Tooth Time!

Lauren has finally lost her tooth.

This was quite an accomplishment, actually. This tooth did not want to come out. It was a bottom front tooth - the very first one that came in, which makes sense. First in, first out. But the "out" part is important, and it took the tooth a while to catch onto its role.

It hung grimly on like a contestant in one of those "last person to take their hand off it wins the truck" contests, refusing to leave and growing gradually more begrimed and unwelcome until you finally had to ask yourself if the whole thing was really the smartest way of going about this process.

It hung on so long that Lauren could get it to flip sideways with her tongue, a trick she just loved to demonstrate.

It held on so long that when it finally did come out this morning, there was no blood whatsoever.

But now it's gone! Hurrah for Lauren!



We put it in a baggie so she could take it to school and show her teacher. Kindergarten teachers must get used to things like that. There is even a board up on the wall of Lauren's class that tracks this sort of thing, and now Lauren can have her own entry.

Of course, this means that we need to go out and get some Oreos, so that we can do the railroad tracks thing with the creme filling as required by law. Normally you have to have both front teeth out before you can do this, but this tooth hung on so long that the new one is practically in place already. Time, therefore, is a-wastin'.

Besides, there is never a bad time for Oreos.

Tonight the Tooth Fairy comes to visit Lauren, for the first time. Tabitha is an old hat at this, having traded several of her teeth for shiny golden dollar coins (the going rate, it seems, for such things). Lauren is very excited about all this, and will no doubt be trying to figure out some way to catch the Tooth Fairy in action.

This is a bad idea.

While it is possible that the Tooth Fairy herself might show up, looking like she does in all the pictures - a tiny, winged, beautiful woman in an exquisite dress, carrying a shiny wand and a velvet pouch to keep all those precious teeth - it is also possible that she may send an assistant to do the job, and that would be disillusioning. You never know what sort of rabble turns up in those "understudy" roles.