My oldest daughter lost her first tooth on saturday, March 10. We are late tooth loosers, my husband's family and my own. When everyone her age started loosing teeth, she kept asking me when she was going to loose a tooth. To be on the safe side, I told her probably not until you are seven. Well, she beat that by 2 1/2 months. She was so very excited. We were eating dinner, and she said, "Mom, I think my tooth is wiggling." She came and showed me, and it sure was, wiggly to the point that it was bleeding and moving all around. Half an hour later, she ran to me with a tooth in her hand and shock in her eyes. "It came out!" We hadn't been talking much about loosing teeth, as she kept getting anxious for her own to come out. I was rather shocked myself, I didn't expect for it to happen so quickly.

Of course the next thing she did was run upstairs and put it under her pillow for the tooth fairy. Not something I have ever taught my children. Although it was kind of fun seeing her overjoyed face when she woke up with money in the place of her tooth, I really hesitated before deciding what to do. The precident is now set. This was the first tooth loss in the family, and how I handled it will now have to be followed by the many teeth of many more children.

I almost cried watching my little girl sliding her tongue back and forth through the emptyness left by her tooth. It dosen't seem like very long ago that I was there. I can almost feel the rawness of my tongue from the days of   probing that void. (of course, as I lost my last tooth when I was 14, I suppose it wasn't that long ago) I know how quickly children grow up, but up until now, it seemed that I still had all of mine in the baby stage. Baby teeth still in, my six year old not reading yet, even the fact that she wasn't sent off to school a year ago. All of these things have contributed to this feeling. But yesterday, with her grown up silky shirt and skirt, and the heels on her shoes,(my daughter has large feet, size 13 at age 6, I have found it almost impossible to find flat heeled church shoes for her)  her hair pulled back, and her gaping smile, she had suddenly passed over. Out of the baby stage.

Her cute little tooth just seemed too precious to throw away. I wonder, has any one out there kept your kid's baby teeth? And if so, what did you do with them?

Also  are there those of you who have managed not the fall into this other myth, which, like Santa, and the easter bunny, is impossible for our children to not know about and believe in unless we teach them otherwise?

Welcoming a new stage of motherhood,

Lisa