Growing Up

There are some points in life when you realize you can never go back.  My sweet baby boy, Brendan had one of those moments this week!

Brendan lost his first two baby teeth!

He came to me two weeks ago and said he had a lost tooth.  I examined his mouth and wiggled the little white nugget and assured him that he did have a lose tooth.  But he told me...NO!  Not that one!  SO...I took a closer look and sure enough he had two lose teeth!

You can still see the tears in his eyes!

After spending a week wiggling the teeth with his tongue, he decided I needed to be a little more aggressive with the loss of his tooth.  I think one of the older boys must have told him about the little fairy that brings money!  So, I gave another wiggle and out popped his first tooth!

I am always amazed at the reaction of a child to this once in a life time experience!

We were in the parking lot of our favorite place away from home...our local library!  Brendan was sitting there with my finger in his mouth (as he asked me to wiggle it AGAIN!) and out pops his tooth...no bigger than the tip of a pencil...and then the blood flow!  He did not like that one bit!  It did not help when he saw the big hole that little tooth left!  But we got him settled down and he remembered that he was going to have a special visitor!

I am not one to make a big deal about fantasy figures.  I am not against the idea, but it usually just is not something that comes to mind.  However, the tooth fairy has always been a big deal to my children.  Even though they know it is just mom coming into their room in the middle of the night.  I am sure it has something to do with the money that they find the next morning, but all the same it is a big deal to them.

Four children have now had the experience of a lost tooth and begged to leave their tooth under their pillow for the Tooth Fairy.  But not Brendan...

Brendan assured me that the Tooth FAIRY does not come for his teeth!  His teeth can only be picked up by the Tooth PRINCE!  So...with a little adjustment to my letter introducing him to our tradition...he was visited by the Tooth Prince and was happy to have his first dollar for his tooth.

Then just three days later, he comes running to show me that his second tooth was out!  I guess having the experience of the first one was enough...he had no problem with the second one...so under the pillow it went!

HOWEVER, this time we gave him a lesson in letter writing. We told him that the Tooth Prince does not like finding a tooth without a letter!  This has always been my way of introducing the youngest of students to the idea of letter writing.  Especially since we do not write letters to Santa each year...this is my way to get them to spend some time in thought about their teeth.  The child sends a letter thanking the tooth "fairy" and maybe telling about how they lost their tooth.  The Tooth "fairy" sends a note back.  I love this swapping of letters...again I am always amazed at the stories they tell.  It makes me get more creative with my letters also.  It is a lot of fun!

Brendan's first letter was very simple:  Thank you for the money!  But he got frustrated because he could not spell money and wanted to stop.  A certain parent said it was his chose so Brendan went to bed without a letter.  BUT...this would not be the end of it!

Edward felt sorry for Brendan and helped him write a letter for the Tooth Prince.

Dear Tooth Prince,

Thank you for the money.
I want to buy LEGO mini-figures!

Your fan,

Brendan

The hardest part for the Tooth Prince...getting the children to go to sleep in time before crashing at the end of one of our crazy days and NOT having a letter in return and swapping tooth for cash!

And so the Tooth Prince adventure begins!