#5 (a week late)

Just like the last
It came out in the car
And then she dropped it
Before we'd gone far.
Oh no!
So we stopped at a truck stop,
Carefully opened the door,
And there was the tooth
Right there on the floor.
Whew!


Click on the tooth fairy label to read the first 4 lost-tooth poems. Pete's first one came out last April, providing me with needed poetry inspiration and now I'm stuck writing an original poem for each lost tooth. Maybe I'll bind them into a little book when we get to the end of the baby teeth...

April is National Poetry Month so, in honor of that, several other writers and I are posting a poem-a-day for the whole month. If you decide to post a poem too, let me know and I'll post a link so we can all read it.

#4

We'd only just started

And hadn't gone far

When it finally fell out

Right there in the car.

Pete thinks she looks funny without her most recently lost tooth (in the car on the way back from the beach). I think she looks adorable like she always does when she has holes in her smile.

If you click on the "tooth fairy" label at the end of this post, you can read the poems I wrote for Pete's first 3 lost teeth. I'm trying to commemorate them all in verse...

Another Tooth

Number 3

Two days of "Nobody touch The Tooth!"
and holding her mouth just right
And when The Tooth finally gave out
It was the middle of the night!*


*3:30 AM

A Hunger Strike (of sorts)

Pete won't eat. Her tooth on the top in the front on the left is really, really loose. Dangling-by-a-thread loose. It happened last night near the end of dinner. She shrieked like someone had put worms in her underpants. She screamed, "What are you going to do?! Are you going to take it out?!" and I said, "I'm not going to do anything until you calm down," and she said, "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!" Then she calmed down and admitted that she wanted it to come out because "it feels weird," but Husbandguy tried and she squealed and they both gave up before it came out. I was hoping she'd wake up with a hole in her smile and we'd never see that tooth again, but it's still there. So this morning we tried soft foods for breakfast, but she says she can't even swallow yogurt because "it feels weird." I know she's not going to starve or anything, but I'd really like her to have something to eat because she's like me and Moomie and gets very grumpy when she's hungry. Moomie suggested that we try something body-temperature rather than cold - maybe that won't feel as weird on her snaggle loose tooth. We haven't yet, but we're going to... Just as soon as I figure out what...

More Loss

The Second

She left with three where two should be.
She came home with two and a smile new.

Updates

Pete's tooth still hasn't fallen out, but we expect it to be out any day now, it's all sticking up and crooked and whatever. She doesn't even mind that we call her Snaggletooth (although it's way cuter than that implies).

Yesterday morning, Pete announced from the bathroom where she was brushing her hair, "The Bad Hair Day has finally ended." Whew! Thank goodness for that!! It looked really cute this morning, too.

It looks like the upside down tomato isn't going to happen this year. We needed Husbandguy to figure out how to hang it because a shepherd's crook pole thingy wouldn't be strong enough, but I think he's forgotten (I had!) and now it's kind of too late to plant. Our tomato in the planter is doing well, though, especially since I covered the dirt with rocks to keep the cat from pooping in it. Ew!

Still send me Tupperware, okay? HG bought those sticky traps because he didn't want to put poison in the pantry (smart guy, that HG!), but we haven't caught anything. On the other hand, we also haven't had any new poop in there since I SCRUBBED and SANITIZED everything. But still send Tupperware (it's just cool to have).

Pete's Tooth

Okay. This is the first time I've had a child who is getting grown-up teeth so forgive me if you think I overreacted, but listen to this!

On Monday, Pete came home and said, "Mom! My grown-up teeth are coming in! I can feel two of them!" Okay, but Pete, you've only lost one of your baby teeth. What are you talking about? Pete showed me, then. Her empty space was indeed getting a tooth, and also the tooth next to it was coming in, too, right behind her baby tooth!! Nuh-uh! That's not right! So I called the dentist, and the lady who answered the phone (using the dentist's new name and momentarily confusing me) didn't know what to tell me so we made an appointment for Wednesday. It meant that I would have to take Pete out of school in the middle of the day and cut short my reading buddy time, but if it would help us to avoid embarrassment and braces for Pete, it was totally worth it. My fear was that the dentist was going to say that the baby tooth would have to be extracted. My hope was that he had some special trick he would do to pluck the baby tooth out of Pete's mouth without her noticing so the tooth fairy could come. What happened was that he said, "She's normal. Don't worry," and didn't charge us for taking up his time (one advantage of marrying/being born into Husbandguy's family dentist of 30+ years). Also, Pete didn't think it was funny when I suggested that maybe she's turning into a shark...

But how proud of me am I! I didn't mention once to Pete until after the appointment that the dentist might have to cut out her tooth so she wasn't scared or worried at all when we went for her appointment. Yay me for not scaring my daughter!!

Oh, and the class didn't get shortchanged on the reading buddy thing because someone else's mom showed up and took over when I had to leave. It was convenient!

Tooth Fairy

Pete was disappointed in the measly $1 the tooth fairy left her until she found the toothbrush holder/teeth-brushing timer the fairy also left. Old TF might have to leave a little more next time. Uncle Big Brother said their TF leaves $5 per tooth! Hopefully Pete and Kiki won't compare notes next time they see each other...

Loss

Her First
Mom said, "Just give it a twist."
But Pete said, "No way!"
Midst cheese fries and in spite of the lisp,
The tooth fell out today!!