Things have been hopping chez Upside Up — we’ve lost our first tooth!!
As the 2nd of 3 possible shoes drop in the fallout from Lucy’s accident a couple of years ago, the dentist had to wiggle Lucy’s top front tooth out on Tuesday. She was very brave, and now she’s very very proud. I’ve caught her a couple of times standing in front of the mirror, smiling at herself. And she’s fascinated by the way the hole in her mouth has altered the way she speaks (or “thpeakth” as it would now be said). And the gold Sacagawea Dollar was a nice bonus, plus a note from the tooth fairy. Written in silver.
And I’m excited about it too. But I have to admit to feeling a little wistful about it as well. One of the things that has surprised me about being a parent is how attached I feel to the particulars of any given age or stage Lucy and Zoe are at. And then when they grow out of that stage, as every kid does (and in ways I would not have thought momentous before I had kids), I feel an elemental sadness at bidding that stage farewell. Their growth feels more like a falling from grace. An innocence lost.
I’ve been aware of this feeling since the first time we fed the girls rice cereal. Previously, their mouths had never touched anything that didn’t come from my body. And the cereal felt like such a besmirching of their purity. Like it was something that could be avoided. If I were a better parent, for example, I would have been able to prevent this contamination from happening. It’s completely irrational, of course, and I know it makes me sound unstable. So I came to terms with it and learned to love the freedom from having kids strapped to my chest 24 hours a day (duh). Just as I came to terms with their gummy mouths filling with cute little tiny chicklet teeth. Just as I will come to terms with (and eventually fall in love with) Lucy’s new gap-toothed smile. To help me with that coming to terms, I share with you now:
Lucy’s Mouth: Five Years in three snapshots
8 mos. old. Big gummy smile. Like a capital D on its side.
3 1/2 yrs old. Bucky beaver. Bangs by Lucy.
5 yrs old. Toothless (“toothleth”) and proud.
If you have kids, which of their stages have been difficult for you to say goodbye to? What were you grateful to leave behind?
And for everyone (those with and without kids), do you remember losing your first tooth? I totally don’t, which is both uncharacteristic and unsettling. Tell me your story to see if it jogs my memory. Lucy wants to hear the story.
xo
I do not remember losing my first tooth, but I distinctly remember the feeling of a tooth being loose and wiggling it with my tongue. As far as mourning the passage of stages, I am so happy with Ellie’s current one I am already dreading the loss of it. I love my baby’s gummy little smile and the sounds that have no consonants as she tries out talking. LOVE it! She started having crying spells with all fingers inserted in mouth, which makes me wonder if she is starting to have teething pains. Oh no! I love the gummy little smile too much to contemplate its passing. I love the way she feels in my arms, all snugly, cute little butt in my hand, round little legs, soft round arms, big smooth cheeks, blinking eyes with long eye-lashes…I want to hold her like this forever.
I remember losing my first tooth because there’s a story behind it. I was standing on an old spring bouncy horse frame, looking at something on a shelf on our porch. My oldest sister wanted to look, so pushed me off the frame! I knocked out both my front teeth. For years, I thought I fell, then when I was in my mid-20s, she said something about pushing me off. WHAT?! The truth revealed. So I was without my two front teeth for almost two years.
I *so* remember that feeling, the first time I gave my son something that wasn’t breast milk! Un-pure! Un-pure! lol
I miss picking them up, being able to cradle them while I stood up. My youngest, at almost 9, still loves to cuddle, so he’ll climb on my lap sometimes when I’m sitting (oof!), but I miss picking them up to hold them.
As far as grateful to leave behind… Not sure how to say this, but I love that I can converse with my boys. We can work things out, and they’re completely rational. Not so when they were three, and screamed because food touched. I don’t miss that.
I know people you know! I’m sending an e-mail to ya.
I can’t even come up with one kid-stage I’ve been attached to because I have been so attached to each one. Except maybe the colic, I could go without that. I never thought about the fact that one downside of twins (vs two kids born at different times) is that once a stage is gone from the girls, it is gone in a way it might not be for people who have two kids via two pregnancies.
When I lost my tooth my dad made a film in which I showed the camera my wiggly tooth, and then we wrapped a string around it and tied it to a cabinet door. Shot of door slamming and ta da! shot of me with a gap. I thought it was so hilarious that our little film “tricked” people by making it look like we’d yanked the tooth out.
Don’t remember the first tooth but I distinctly remember in grade two wiggling a loose one with my tongue and pushing it as hard as my pain threshold would allow – only to have it fly out in the middle of class and land on the floor. My teacher was not impressed but my peeps were.
That second pic at 3.5 – the bangs – omg – that is such a classic (what is it with kids cutting hair? Mind you, I’ve seen similar cuts in trendy salons so maybe they’re on to something).
I don’t remember the loss of my first tooth, however I vividly remember the loss of Jacob’s first tooth, which happened shortly after the loss of my 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th tooth (again I don’t remember “my” details). Basically he was pissed that I was collecting so much $$ from the tooth fairy (at this point it must have been $.20, $.30, $.40, or $.50… WOW!!) so he spent an afternoon (possibly more, this I am not sure of) working on his right front tooth and he managed to get it out, and being 18 months younger than me, went around for 12-18 months with a large gap in the very front of his mouth. But it was worth it, as he too received some $$ from the tooth fairy (no note in silver, however ~ the tooth fairy at your house isvery classy and upscale ~ I am making note of that for future reference!)
I just can’t believe it!
Fabulous pictures. With four sns and seven grand children there just isn’t enough time or space.
Next time I see you maybe I can probes the depths of my crowded mind and see what I can come up with.
I love you a LOT.
As you know by now every stage has it’s joys and problems.
Our responsibility is never completly over. A good stage is when they
go off to college the responsibility is no longer second to second,
minute to minute, hour to hour etc. You’ll see!
Laurie, I love your blog and want to meet those twins! I have no recollection of losing my first tooth, (though I do have memories of the tooth fairy’s gifts!). I vividly remember when Allen came home from kindergarden with his first lost tooth carefully wrapped up by Doodle Smith and Sheila Barnett, his teachers. They enclosed an adorable poem. I still have the tooth. How I wish I still had the young man.
Love you…
Mary