The Toothless Wonder

I'm going to start calling Liam "The Toothless Wonder" after yesterday.

Those who know my oldest son know that he has always been big for his age. (I see many high school and college football games in my future.) Most people who meet him think that he is older than he is. As I soon found out, there are many areas where he is "ahead" of his age.

The winter that Liam was 4, I noticed that his top two front teeth were loose after he was playing with his Aunt Kelly one day and he fell. I thought he had knocked them loose, so we took a trip to the dentist. After x-rays and an exam, Dr. Toothman (yes, that's his real name) declared that they were ready to come out. There was no damage, the roots had dissolved as they should and it would be fine if they came out. Of course, he said, they probably would not come in until he was 6, but that was okay. He lost his first tooth in December. (The typical age to start losing teeth is 6.) Nothing typical about my kid; he has to be ahead of the pack. Lost tooth #2 followed less than a week later.

Of course, there was a little drama in the act of losing said teeth. The first one came out while playing in the backyard with his cousin Libby. The tooth was lost in the grass. So, Mommy told him the story of how the Tooth Fairy understands that sometimes these things happen and she has a plan for this. The child needs to find a pebble roughly the size the lost tooth. He puts the pebble with a note explaining what happened under his pillow. The Tooth Fairy comes and uses her magic to turn the pebble into a tooth. (Which is quite necessary because she uses all the lost teeth that she collects to give to the new babies being born.) The second lost tooth also happened while playing with a cousin, although this time it was Brianna. He thought he had swallowed this one. Later, I found it on the dining room floor.

Well, we go all through the summer and fall with a big gap where his two front teeth should be. We heard countless verses of "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" that winter. Then, our now 5-year-old announces that his bottom front two teeth are loose. They come out in January/February with no incident. So we now have a HUGE hole that you could stick your thumb through. He looks like a casualty of Pee Wee Hockey!! Next, he tries telling me that another one of his bottom front teeth is loose!! I tried to wiggle it, and there seemed to be some movement, but I was sure that it was a long way from being loose enough to come out. I should learn to NEVER underestimate this child.

I got home from work yesterday and he was waiting at the door to proudly display his latest lost tooth in its little plastic baggie. It's been less than two months since he first told me about that loose tooth!!! I said, "You have got to be kidding me!" and he said, "Nope Mommy, it just came out and now I'll get more quarters from the Tooth Fairy tonight." Keep in mind that one of the joys of having a child who loses his teeth before going to school, is not having your Tooth Fairy have a "standard" to live up to. He was more than happy with the quarter he received for his first and second teeth and even the two he received for the third and fourth. But now that he's a Kindergartner and the other kids in his class are starting to get visits from the Tooth Fairy, it's a little harder for that to fly. So this morning, Liam woke up to 4 quarters under his pillow. I guess if gas prices can rise, so can the reward from the Tooth Fairy. But you'll never see a $5 bill coming from the Carr Family Tooth Fairy! But through it all, what is one of his favorite foods? Corn on the cob!! You should see how well his kid with no front teeth can clean that thing!!! I told him that he isn't allowed to lose any more teeth until the 5 that are already gone have been completely replaced.

To learn more about traditions and explanations used by the Carr Family--including the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus, see the post titled "Mythical Figures Explained."