Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Toothless in San Francisco

Except not really toothless.  And not really in San Francisco.  But somehow "bottom three teeth out in small town Nor Cal" didn't have quite the same ring to it.

Not sure how I've neglected to update the blog (oh, yes I am--I've been at the pooooooool!), but my "I'll never lose a tooth in my whole entire life" drama-king son has managed in the past 2 weeks to shed teeth like a post-partum mother sheds hair.  THREE in two weeks just "poof!" jumped out of his mouth.

The first one managed to hold off until we got home from vacation, but as we were driving home from our first day of camp on July 9th, I heard "Mommy!!!! My tooth just came out!" squealed from the backseat, and then was instructed to hold out my hand so he could drop his tiny little bloody tooth into my palm.  Oh the gifts they give us, right?

So we tucked that tooth into the little touch pillow pouch he made at kindergarten last year & awaited the arrival of the tooth fairy while Ethan shoved his tongue through the gap made by the missing tooth obsessively for the following eight hours until bedtime.

Turns out the tooth fairy is pretty flush these days.  I remember being pretty ecstatic over a quarter under my pillow the next morning.  Lets just say the kid has made $30 in the past two weeks.  Damn inflation.

The first tooth's exodus gave free reign to the second wobbly tooth and it took advantage of all the space by wiggling up a storm for the following 48 hours. While tooth #1 took its sweet old time and made a quiet calm exit from it's toothhole after weeks of gently loosening itself from the mortal coil of the child's mouth, tooth #2 was more reckless and went out in a blaze of glory, only two days after the first tooth succumbed to the pressure of the big tooth pushing its way out from underneath.  While the first tooth could have been heard whispering some sort of Shakespearean soliloquy on the brevity of life , the second tooth seemed to be all "I'm freeeeeee! See ya, suckaaaahhhhhs!" as it took its leave from Ethan's mouth.

Where once Ethan had been reticent about the idea of actual body parts simply ceasing to stay attached to his body where they belonged, he became far bolder (perhaps because his piggy bank began bulging with the Benjamins), and when he recognized the third loose tooth, he began to wiggle it.  And pull on it. And wiggle it some more.  It was definitely loose, but he helped it along for about a week.  Every time I looked at him, his hands were in his mouth, "investigating" the state of said wiggly tooth.  Last week I took him to Monterey for an overnight quick vacation.  We spent multiple hours at the Monterey kid's museum and the giant play ground with about 15 summer camp groups and children of varying degrees of hygenic integrity.  All the while, Ethan's hands were alternately on potentially ebola-carrying surfaces and then going immediately into his face hole for a minute-by-minute update on the status of the loose tooth.  So shudder-inducingly gross.

And yet, not so much as a sniffle.  But of course the tooth became ever looser.  Ethan even packed his little tooth pillow pouch in case the tooth popped out while we were away.  You know, so the tooth fairy could find us.  Alas, the tooth stayed relatively put (as in, Ethan could shove it almost out of his mouth with his tongue, but it stayed attached and bounced back into its assigned spot in his mouth when he pulled his tongue back.  Um.  Puke.) It wasn't until Thursday night, when I was out to dinner in the city with a friend that I received a text message from Husband which contained a picture of Ethan's mouth, tooth #3 conspicuously missing from the line up.

THREE teeth in two weeks.  I don't recall that sort of rapid succession in my own childhood.  I guess they don't make baby teeth the way they used to.

Now all seems calm in the child's mouth for the time being.  Except the two adult teeth protruding into the space vacated by the three baby teeth?  They are coming in all kinds of janky--like in a "V" shape, which is so not what they're supposed to look like, right?

I wonder if the tooth fairy kicks in for braces.




5 comments:

lonek8 said...

at the rate you're going, Etan can pay for his own braces! Generous tooth fairy out there in CA - I think I'm going to spend less on all four kids than you will on one!

I'm also really glad Izzy doesn't go overboard showing me how wiggly her teeth are - never bothered me when it was my teeth falling out but wiggly teeth totally squick me out now.

gringa said...

That's the trouble with pay agreements same as with workers' pensions. Once the tooth fairy establishes a going rate, it's hard to discount :-)

Sue said...

I should think at $10 per tooth, E should be able to pay for his own dayum braces! Open the kid a savings account now and start accruing that interest!

Sarah said...

$10 a tooth-- love it! I think my kid is getting $5, assuming his freaking teeth ever fall out of his head. He might just have teeny little baby teeth forever, which would be pretty cute.

Becca said...

Teeth seriously gross me out. I cannot believe we're that close to loose ones! I will find a way to deal for the next twelve years but then I am DONE with teeth forever!