Catherine's Tooth

In January, Catherine came home grumbling about how "everyone" had lost a tooth in her class except for her and "it was not fair". She immediately began planning all sorts of ways to make her tooth loose.

About a month ago, she came to me so excited because she finally had a loose tooth. "Feel it" she told me that day. So, I put my finger on her bottom tooth and tried to wiggle it but it didn't budge. I decided that Catherine wanted a loose tooth so badly that she was imagining it was loose.

As the weeks went on, the tooth apparently was getting looser. "I can wiggle it with my tongue! Feel it!" she said. I felt it. Nothing moved. She even tried to show me how she could wiggle it, and it did not move. How was I going to break it to my daughter that her tooth was not loose?

Two weeks ago, March 27, she was talking excitedly about her loose tooth. I asked her if I could feel it again- it did not move! So, I delivered the bad news. "Catherine, I am sorry but your tooth is not loose. I have never gotten it to move. It just isn't that loose yet." Catherine replies "But mommy, I can wiggle it with my tongue!" Wow. I knew this child had an imagination, but seriously, this was getting a little old. But I let it go.

The next day, the kids and I went to the local grocery store. The kind of store that still gives out suckers to the kids- yes, it is a sweet little place. :) We got home and I was putting groceries away when all of a sudden, she came rushing to me "Mommy, I lost my tooth!" Shocked, I said "What do you mean you lost your tooth?" Catherine "Well, I was just biting the last pieces of sucker off my stick and my tooth came out. See!!"

When I looked into her little mouth, there indeed was a hole where a tooth had once been. That hole looked gigantic. I wasn't ready for this. In those few seconds, my mind was spinning. Did she chip her tooth out? It couldn't have just come out. Her tooth wasn't even loose!!!

"Catherine, honey, where is your tooth?" She spits sucker pieces out of her mouth, looks at them, and concludes "I must have swallowed it. It is in my belly!" Lincoln quickly says "Walden swallowed his tooth,and the tooth fairy still came!"

Catherine runs out and mentions something about writing a note to the tooth fairy. She didn't care that she had swallowed it. She had FINALLY lost a tooth.

Me, on the other hand, was left standing there dumbfounded. Her tooth must have been loose, but how in the world did I miss it?? I was all over Lincoln's first tooth, didn't miss a thing with it.

I finally concluded that because Catherine's teeth are so small, I was never wiggling the loose tooth by itself. Then I felt badly because I didn't believe her.

Thankfully for Catherine, the tooth fairy did come, and since then Catherine has written her 3 additional notes hoping to trick her into another dollar. :)