My little girl lost her first tooth today. It was so small. And she held it like it were a precious gem. There, in that tiny little hand, was the tinest tooth I had ever seen. Oh she was soooo proud! A right of passage to being a big person. She was now on her way to being a "big girl". My wife had planned for this a while back. She had made a special purse for the tooth inwhich the tooth fairy would place a gift in exchange for the tooth. My daughter was very excited about this part. Getting presents for loosing a tooth was great! She couldn't wait!
The next morning she got up and looked in the purse. There she found a $1 coin! What a haul! Put a tiny little tooth in and get a big shiny coin out! And she was showing it to everyone. But not just the coin was she showing off. She now had this hole in her gums that she wanted to show the world! "I lost a tooth! See!" and she would grab her bottom lip and pull it out to show off her missing front tooth. This went on for about 2 weeks until the novelty had run its course. And you'd have thought that was the end of the saga, but no. A couple of weeks after that tooth #2 made its exit. And thus, another $1 coin. But there wasn't so much showing off the the missing tooth this time. I wonder why. Oh well, who am I to understand the motivations of a little girl.
A couple of months have passed and a new saga has begun. The emergence of her grown-up teeth. Now this was something to be excited about. Real grown-up teeth! Just like mommy and daddy! And once again we've got the pulling of the bottom lip to show the world! She bubbles over with pride as she recieves Ooooo's and Ahhhh's from friends and family.
So what does this really boil down to? It's more than the losing and gaining of teeth. It's about the human experience for a family. The proud parents, the excited child, all growing up in their own way. Perhaps it's the fact that I'm experiencing all this for the first time along with my wife and daughter that makes this exciting. Or perhaps I'm just elated to see the joy in the eyes of these girls. Either way, I'm enjoying it and trying to remember it as much as possible, because it will be gone before I know it.
