To tell the tooth
posted in Family, OmegaDotter, Parenting |About a year and a half ago, the dotter insisted that she had a loose tooth. I investigated, I was unable to find it, but she claimed it was there, and for a week or two I believed her.
About six weeks ago, the same thing happened. Peer group pressure, I am sure; being exposed to multiple gap-toothed kids of varying ages reminded her that, hey, having a loose tooth is a sign of Age and Dignity and Wisdom. Once again, I was unable to corroborate the story, and that “loose tooth”, too, faded away.
Last night, as we were eating dinner and chattering away about this and that, out of the blue the dotter suddenly stood up from her chair and proclaimed:
“Omigosh. Oh. My. GOSH! My tooth! My tooth! It’s LOOSE! It’s really loose! I have a loose tooth! Omigosh! Really, truly, I have a loose tooth! You’ve got to see!”
She was breathless with excitement.
Being the mother, I was forced to insert my exploratory finger into her mouth right then and there to locate the aforesaid tooth.
Sure enough, it was loose. Not “teeny tiny just possibly loose, I’ll-believe-you-but-I’m-really-dubious-about-this loose”, but really, TRULY loose.
Of course, a cause for celebration Chez OmegaMom. The dotter was ecstatic. OmegaDad was congratulatory. I, on the other hand, was suddenly swept with a bittersweet sorrow. Wasn’t it just yesterday that that very same tooth was just coming in? That my baby was drooling all over everything and chewing everything in sight (including my hands)? How on earth can she be old enough to have a truly loose tooth that wiggles wildly from front to back when she pokes it with her tongue? No, no, it’s not possible–she’s just a baby.
Right?
I was almost crying there at the dinner table. We had to explain to the dotter, once again, about being happy-sad; one of those more confusing concepts that become easier to understand as you get older.
So sometime in the next few weeks, I’ll be posting a picture of a gap-toothed girl. And when the Tooth Fairy slips the Sacajawea dollar under OmegaDotter’s pillow that night, TF will probably also be shedding a tear or two at the passing of another small milestone in a child’s passage to adulthood.
(Not to mention the fear of future orthodontia. The dotter has beautiful pearly whites right now; I am quite fearful of what her adult teeth will bring as they come in. I see to recall a pediatric dentist giving me grim warning that those nice neat baby teeth, which look so pretty, are probably too close together for adult tooth spacing…)
