The tooth had wobbled for weeks. Then at a regular trip to the dentist a couple of weeks ago, the dentist said “feel free to keep wobbling that tooth and playing with it as much as you want. It’s about ready to come out.”
My memories of getting teeth pulled involved small hand tools, my grandfather reached into my small mouth with a pair of pliers, straight from his toolbox and unsanitized, and yanked them out. We suggested this to the little man but, understandably, he didn’t take us up on the offer. So we waited patiently until it was hanging on by the tiniest of threads. All it took was a tissue and a quick tug and out it popped.
The little man shrieked with excitement as he examined the tiny tooth in his hands. He then rushed to the bathroom mirror to check out the new gap in his smile.
We found a small Lego box to put to the tooth in so that the Tooth Fairy could actually find it in the middle of the night. My brief market research study on the going rate for the Tooth Fairy seemed to show that a £1 coin was fair market value. (Though there were certainly some outliers in my survey with some well posh Tooth Fairies.) We clearly have some work to do educating the little man about how money works. In the morning he was excited to show me that the Tooth Fairy had swapped his tooth for a coin but it was also clear he’d rather her just leave him some Lego.
But in the midst of all the excitement around his first visit from the Tooth Fairy, I couldn’t help but feel a small sense of loss. The years are ticking by so fast and he’s growing up. Baby teeth move over, it’s time to make room for the big teeth.
+++++
This Everyday Moments post is part of a regular photographer’s blog circle that I join. Through images, we share moments that celebrate the everyday adventures that make up our lives. Please follow our circle around to see what Everyday Moments Erin captured this month.
