Another Lost Tooth

Yesterday I received an email from Hannah's teacher entitled "Tooth." In it, she wrote, "Major wiggly tooth for Hannah! Pretty much had her attention most of the day! She is trying to be so brave to pull it out---but must be ready!!! Hope it comes out tonight so she doesn’t have to worry!"

Now, Hannah's top tooth has been just slightly loose for about six months, and, occasionally, she imagines that it is looser than before and fills the whole day with dramatic wiggling and excitement. Because of this, I hoped that her tooth would be coming out for real this time, so the drama could finally end, but I confess that I suspected the tooth would still wiggle the same tiny amount as always. However, when I picked Hannah up at school, her tooth definitely moved more than it had previously.

When we got home, I tried to encourage her to wiggle the tooth and loosen it more so it would fall out before bed. It looked pretty loose and I didn't want to worry about her swallowing it. She vehemently refused, though, because she desperately wanted it to come out at school. Apparently, when a child looses a tooth at school, he or she gets a special tooth necklace, and Hannah has been longing for that opportunity all year. I chuckled, remembering the email I had received earlier, and told Hannah that I thought her teacher would probably appreciate the tooth coming out before school the next day. "Yeah," she replied, "I disrupted the whole class! That's why I got a one."

"Oh, Hannah," I responded, "that's not a good thing. Even if this tooth is still in your mouth tomorrow, you need to listen to your teacher and pay attention in class."

"I know," she said cheerfully.

"I hope so," I replied, raising my eyebrows a bit.

Later that evening, I gently brushed Hannah's teeth, and cringed, squeamishly, as the tooth crossed oddly in front of the tooth next to it. "Hannah," I said, "This tooth has to come out. Why don't you pull on it a little."

"No!" she exclaimed. "I'll just bang it out like I did before."

"No," I told her. "That hurts a lot worse than pulling it. Here, let me just pull very gently and see what happens."

I pulled ever so slightly, and out came the tooth!

Excitedly, she ran to tell her daddy and put the tooth in an envelope for the Tooth Fairy. This time, she decided to write the Tooth Fairy a note. Of course, I had to take a picture!

Side one:

"dear tooth Fairy at Lunch today at school I tryed to Bite my apple my tooth riped half way out"

Side two:

"At Bedtime mom pulled it gently out. I Love you"

And of course, the Tooth Fairy wrote a nice note in reply, included a pack of gum wrapped in a dollar bill, and placed them all under her pillow. And, I am pretty sure the Tooth Fairy whispered a little, "I love you, too..."