
I could barely make it out between sobs, but finally I understood Savannah to be saying, “It’s bad Mommy. It’s bad.” She was holding her mouth. “What’s bad?”, I asked.
“My teeth are breaking!!!” (cue lots more crying here)
Oh crap! I knew immediately that she must have a loose tooth and I was so mad at myself for not preparing her for it. It may seem silly, but I can still remember with vivid details the day I lost my first tooth. It terrified me! I was brushing my teeth in the tiny bathroom of my parents first home. I looked down and saw my tooth stuck in between the bristles of my toothbrush. I began to cry and went to find my mom who was standing at our kitchen sink. I felt completely devastated. And I had promised myself that my kids would not be surprised when they started to loose their baby teeth.
So much for that idea!
She calmed down in time for school and I came home to an empty house for a few hours. I kept thinking about those sweet little baby teeth. So tiny. So perfect, all in a row. Ugh, it made me so sad! It was the second time in a week I felt like she was really growing up.
The first time was last weekend at Papa Jim’s house. We were playing out on the swingset when Papa called my cell phone to let me know he was down at the barn with Grandmother (his mom). He said he would come to pick us up, but I told him not to worry about it, we would just walk on over.
The barn is a pretty good distance from the house, and as the kids and I headed that way, Emery became enamored with every rock he laid his eyes on. He and I were really poking along when I looked up expecting to see Savannah waiting for us. But she had kept on going and was almost to the barn before I even realized it.
As I grabbed onto Emery’s hand and walked with him, I had a minute just to watch her from a distance. I am just so gosh darn proud of her and who she is. She appeared so grown up, walking by herself, knowing exactly where she was going. I couldn’t help but savor the moment and say a quick prayer that she will always know who she is in Christ and be confident of where that will take her.
By the time she lost the tooth in the wee hours of Saturday morning I had gotten over the sadness of it all. And as for Savannah, she is proudly showing everybody the hole in her mouth and looking forward to the new shiny tooth that will be taking its place.
Oh, and I cannot forget the very special thank you that needs to go out to my sister. Aunt Jessica has generously allowed Savannah the use of the tooth fairy pillow that she used when she was young. I just love this tooth fairy pillow and was so happy when I found out Jess still had it. We had company last night so I didn’t bother to go into the whole “tooth fairy thing”. But tonight, I’ll show her how to tuck the lost tooth into the red, flowered square pocket on the front and place it under her pillow for the tooth fairy to find.
Oh, and by the way…can anybody tell me what the tooth fairy is leaving these days????
9 Comments
We leave a dollar, but I’ve heard of people leaving as much as $5. I didn’t go the $5 route because we have three children with a whole lot of teeth!
Of couse she will turn out confident-look who her Mom is! I think $1.00 is
fair.
Well, the tooth fairy had a ‘fill” in when our oldest lost her first tooth. He didn’t think about all the teeth that would be coming out and left
$10. We quickly learned that was ONLY for the first tooth. Every tooth after that gets between $1-$3. They are happy to get anything!
We stayed with coins…a shiny silver dollar might be fun! (We were always at the cheaper end of the tooth fairy giving — we explained to them much later that, goodness gracious, they hadn’t DONE anything for that gift…simply lost a tooth! ANYTHING was more than they had had! As Stephanie commented, kids are happy to get anything!)
That is so cute!
What ever happened to giving quarters? :)
Much love,
Angela
PS-I can totally relate. I have been watching mine grow up lately too. It goes by so fast.
Oh that they would grow and love God more than anything this world has to offer.
Love that little smile with the missing tooth – too cute!
We recently had this discussion of teeth with Isaiah. I was caught off guard too! I am not sure what we will leave…if anything for the teeth they loose. Everyone’s answers have been very helpful, though.
aww, how sweet! is she one of the first of her friends to lose a tooth? I was the last. I think I was in 2nd grade and I couldn’t wait. I wouldn’t have thought of “preparing” a child for something I thought they all anticipate as much as I did. I’m always so glad to read stuff like this. I just hope I can remember it in a few years!
our kind dentist showed Mary Catherine her loose front teeth – so now she’s wiggling them like crazy and asking me constantly when they’re going to fall out! Who knows!
here, apparently, the going rate is £1 per tooth… with the exchange rate that’s about £2.08 at the moment! I like the silver dollar idea – that’s what I always got when I was little. :)