Mouthy Milestones

 As the kids get older, the milestones get fewer and farther between.  But they don't become any less important - the first day of school, the first time they write their own name, when they really read a book for the very first time and, of course, when they lose their first tooth.  Almost a year to the day after MadHatter lost her first tooth, it was Stinkerbell's turn.

She informed me that her mouth was hurting on evening.  We couldn't find the root of the pain (pun intended) and so we both just chalked it up to one of those things and went on with the day.  The next day, she mentioned it again and this time we poked around a bit longer, but still couldn't figure out what or where the source was.  She couldn't even specify exactly where it hurt, just that it ached somewhere, inside her mouth.

Fast forward a day or so and the ache was back.  This time I was determined to find the source.  And it quickly made itself clear this time - a wiggly front tooth.  An aha from me and a giggle from Stinkerbell.  How could I not have known that it was about that time?  Could I have forgotten so quickly?  Maybe it was just wishful thinking that I would have a break from the Tooth Fairy for a little while - I mean, MadHatter had just lost her 6th tooth (and final for the foreseeable future) less than a week before.  Stinkerbell, on the other hand, was understandably thrilled.  She couldn't stop touching it, wiggling it and telling everyone she met about her loose tooth.  It was the cutest thing.

And then one morning the tooth went from simply loose and wiggly to hanging on by a thread.  I told her that she was in danger of swallowing it if we didn't take it out before bed.  She hemmed and hawed and told me to wait, she would think about it.  And just a few minutes later, she was back, kleenex in hand and told me to yank it.  And I did.  Quick and easy as pie.  She didn't flinch.  She didn't cry when it started bleeding.  She could only stare in amazement at the tooth in my hand and kept telling her sister and I, kleenex still in her mouth to staunch the bleeding, that the Tooth Fairy was coming to see her tonight.

And she did.

But not before we wrote a note to let her know that we wanted to keep the first tooth (she can have all of the others she informed me, but not this one).

Stinkerbell, I don't care how many teeth you lose and how many milestones you blow through, you will always be my baby.  Now stop trying to keep up with your sister...

For those without a Kindergarten reading degree, she wrote - Dear Tooth Fairy Please let me keep my tooth.

She sleeps hard!  I don't think the Tooth Fairy will have any problem getting in and out of here.

And I was right.

The record.  And the 50 crown piece she got for her tooth (about $2.50)  The Tooth Fairy is going to go broke but since she left this amount for MadHatter's teeth (lack of smaller coins), she best keep bringing the 50 czk pieces.