1 Down, 5 To Go

The other day I suggested that Caroline would likely lose six teeth while Craig is away.

Well, she lost one today.
Five to go.

Although, at the rate she has lost her baby teeth, I'm not sure that she has five left to lose.

I didn't get a picture of the gaping hole in her mouth today, because it's not in a location conducive to picture taking. Besides, you don't really want to see that, anyway. Right?

The tooth is resting on the kitchen counter; I could take a picture of that, instead.

Just kidding!

The first picture is of Caroline's first lost tooth; she was not quite 5 and Craig was in Kuwait at the time. She lost her bottom teeth a little prematurely, thanks to a ball-to-the-mouth incident on the trampoline on Thanksgiving day that year. The teeth remained slightly loose, but not quite ready to be evicted. That is, until we took a trip to Charlotte to visit my sister. Aunt Laura and Caroline were horsing around and an elbow to the mouth helped encourage Caroline's first loose tooth to make it's way out of her mouth. Good times.

I felt obligated to keep some of Caroline's baby teeth. Not because I really wanted to have little teeth tucked away in a drawer somewhere, but mostly because I didn't really know what to do. Would a good mom keep them? If I threw them away, would that mean that I wasn't loving and sentimental? I kept the first couple, which was wise, but I don't keep them any longer. It was actually quite prudent of me to keep the first couple because after she lost her third tooth, we placed it on the counter until bedtime. Well, as I hastily wiped the counters clean after dinner, the tooth disappeared. Dun-dun-dun. Oops.

Thankfully I had the extras tucked away and quickly grabbed a replacement and stuck it on the counter. Caroline was none the wiser.

Right after I did the switcheroo, I found the missing tooth on the floor. But still, I'm glad I did keep the first couple of teeth.

I'm no pack rat, but when it comes to potentially ruining the magic of the tooth fairy for your little one, I can see how it might have some advantages.