The Late Tooth

Until recently, it has been over a year since Marissa lost a tooth.

While her friends all have 6 or 8 permanent teeth, she just had the four bottom ones, with baby teeth all across the top. 

I wasn't worried -- she had been to the dentist, they said that some kids just lose them a little late. And if you believe that late teethers as babies are late in getting their adult teeth, then she's right on time.

Finally, her front top tooth began to get loose. And looser. And looser. She couldn't say a full sentence without her tongue stopping to wiggle it once or twice. If she was drawing, or reading, or playing, she was wiggling that tooth.

I swore it was going to fall out on Sunday. Then Monday. And finally Tuesday, when I picked her up from school, she ran up to me and showed me a hole where her tooth had been. Except her tongue was still sticking suspiciously halfway out of her mouth.

Sure enough, her tooth was loose enough for her to be able to pull it nearly all the way back without it coming out, so it appeared to be gone, but wasn't. She thought that was hilarious to play that joke.

But Tuesday evening, the four of us were around the dining room table after dinner. I was helping Lindsey with homework, Wayne was helping Marissa. Suddenly Marissa says, "Oh! My tooth fell out!"

And sure enough, while she'd just be standing there, not doing anything but writing, it fell onto her paper.

She ran to get her tooth box, which she'd been carrying back and forth to school for several days, and plunked the tooth in it, but not before showing everyone in the family a few times.

Then she whispered, "Mommy, I know you're the tooth fairy, so just leave the tooth when you give me a dollar, okay? I want to take it back to school tomorrow to show my friends."

Okay, honey.