My poor kid. He was gummy-mouthed a lot longer than some of his peers. When I go back through his baby pictures (someone please find me a better hobby...) I have to get to the 11 month pictures before I even see a hint of a tooth.
Here he is at ten months, apparently floating contentedly out in the vacuum of space (or in front of the Sears photographer's backdrop), without so much as a nubbin of a tooth sticking out yet.
Because of his late blooming chompers (probably a result of the fact that when he was 10 months, he was really only 8.5 months because he insisted on vacating his first place of residence a month and a half early), we were told that he'd likely hold on to his baby teeth longer than a lot of other kids who started teething more age-appropriately. It never occurred to me that this would be an issue.
Until everyone else and their brother started losing teeth this year. Ethan's friends and classmates seem to be losing teeth by the handful and my kid is standing in front of the mirror like a 14 year old girl; but instead of obsessing over his complexion, he's poking all his teeth, one at a time, trying to Vulcan mind meld one of them into wiggling. Poor kid. Some days he tosses out the little white lie, "Mommy! I feel a wiggly tooth!!!" and he'll jam half his hand into his mouth to point at a back molar that is no way, no how about to come out, "Itttthhh thithttthhh one," he'll say, trying to show me exactly which one, but most of his fingers are blocking my view. "That's great, honey! Maybe soon!" I say to him. But nope. Not soon. The molar isn't remotely loose, and neither are any of his other teeth. Poor kid.
"When will I lose a toooooooth?" he whines when he gets in the car after a long day of counting the gaps in the mouths of his peers. He doesn't seem at all consoled by any of my explanations or reassurances that indeed, one day his baby teeth will fall out of his head and we'll stuff them into the "tooth pouch" he made in kindergarten (hello, insult to injury; how many of his classmates have used that pouch while Ethan's just sits in his underwear drawer collecting dust instead of cold hard cash in exchange for his baby teeth?), and the tooth fairy will bring him whatever the going rate is for little kid tusks these days (parents of any kid lucky enough to have their teeth falling out, what is the going rate? I need to let the tooth fairy know....for someday).
He's got a dentist appointment in July and he has already informed me that he's going to ask the dentist about this whole tooth thing. Apparently one his friends had to have a couple of baby teeth pulled to make room for the grown up teeth that were already coming in, so now Ethan is primed to inquire about having his own baby teeth pulled by the dentist in order to make room for the grown up teeth that he's certain are just dying to pop out any day now. "Okay, honey, you can ask her," is really all I can say. And then I leave the room and laugh for a minute or two.
I get what a big deal it is; I totally remember standing on the porch of our summer cottage and fidgeting with a loose tooth so much that it popped right out of my mouth and down through the slats of the porch's floor boards, never to be seen again. I don't know if it was my first tooth (and its the only one I remember losing), but I know I was devastated by the idea that the tooth fairy wouldn't know I'd lost a tooth and I wouldn't get credit for it (because once you first feel it wiggle, you work that sucker for days to get it to pop out) and I didn't even get a chance to look at it before it was gone. I remember exactly how it was equally fascinating and utterly gag-inducing to feel the tooth twisting in its socket when it was really lose. ::shudder:: Ethan is going to LOVE that. Someday.
But for now, we wait. And that's okay. Anyway, they're pretty cute little baby teeth.
5 comments:
Great pose. It's hard to be six! Wonderful post.
Oh man, poor Ethan! I think we are in the same boat here. Charlie has been showing me fake lose teeth for a month or so. I really hope he doesn't start making them loose himself. I'm not ready for that! Teeth really gross me out.
Late teether here, too. Jack didn't get his first one until he was two weeks shy of 1! His dentist told me at his summer visit last year that his bottom front two were juuuuust starting to get loose. At his appointment in March, they weren't any noticeably looser, but they did X-rays and we could see the permanents pushing up. Finally one got reallllly loose and it was helped along by eating a bagel for breakfast one weekend. It finally popped out last month. We gave $10 ($5 in singles and $5 in quarters, which he thinks means it's MORE money) and told him that was for the first tooth only because it was sooooo special, but that subsequent teeth would be $1 each.
My son will be 7 in November. He just lost his first tooth last week. He was also feeling like the only one. Then we found out his friend that turns 7 in July hadn't lost any either:) He had a dentist appointment a few days later and she encouraged him to wiggle the the other bottom and two top (usually the middle 4 are the first to go). PS: our bank had $1 gold coins. Huge hit.
Izzy got teeth at four months, so of course she is losing them early. Although not entirely early enough for her opinion - as soon as they are slightly wiggly she pretty much yanks them out. She has had a gap in her front teeth for 8 months- I was starting to wonder if there was ever going to be an adult tooth in that spot! I think she just really wants the money (tooth fairy leaves a dollar at our house - and it is WAY more exciting when she does it in quarters)
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