On Thanksgiving evening, I noticed that Max had a tooth out of place. At first, I was horrified, thinking one of his siblings had probably cracked him in the mouth with a knee at some point, but then I remembered that a couple of the kids I know who are just a month or so older had already lost a tooth (interestingly, both boys in B-G twin pairs). So I asked if I could see if it was loose and he refused, telling me that it was and I didn't need to touch it.
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| You can see the misplaced tooth in the center, bottom there. |
The next day he was chomping down on some broccoli at dinner when he paused and asked, "Is that my tooth?" I looked down and, yep - there it was! It had just popped out with no fuss or pain whatsoever.
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| Showing off his "gap" |
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| Trying to see the gap in his teeth. |
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| (It is surprisingly difficult to get a crisply focused picture of the inside of a five-year-old's mouth) |
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| (but I think you can just make out the permanent tooth peeking out behind the "gap") |
Caroline and Daniel were beyond excited to see the tooth too. Caroline ran off to the office to get a "special" envelope to put it in (and dumping about 100 other "special" envelopes on the floor in the process) and Daniel kept telling Max to be careful not to lose it "or else the Tooth Fairy won't give you a coin".
At bedtime, he wanted to brush his tooth so it would be shiny for the Tooth Fairy (just like he'd seen Peppa Pig do in our Tooth Fairy book) and then asked me to take a video of him leaving his tooth under his pillow.
(For those unfamiliar with Max-speak, he is saying, "OK, this is my tooth in an envelope. I'm putting it down and then I'm putting it under my pillow. Thanks - bye-bye subscribers, see you next time!" I think, perhaps, he has seen a few too many YouTube videos...)
This milestone was a little difficult on Daniel. He really wanted to also get a loose tooth and kept asking when his tooth was going to fall out. I told him I wasn't sure and, not missing a chance to be dramatic, he flung himself down on his bed with a prolonged sigh and told me, "If my tooth doesn't fall out soon, I'm just gonna DIE!" And here I thought I was only going to have ONE teenage girl's drama to deal with!
For her part Caroline was very excited about the prospect of the Tooth Fairy coming. She has flirted with being nighttime potty trained but recently reverted back to diapers after a couple of accidents. This night, she was adamant that she wanted to wear panties to bed - because she wanted "to impress the Tooth Fairy". (The next day she asked if I thought the Tooth Fairy had been impressed by her panties.) She also had a terrible time falling asleep due to the anticipation. But finally she did, even if it was in my bed, and all was quiet and the Tooth Fairy was able to sneak in and collect the envelope with Max's tooth and leave him a certificate and a shiny gold coin in its place.
Max woke up in the middle of the night and collected his pillow and blanket to come in and sleep in my room, as he does most nights. He saw what had been left for him but decided he wanted to wait until morning so that his brother and sister could see it too. And so in the morning they all went in to check it out and then he RACED to put the "shiny penny", as he calls it, in his coin bank.
