Nothing But the Tooth

Today's the big day! Sweet Pea's first loose tooth finally fell out around 10:00 this morning, right as Slipshod was giving her a hug and a kiss before he left for work (which was kinda cool, because he often misses the big firsts due to being the breadwinner in our family and having to do that whole leaving the house to go to work thing).

She's pretty excited.

Now, the original plan was to give the tooth to the tooth fairy, as is our American custom, and with that in mind I sewed a special pillow last week out of fabric Sweet Pea chose, with a little pocket on the front to hold the tooth until the tooth fairy picked it up.

That was the first time I had sewn anything for/in front of the girls, and Sweet Pea decided that I can probably make anything out of fabric since she's seen me make a pillow, so she immediately asked me to make a dress for one of her favorite stuffed animal cats. NOW she wants a whole wardrobe for the cat - a shirt to wear to bed, other clothes, a blanket... uh-oh, what have I gotten myself into? Of course, I sort of have to stop sewing when I run out of pillow fabric scraps, so there is a built-in finish. Until she discovers my 30 gallon plastic tub of scraps in the garage.

The plan for the tooth has been changing. First Sweet Pea was all excited about the Tooth Fairy, especially when I told her that when I was little and put a tooth under my pillow, the Tooth Fairy would sometimes send me on scavenger hunts to find my precious reward. Then one day Sweet Pea decided that she didn't want to give the Tooth Fairy her teeth, then she wanted to just keep the tooth for a few days before giving it up, and then this morning, when the tooth actually fell out, she decided she wants to keep it. During breakfast that choice changed to, "I want to wait until I can read better so I can do the scavenger hunt by myself because sometimes when I wake up, you're still sleeping."

All of this ambivalence is good for the Tooth Fairy, who had something very special planned for Sweet Pea's first tooth and then discovered it was a bad idea which will need to be returned for a refund. The Tooth Fairy has been hoping all weekend that her second idea would pan out and arrive today because that tooth was obviously coming out really soon. But now the Tooth Fairy doesn't have to worry and can take her time while Sweet Pea decides for sure what she is going to do with her first tooth.

I think I'm going to call the dentist's office today to find out how to keep/preserve baby teeth. I would just stick it in a box or something except that I was there when my mom was cleaning out her jewelry box years ago and discovered that all of our baby teeth (from all 4 of us) had turned to dust inside the pill bottles where she had kept them. There may be a trick to this. Mom theorizes that the plastic of the bottles may have had something to do with the disintigration of the teeth, but we have no way of knowing whether or not that is true. One of the moms at school today told me that her dentist's office has a special little box for the first tooth, so you can keep it forever. Hmm... research required. I'll get back to you if I discover anything amazing on the subject.

In the mean time, Sweet Pea has taken her tooth, safe inside a little metal box with a plastic lid, to school to share with her classmates, most of whom are younger and none of whom (I think) have yet lost a tooth. She's having a lot of fun being the "big girl" this year.