It's the tooth

A little over a month ago, Chloe's tooth started wiggling. She told me it was loose, and I didn't believe her, mainly because I just wasn't prepared to have a child old enough to lose a tooth. But I stuck my finger in there, felt that it was indeed rocking a bit, and immediately welled up with tears.

And then got stressed because I was in the middle of all sorts of craziness preparing for my brother's wedding, and knew I needed to get a tooth fairy pillow made now also. I know, a special pillow is unnecessary for the whole process, but I have that special kind of crazy that dictates that I must have it done for the first one or I won't be able to do it for the next one. I had seen this darling thing before, and got right on making one for the Mannions. I got it done, then had Bracken pick up a roll of gold dollar coins so we would be ready. No scrambling for cash in the middle of the night here. And then the tooth didn't fall out.

We wiggled and wiggled and prodded and pulled and bribed Chloe to let us stick our fingers in her mouth again and again. No go. Then this week I looked in there and saw that not only had Chloe grown in her first big girl molars, she also had a new tooth growing in behind the wiggly one. That would not stand. We doubled our efforts to try and get that tooth out before she started looking too much like a shark. One night ended with Chloe sobbing because there was blood in her mouth, and the tooth still firmly in place. At that point we decided we needed to just let nature take its course and back off, full size permanent tooth in place or not.

A couple days later, after a couple bribed attempts at the tooth, it was still there, but so loose that every time she opened her mouth it was pointing a different direction and making me hear banjos when she smiled. And then she brushed her teeth Wednesday morning.

As they brushed their teeth that day, Chloe and Addie bickered as usual. But this bickering elevated into shoving and ended with a full cup of water splashing all over the bathroom. I sent them both to time out, and as they went, noticed Chloe didn't seem to have a loose tooth anymore.

Please disregard my child's yellow teeth. I swear we brush.

I went to check on Chloe. The tooth was indeed gone. We rushed back to the bathroom to check the sink, but no tooth. I unscrewed the drain cap, still no tooth. I realized that after all the trouble we'd gone through to get this sucker out, it had painlessly exited Chloe's mouth and slid down the drain. And I was going to have to go after it. I waffled for a few minutes, trying to decide if it was really worth it. But then I remembered my crazy (see above), and thought about the pillow that had been waiting for a tooth in its mouth for a month, and decided to go for it. I took that sink apart, praying that the trap had done its job.

And it had! In a slush of nasty water, I poured that tiny little tooth into my hand. That tiny little tooth that had arrived 5 years ago with 3 of its friends all in the same month. A month in which I had a lovely battle with pneumonia. This was a significant tooth. We cleaned it off and put it in a bag to show Dad when he came home.

We did show Dad, then took some pictures and put that little tooth into the mouth of the tooth fairy pillow and tucked it into bed with Chloe. She went to bed, and instead of the silence we were expecting, we heard tears. Bracken went in to check on her and found her sobbing over how much she was going to miss her tooth. (Anyone else thinking future Hoarder here?) He told me later that he had consoled her by telling her how it was the tooth fairy's job to collect teeth and if she couldn't get Chloe's tooth, she would be out of a job and she would die. Lovely. Somehow, though, it did the trick. She went to sleep, we snuck in and made the trade, and the next morning, a very excited little girl found a nice shiny gold coin the the tooth pillow's pocket.

She was so excited, in fact, that I'm concerned that she's going to help other teeth leave her mouth a little ahead of schedule. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy listening to her cute little, tongue in the empty space lisp.

I'm not sure why she's holding everything over her right eye, but we'll just go with that theme.