It's all about teeth

I'm very late in posting this - seems like there is always something demanding my time these days - which is life with 3 kids, I imagine. Still hard to believe sometimes.

A couple of weeks ago - I think it was on Emmett's birthday, October 14th - I noticed that Lillie was drooling and crabby and chewing even more than normal. I didn't expect teething yet, it's a bit early and they are usually a few weeks behind, but I started poking around her mouth and lo and behold, there was a tooth!! Not in the normal place, though. It's a molar in the back on the right side and poking out of the side of her gum rather than the top. Poor girl. I called the dentist and the pediatrician and both assured me that if it doesn't bother her (above and beyond the normal teething stuff) or impede her ability to eat that there's nothing to be done. Except open an account for her orthodontia. Ugh. I wish they had those plans for braces like they do for college where you can lock in today's prices by committing to a certain school and paying now - we could decide on an orthodontist now for all 3 kids and begin paying on the bill now.

When Lillie finally went in for her doctor appointment this past week the doctor initially thought it was a cyst because it's in such a weird spot, poking out there. But then we he was able to feel it he realized that it is, indeed, a tooth. So there's a milestone - one day after her 5th month birthday she popped her first tooth.

But wait, that's not all...the next day after Lillie's tooth, I took Thomas to the doctor's office for his follow up flu shot. Afterwards we stopped at the little cafe that's in the building and got him a popsicle. As he was biting down on the popsicle he bit down inadvertantly on the stick and his tooth fell out. It's the bottom front tooth on the left side. So - within 24 hours of Lillie getting her first tooth, Thomas LOST his first tooth.

Thomas was VERY excited about losing his tooth. He wanted to call everyone to tell them. The reason he was so excited is because he knows from his school mates that when you lose a tooth the tooth fairy comes.

At work that night I pondered - how much does the tooth fairy pay these days? I asked around but the answers varied. No one seemed to know definitively. I looked online but again the answers were scattershot. After much asking around and poking around online it seemed that the most reasonable thing to do is to give a $1 gold coin. So, after much discussion about how I was going to get $1 gold coins at 1am, someone pointed me to the postal machine that's on campus and accessible all night long. So - I bought the cheapest thing I could and paid with a $10 bill, so I had a whole bunch of gold coins.

I got home and Thomas was up and on the couch, so I sent him back to bed, but as he was climbing back into his bed, I asked him how much he thought the tooth fairy might bring and he said, "oh, 5 or 6". Wow. Dollars?!? I didn't press him further, but then I felt like I didn't want him to be disappointed or think that his tooth wasn't worth as much as his friends teeth. So - I bundled up 5 of those $1 coins (beating myself up the whole time for completely overdoing it) and waited for him to fall back asleep.

I cracked open the door and from his breathing I could tell he was sound asleep. I crept up close to his bed, cursing the creaking hardwood floors the whole way! - and tried to reach around under his pillow until I felt the tooth. Finally I got the tooth and managed to put the coins under the pillow without waking him up. It occurred to me that whoever invented the tooth fairy was really playing a joke on the parents - how hard is it to retrieve the teeth without getting caught in the act. I was freaked out especially because I kept thinking, if I get caught with this, then he'll know that I'm the tooth fairy and next he'll be questioning Santa and the Easter Bunny. We've actually never been too into the Easter Bunny at our house, but I'm not at ALL ready for him to not believe in Santa yet!! So...thankfully I got away with it.

December update - Thomas has two more loose teeth! Yikes! I hope he keeps them till after the family Christmas photo...

Well, better run...took me almost 2 months to finish this entry. Things are just way too busy these days.

Love,
Melissa