The Saga of the First Tooth

On September 23, we noticed Rachael's front tooth was loose when she bit into a bite of pizza crust and her tooth hurt. I know it was that day, because two days later we took this picture because I wanted to make sure and have some first grade pictures with her teeth.

By Thanksgiving, it was loose enough that she could wiggle it with her tongue and use her bottom teeth to move it back and forth.  You can kind of see in this picture how she can make it sit kind of crooked.

I thought for sure it would come out sometime in December... she worked and worked on it, but to no avail. it sure got more and more crooked, though!

Her friend Camilla had two loose teeth in front which her sister accidentally knocked out while they were rolling down a hill, so Camilla was singing "All I Want for Christmas..." this year!

On Christmas Eve we tried to pull it out, but it just wasn't quite ready.  I think with a good hold I would have been able to get it, but teeth are slippery! A few days later she said she could feel her new tooth coming in underneath the old one, so I looked, and sure enough, it was there.  So we decided it was time for this one to go.  Ryan looked at how it was still attached in her mouth and told her to get her thumb behind it and push hard.  The first push drew some blood and she flipped out a little bit, but we encouraged her to try again and on the second push it flew out of her mouth and landed on the floor.  She was still a little flipped out about the bleeding, but she was so excited that the tooth fairy was coming and the tooth was out that she was jumping up and down in no time.  And now for the pictures:

 Holding her tooth

 The tooth!

And a picture of her new smile

We read "The Night Before the Tooth Fairy," then safely tucked her tooth in it's little pillow.  She is a crazy sleeper, so she asked if she could hang the pillow on her headboard instead.

The next morning the tooth fairy left $5, a gold dollar coin, a tiny little note, and a trail of glitter out the window.  (Note to the tooth fairy: glitter gets everywhere.  What were you thinking?)

Now she is making plans on how to spend her new riches.... and working on her next loose tooth!