Missing Tooth

It finally happened! Claire lost her very first tooth. Saying she was excited doesn't even cut it. She was so excited she was giggling in her sleep. This is my girl who usually screams in her sleep, "No Jeremiah! Stop it!"

A few weeks ago I noticed that Claire's permanent tooth was growing up behind her baby tooth. I panicked thinking this was going to cause all sorts of orthodontic issues and at the very least cause Claire's baby teeth to need to be pulled to give the new tooth room.

So I frantically called the dentist and set up an appointment. He took a look and said it was totally normal and to just let the tooth fall out on its own. I questioned him over and over but he insisted that when the baby tooth came out the new tooth would sort of push forward some. He said her baby teeth are almost perfectly aligned and that is usually a predictor of permanent teeth, however she has a petite jaw which may cause some issues later, but for now, a tooth popping up behind a baby tooth happened all the time. Who knew? Not me.

Claire loved having a loose tooth--until she bit in an apple one day and it hurt and it bled. Suddenly it was no fun. She said, "Mom, now I know what you meant when you said it wasn't a big deal I was the only one in kindergarten who hadn't lost a tooth. It's not fun!" We offered to pull it but that didn't go over well. Then 2 days later Claire asked Stuart to yank her tooth out because every time she bit something it made her tooth bleed. So they went up stairs, got the tweezers and Stuart said came out with almost no tug.

After the tooth was out Claire was jumping around waving her bloody tooth in one hand while holding the bloody paper towel in her mouth. Quite the site. Now that's what I should have photographed! She started telling Jeremiah about the tooth fairy. She said, "For your first tooth the tooth fairy brings you a whole dollar, but not if your tooth is yellow because that means you haven't been brushing, and then your next teeth you get a quarter."

I'm not sure who she talked to to get that idea but I thought it was a very reasonable offer for the tooth fairy. (:

Of course over the next couple of days Claire had to show off the gaping hole which surprisingly is half filled now. That tooth is growing in very quickly. Still, she is super proud to have entered the ranks of teethless kids, but not too eager for her next loose tooth.

Claire's first missing tooth smile