4th May 2008

To tell the tooth

posted in OmegaDotter, OmegaMom, Parenting |

The dotter is losing teeth left and right.  The last one was one of the two top front teeth; this left the second one, also loose, all on its lonesome and able to stick out by itself when her lips were closed.  It was cute and adorable.  It also became quite wiggly.

At which point, it is my job to supervise the evening ablutions.  While both OmegaDad and I get the heebie-jeebies at really wiggly teeth, I have teeny-tiny heebie-jeebies; OmegaDad gets wigged out and has to leave the bathroom entirely.

Of course, it reached that particular point that parents the world over know:  it wiggled itself loose on one side and not on the other, and the dotter had reached the pinnacle of impatience.  I assured her it would come out over the next few days, but OmegaDad decided to promote the tie-a-string-around-the-tooth approach.

This resulted in severe dithering.  First it was "Oooh, yeah!"  Then it was "Ewwww, no!  Stop it!"  Then it was "Maybe I’ll try it."  Then it was tears and "I can’t do it!"  And all of this was before the string ever reached the tooth.

Like going zero to 60 and back to zero within a minute.  Whiplash!

So we abandoned the attempt and the dotter and I headed off to her bedroom for story time.

At which point, she decided she wanted to try it again.

This time, we avoided the bathroom, so she couldn’t see what was going on.  Apparently, it was seeing that was scaring her.  So we plopped her down on a dining chair conveniently scooched near the kitchen door, took the neat little lariat that OmegaDad had made out of cooking twine, and I slipped it over her tooth and cinched it down almost tight.

At which point, she decided she didn’t want to try it again.

Foreseeing an hour or two of this back-and-forthing, I reaching for the string, saying "Okay, okay, kiddo!  I’m taking the string off!" and surreptitiously yanked with one hand on the string while the other was making ineffectual forays at the string-encased tooth.

Pop!  Out came the tooth (of course).  (There was one moment of resistance, and I had a queasy fear that it wouldn’t work and the dotter would be both in pain and brokenhearted that Mommy was torturing her.)  The dotter had one moment of "Owww!" and then realized what had happened.  Much surprise and great swelled-headedness on her part:  "I did it!"  She totally thought that I had really been trying to untie the tooth…

Later on, in her bedroom, I whispered to her, "You know what?  I was sneaky.  I wasn’t trying to take the string off, I just yanked…"

She thinks it’s hilarious.  She has spent the last day giggling about it, and saying, "Ooooh, you’re so sneaky, Mommy!"  (Tee hee!)

She now has a two-tooth gap.  Another tooth is loose.  The Tooth Fairy is soon going to have to make another run to the bank for Sacajawea dollars.  I have it on good authority from the girls at gymnastics that at least one kid gets $20 per tooth, and another $8.  Whoa.  I got quarters.  The dotter gets the nice golden Sacajawea dollars.  And the Tooth Fairy is running out Real Soon Now.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 4th, 2008 at 11:36 pm and is filed under OmegaDotter, OmegaMom, Parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

There are currently 9 responses to “To tell the tooth”

  1. 1 On May 5th, 2008, Lauri said:

    wiggly teeth make me queasy like nothing else… especially when they are hanging on by a string and the kiddos move them way back & forth- I can only hope Livi loses her’s biting into a apple or something….. ugghh.. I am not looking forward to this milestone.

  2. 2 On May 5th, 2008, Jess said:

    $20?? $8?? Seriously?

    I, too, want to do the golden dollars (come on, gold!), and my husband was balking at that, thinking it was too much.

  3. 3 On May 5th, 2008, Donna said:

    My younger daughter is about to lose her first tooth, and we tried yanking it out last night but it’s not quite ready yet. Congrats on your sneaky success. I give the golden dollar, a $1 bill, and a note from the Tooth Fairy that always closes with “Keep brushing and flossing.” It drives me nuts when kids get so much money for losing a tooth.

  4. 4 On May 5th, 2008, Trope said:

    $20?? Oi!

    I always got cool Susan B. Anthony dollars or JFK half-dollars, and loved them. It started me into a little amateur coin collection (I have all the state quarters so far, which drives the hubby crazy because “we could use them for something”). I’m glad that OmegaDotter is getting coins, not folding money, just because it inspires happy memories for me.

  5. 5 On May 5th, 2008, Richard Querin said:

    Jeez. You are a brave soul, pointing out in plain sight that you actually put your daughter through this barbaric ritual.. especially in this day and age. ;)

    What? Isn’t a shot of whiskey and a pair of rusty pliers okay enough for you? :)

    Monetarily, I admit to coercing the tooth fairy into handing over 10 bucks months and months ago when, despite copious amounts of freezing, my poor darling had to endure the forced removal of an absessed tooth, which involved screaming and daddy holding her flailing arms. Needless to say, little one wasn’t the only one crying. I remember thinking 10 bucks was a mere pittance at the time. I wanted to buy her 50 Barbies or a car.

  6. 6 On May 5th, 2008, Sister Carrie said:

    Oh, this is so familiar. The lariat approach works really well, but it takes so long to get the tooth lassoed that there’s time for kids to get cold feet. The tooth fairy gives a dollar bill at our house. I think it’s $5 for the very first tooth and $2 for a tooth that was particularly painful. Everyone wants to lose a tooth at school, because the school nurse gives them a little plastic treasure chest on a necklace of dental floss to keep it safe in. I like the idea of Sacajawea dollars.

  7. 7 On May 5th, 2008, Miss Grace said:

    I never had any of the string on tooth thing with mine, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle it if and when it comes time for me to do that!

  8. 8 On May 5th, 2008, PAgent said:

    “I have it on good authority from the girls at gymnastics that at least one kid gets $20 per tooth, and another $8.”

    Holy Crap!! I’m going to invest in a heavy duty pair of pliers.

    We started the Girl with $1. Her response was to leave a carefully scrawled note addressed to the Tooth Fairy pointing out why she, in fact, deserved more than $1 per tooth. We were so tickled by this that we upped it to $2, accompanied by a stern note from the Tooth Fairy to NEVER bargain with her again.

    Yes, she’s always been like that. :-)

  9. 9 On May 5th, 2008, maryelena said:

    Wow — $20 for a tooth and I thought the parents here in Northern Virgnia were crazy. We do the gold dollar coin which I figure is probably worth even less than the quarter I got 35+ years ago. I did get a whole dollar the time I swallowed my tooth due to the trauma.

    Last time I went to remove the tooth I also found a lenghty note requesting the tooth fairy’s name, favorite color, favorite animal and something else — quite a surprise.

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