Charley is seven. Up until last Thursday, he had only lost 2 bottom teeth. His top two had been wiggly, but not too wiggly, for months. We were crossing the street on our way to Park Day, and like any self respecting, pesky, little brother, he pushed his big sister. For no reason. Irritated, Janey wheeled around and whacked him square in the face with her bag. The rest of us were halfway across the street when we heard the thud of her bag and the eerie silence that followed. I turned around to see Charley, white as a sheet, standing there on the corner with his little white tooth in his black gloved hand, blood dripping down his chin. After a very long pause, he burst into tears. Hysterics, actually.We rushed to his side and held back our giggles as we wiped the tears and blood from his face. Man, there was a lot of blood. Janey was sweet, and felt terrible about the whole thing. She kept apologizing, checking in from time to time to see if Charley was ready to move past "injured victim", and on to "excited tooth fairy recipient". By the time we reached Park Day, he was skipping and smiling, and calculating the exponentially greater reward he was sure to receive tonight under his pillow for being the victim of such a heinous crime. Janey was elevated from assailant to accomplice, and the two of them hatched a partnership wherein Janey would receive 50% of the earnings, but only if the tooth fairy left more than 5 bucks.
In just a few days, Charley's remaining front tooth has migrated to the center of his upper gumline. It's astounding, really. It's hard to look at him without staring at his gaping mouth. That thing really is hangin' by a thread. He hates it when I call him Snaggle Tooth, but it's really hard not to. It's just so distracting. There are moments when I feel sure that the enormous gap must have been filled with at least 3 other teeth. How did that space get so big?
Tonight, Charley was so fed up with the remaining dangler, he ate an extra apple, just to encourage it to fall out. No dice. It's still there. Thank goodness, too, because the tooth fairy needs to get to the bank.
1 comment:
my son is in that stage also. at the end of last year we would have needed such a big sister. the tooth was loose more than 3 months. he lost his first bottom one in summer and it was a shock to him. then at the end of the year (or was it the beginning of this one) he lost his upper tooth and now yesterday we went and his next bottom two were removed. they had long roots and everything. he really looks as if he has been in a big fight or smth.
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