The End of an Era

Last week Seth lost his first tooth. Several weeks ago he came to me and told me that his tooth was loose. He had a corresponding cut on his lip and so I assumed that he had hit his face on something and it had knocked his tooth loose. Though he is nearly five and a half, it seemed too early to lose it and so I encouraged him not to wiggle it and hoped it would hang in there. I was afraid that his tooth would come out and he'd have a gaping hole in the front of his mouth for a long time. We continued to treat it gently and discouraged wiggling or pulling on it.

Fast forward three weeks. We are watching a movie on a rainy afternoon when Seth suddenly jumps up and says, "my tooth came out!" He shows us all the little tooth and I moan and instruct him to go and rinse out his mouth. He is grinning from ear to ear and clearly feels quite grown up. The first thing he says is, "Mom, I get to use the tooth fairy pillow!" When he comes back and I inspect his mouth I can see that his big tooth has been advancing (for some time) right behind where his baby tooth was. I guess I am a mother in denial. A mother who isn't ready to see her "babies" grow up. This fall you'll probably find me blubbering on near the kindergarten drop off with my box full of tissues. When the tooth fairy came that night and looked down on his sweet peaceful face, I cried.