A Visit From the Tooth Fairy

Dear Joshua and Luke,

A visit from the Tooth Fairy is official. He/she (We are still not sure which.) visited our house after Daddy pulled one of Joshua's teeth that had been loose for over a year! Yes, a year! Joshua and the family has had an eye on this tooth since a visit to the dentist last winter. Joshua asked Dr. Mike if any of his teeth were loose, and Dr. Mike pointed out the one on the bottom , middle, on the right side. And it was loose! Well....over a year later, it has decided to come out.

Throughout the last year, Joshua would wiggle the tooth from time to time, eat an apple for the sole purpose of loosening the tooth, and talk about when the tooth may fall out. Last month we visited Dr. Mike, and Joshua asked him again when the tooth might come out. Dr. Mike said anytime from one to three months. So....the wiggling began.

The tooth was getting looser and looser within the last two weeks. Joshua increased the number of apples he ate, consistently wiggled, touched, rubbed, slid, pushed, pulled, mauled...you get the idea.

It was a Sunday evening, close to bedtime. We were getting ready for bed, hoping that the Superbowl game would soon end so we could get the boys to bed very soon. (They were awake over an hour past their bedtime in hopes of watching the Packers win!) Joshua was checking the loose tooth in the mirror, and asked me to see how loose it is now! So, I did. I noticed it looked a little more loose than usual, so I asked him if he wanted me to pull it. So I tried pulling it, Daddy tried pulling it - and it did not come out. I suddenly realized that I should get one more picture of Joshua's beautiful smile with his 20 baby teeth!

After a little more maneuvering with the tooth, Daddy unexpectedly pulled it out! At first, Joshua did not realize it. He was walking over to the mirror to look at it again. Daddy showed me the itty bity tooth, and I said, "Is that the tooth?" (I thought it looked like a part of a tooth. It was so small.) At about the same time, Joshua arrived at the mirror and realized that the tooth was gone, and he screamed. "My tooth! My tooth!!! Oww......it really hurts! (WARNING: graphic material next! Not for weak stomachs!) Now by this time, blood is coming out, all over his other teeth and mouth! Joshua is screaming that he wants his tooth back! So I take him in the bathroom to rinse his mouth it, and explain to him that it's OK. Joshua is still crying. (He can be a bit dramatic. He surely gets that from his dad.)

Luke is watching this drama unfold, and is not to sure to think about it all, but he walked into the bathroom and watched Joshua rinse. Then, he put his arm around Joshua and said, "Let me lead you to daddy." By this time, Joshua had thought things through with his tooth, and decided that he did not want to give his first tooth to the tooth fairy. I explained to him that I had written many notes to the Tooth Fairy before, and that we could write a note explaining that you would like to keep the tooth. I made it clear that I could not guarantee that this would work, but I would give it a try. Also, I believed that this Tooth Fairy was a reasonable person to work with in the past.

The note read:

"Dear Tooth Fairy. Please leave me my tooth. It is my first tooth. Love, Joshua"

We cleaned the tooth and placed it in the special Tooth Fairy pillow that Grandma made along with the note. Both items were carefully placed under Joshua's pillow for the night. It only took about two minutes, if that, for Joshua to fall asleep that evening. He woke up to THREE DOLLARS in the pocket of his tooth fairy pillow, and a note from the tooth fairy, saying that he/she understood about Joshua wanting to keep his tooth. The tooth fairy is a reasonable person after all!

The note from the Tooth Fairy said:

"Hi Joshua, I understand about the tooth. No problem. Wow! You have taken good care of your teeth. I even took a picture of it for my records. Keep up the great work with your teeth. See you next time. Love, Tooth Fairy"

On a personal and more serious note, I really was not ready for this milestone in Joshua's life. Even though I had lots of time to prepare for it, I was excited for Joshua, who had wanted this tooth to come out for so long, but so sad for me. I remembered when that very tooth popped through his gums for the first time, and the one next to it, and the two on top.....Even though I do not want Joshua to grow up too fast, I am very proud of the young boy Joshua is becoming.

Now Luke....please do not loose any teeth for a very long time.

I love you both more today than yesterday.

Love,

Mama