...for losing teeth

We have two different kinds of kids in our house. One kind, when they get a loose tooth, will not touch it, bite anything with it, or allow anyone else to touch it. This kind of child can have a loose tooth for months on end! These are our boys.

The other kind is the child whose tooth, once it's loose, doesn't stand a chance of staying in the mouth at all. Our daughters were this kind. If the tooth even wiggled a little, they would work it and work it and work it until it came out.

So it goes, Ms. Marlee, lost two teeth in one day. One was perceptibly loose...the other was not *smile*. However, it was loose enough for her to work it all day and get it out before the clock struck 9 pm!

Our days of loose teeth are numbered now. It is with delight and a bittersweet melancholy that I greet each tooth that falls out. In childhood, we typically will lose 20 'baby teeth' according to this picture:



Out of a total of 80 exciting shouts of 'Mom, I have a loose tooth!!!!', 'Daddy, I lost a tooth today!!!', we are now done to about 20. Enjoy those days while you can...they pass all too soon...and go into the book of 'lasts'. The last time I will hear 'Mom, I have a loose tooth!' is just a few short years away, and I will cherish that just as much as I cherished the 'firsts'.