When Chloe was a baby, she didn't get her first tooth until she was almost nine months old. Carter always said she was dentally retarded. As a nursing mother, I didn't mind that this milestone was delayed. But it has meant that Chloe has had to watch all of her friends, including kids younger than she is (which is especially galling to her), lose their teeth and collect money from the Tooth Fairy. She has been very patient, so we both did a little happy dance today when she discovered her bottom tooth was loose.
Since today was the first day of fall break (um, didn't summer break JUST end?!?), Chloe was able to apprise me of the status of her tooth every 3-5 minutes. After about seven hours of "Mom! It's looser!" and "Mom! I think it's bleeding a little!" and "Mom! When do you think it will fall out?" every few minutes, I pulled out the cell phone and let her call her grandmothers (I just wasn't showing the appropriate level of enthusiasm to satisfy her. Thank goodness for grandmothers!). We all told her to keep wiggling it and it would fall out soon.
Soon the tooth was dangling by a thread and Chloe was vacillating between absolute terror and excitement. She couldn't wait for the moment to finally happen, but she was terrified it would hurt. It all came to a head at dinner when she couldn't eat a bite because she was scared her tooth would fall out and she'd accidentally swallow it. (A great thing about Chloe is that you never have to wonder how she's feeling or what she's thinking.) She came over to me and I convinced her to let me pluck the little sucker out. She was thrilled and immediately started asking if she could go to bed so that the tooth fairy could come. I was a little disgusted, I'll admit, mainly because I just finished "Berenice" by Edgar Allan Poe (that's the one where a man comes out of a stupor to find himself covered in dirt and gore with a little box of his recently buried lover's teeth on the table by him). But we're all relieved the ordeal is over and that Chloe will FINALLY get to put a sticker on the tooth chart at school. On Tuesday. Seriously, what is the deal with Fall Break? Only in Utah.
Now the Tooth Fairy is debating over what the going rate for a tooth should be. After all, she's setting a precedence here. We have 79 baby teeth left to lose in this house.
BEFORE
AFTER
Haha, "dentally retarded." Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI think I got a quarter for my first tooth, but by the time the last of my teeth were falling out, inflation and cost of living expenses upped expectations to about 50 or 75 cents.
The best thing- I think, is one of the "dollar" coins. You know. A sliver dollar. Right? Do those exist anymore?
ReplyDeleteI like those.
I think $1/tooth is great. It would be fun to do an informal poll of what the tooth fairy typically pays... :)
ReplyDeleteI can't the let genius of the heading of "incisor trading" go by without extending my profound admiration for the author of that phrase. If all Tooth Fairies decided to form a corporation, it would be a great name for the company.
ReplyDeleteBecky/Mom/Grandma
TOO funny! I think it is a dollar these days for everything but the top front teeth which are 5 dollars? (Am I making this up or does this sound familiar?) You are much stronger than I am--I can't stomach the loose teeth. Maybe this is why I have not been blessed with children?
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