The Tooth Fairy Returns

Earlier tonight, LJ lost another tooth. I think this is the eighth tooth he's lost, and this one was perhaps the least dramatic of the bunch.

It's been loose enough for a couple of days now so that he could do that really disgusting thing that kids like to do ... turn the tooth at a 90 degree angle so it points out like a little fang.

I asked him earlier today if we could go ahead and pull it, and LJ said: "Not yet. I know it's ready to come out when it starts to bleed."

Since there is no arguing with the iron-clad logic of an 8-year-old, I let it go.

But tonight, a couple of minutes after I put dinner on the table, he suddenly had a very sly grin on his face. Very subtle, but I knew something was up.

There, in the middle of the table, lay his tooth. No tears, no cheers, just a tooth extracted by virtue of biting into a green bean.

We've come a long way since the trauma of LJ's first loose tooth (around age 6). After days of him complaining because it hurt too much to bite into anything, he finally agreed to let Jack pull it. A man's man, Jack thought the best way to do it would be pliers. Run of the mill, metal pliers, straight out of the tool box.

It sounds worse than it was. LJ was a real trooper and the tooth was out in no time. However, I will mention that he has not yet let Jack use the pliers to pull another tooth.

While LJ has, for the most part, gotten over the excitement of losing teeth, Julianna has not. And that's mainly because she has not yet lost any. To her, the idea of losing a tooth is almost as exciting as her birthday ... a rite of passage that only "big kids" achieve.

She has us check her teeth frequently for wiggles, and to date, no luck.

Julianna is absolutely desperate for a loose tooth. So much so that, in a manipulative Mommy moment, I tried to get her to eat some vegetables at dinner by telling her that if she ate her green beans, her tooth might fall out too.

I know, I know ... terrible. But the girl has got to eat something other than cheese, bagels, and fruit.

My best efforts didn't work. I think she ate one green bean and the rest ended up in Viking's food bowl. She didn't fall for the trick and just confirmed what we already knew.

Big kid or not, Julianna is far smarter than me.















Self-portrait by Julianna