Wednesday, December 22, 2010

all she wants for christmas is her bottom right tooth

I'm not sure when exactly it happened. But at some point between the time the children went to bed last night, and the time that they woke up this morning, Carolyn lost her bottom right tooth.

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This tooth has been loose for a long, long time.

Our nightly ritual of brushing teeth has been an absolute nightmare since about ... June ... because Carolyn would not let us put a brush near her lower teeth and the plaque build-up was getting out of control. So, I'd just delicately floss and do my very best to not disturb "the tooth" because otherwise the tears would flow and the screaming would commence and one might think I was trying to cut off my child's limb with a hacksaw as opposed to delicately clearing tartar away from the gumline.

For the most part, Carolyn has become an expert at biting all food with one of her molars. Although that has led to her consuming food in the most obscure ways - just to avoid any contact with "the tooth." But last night, during what can only be described as a temporary lapse of dental circumstances, she used her front teeth to bite in to a piece of pineapple and the loose tooth went SIDEWAYS in her mouth.

The tooth was literally, hanging by a thread.

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Once Carolyn realized what had happened, not only did she start screaming, all three of her siblings started to scream. The pandemonium over the impending loss of this first tooth was deafening. And yet, even though the loss of this tooth was obviously inevitable, she wouldn't let us touch it. She wouldn't let us touch her. She went to bed, fully confident God would fix it, over night. So when she woke up this morning and the tooth was gone, she was stunned.

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Especially when we ripped her bed apart and couldn't find the tooth anywhere.

A few hours later, we overheard a conversation she had with her brother (who has been pining for her lost tooth so he could add it to his "collection") and they were developing a strategy that involved a cup and a spoon and how they would FIND that tooth. In the toilet.

WAIT. JUST. A. MINUTE.

Santa comes to our house. As does the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. Even if there is no tooth tucked beneath a pillow to recover, the Tooth Fairy is extremely well equipped to make a gastrointestinal rescue, while our children are sleeping. At least that's what I explained to our children, therefore - CUPS, SPOONS AND TOILET FISHING ARE NOT REQUIRED.

Tonight, we went to a White Elephant (aka: Yankee Swap) Christmas ornament party at one of the neighbor's homes. This was the extremely appropriate ornament that Carolyn unwrapped. Now, she has a tooth that she can look at - to remind her of the tooth that she lost and swallowed.

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And now, before I totally forget, the Tooth Fairy needs to go make a deposit beneath her pillow. He will be leaving a silver dollar which will hopefully, be received well. Carolyn had indicated she really (really, really, really) wanted the Tooth Fairy to leave her a guinea pig - but I'm afraid the little thing would suffocate.

12 comments:

  1. aw - how sweet. I bet the other 2 trips are envious the they don't have a tooth drop out too. Happy Holidays to all of you. Love the ornament and how appropriate.

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  2. OMG the drama a tooth can cause in our homes and what a perfect ornament. Our tooth fairy leaves a trail of glitter from her swap!!

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  3. One of many cuzzins!12/22/10, 11:49 PM

    Aw...Carolyn looks so relieved.

    She's been dealing with that thing loose in her gums for SIX MONTHS and you're not getting her a guinea pig??

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  4. Aww is she the first of the trips to loose a tooth ? Just for the future it may be easier when other kids loose their teeth to tell the kids to put their teeth on a beside table. Because boy do those teeth get lost under a pillow. It may not be traditional but there's less chance of waking up the kids or not being able to find a tooth that falls over the bed, that way later turn up found by a child. Anyway I was enjoying reading older posts and after reading about how you had a screen of death on your business trip the same thing happened to me! Everythings fine. At least I didn't get appendicitis ( another post I had just read)

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  5. I too swallowed my first tooth! I was eating an orange and just saw some blood on it, hehe. Never tried to recover it, but the option was discussed, too.

    Congratulations on your big child!

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  6. I love love love sweet little smiles with holes in them!!

    We were just laughing with our kids about all the times the tooth fairy "forgot" to come. I would always run into their rooms, leave money waaaaaaay up in the corner of their bed and run back and say "are you sure? you need to check all over the top of your bed."

    As much as I love the tooth fairy, I just wasn't very good at reminding her to come. *sigh*

    Congrats to Carolyn on making it through this dental trauma.

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  7. Your last sentence about made coffee come out my nose ;)

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  8. OMG! That sounds exactly like my 6 year old daughter's reaction to her first two loose teeth! You would have thought we were killing the child when we pulled the second one (the first one was easy, she didn't know what to expect). It too was dangling and we were afraid she would swallow it. Took two of us to hold her down so that I could quickly grab it -- funny thing was, after all the drama, she didn't even realze it was gone untl she looked in the mirror!

    Now the top two are loose . . . hopefully they will go queitly, without the dramatics.

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  9. We lost our first tooth here too! Same tooth...what an exciting time.

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  10. After the first lost tooth here, which the Tooth Fairy collected, my ds realized he actually wanted to keep it. I had him write a(n adorable) note to her the next night. When he awoke, there was his tooth along with a teeny note, printed in curly letters from the TF. Our TF note reminded him to keep brushing/flossing. If this happens again, have the lost tooth child leave a note under their pillow!

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  11. Gregory still hasn't lost a tooth and he is beyond mortified. He told me he is a little baby, with little baby teeth. It could be worse.

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