The Goo and The Tooth Fairy

Posted by on Jun 6, 2011 | 2 comments

The Goo and The Tooth Fairy

We have recently weathered a great storm.  A constant, unending barrage.  An unpredictable maelstrom.

We have survived Jack’s first loose tooth.

Losing the first baby tooth is a glorious occasion, a milestone eagerly anticipated in the Kindergarten set.  It has all the trappings of great drama: the excitement at realizing a tooth is coming loose, the giddy nonstop wiggling, the breathtaking suspense as it eventually hangs by the tiniest of threads, and the sleeplessness waiting for the Tooth Fairy’s inaugural visit.

Jack had all of those things, but he also had something else: nonstop sensory input.  Somehow the idea that a loose tooth in his head would go relatively unnoticed escaped us.  Silly, silly us.

We first noticed the tooth in question in a rather shocking manner.  I was taking photos of the boys while we waited for the Easter Train, and something looked askew in Jack’s smile.  David looked closer and called me over.  I was not prepared for what I saw.

That right there is Jack’s first adult tooth, already poking through behind the baby teeth still snug in his head.  We just thought one of his front teeth looked crooked.  It was, but that was only part of the story.  Jack had what they call a “shark tooth.”

Jack had been acting out a lot around then, which we were chalking up to not feeling well or challenges at school or being out on a two-week Spring Break.  All of these factors make for a disturbance in Jack’s force, causing problems with listening, paying attention, aggression and just generally being uncomfortable in his own skin.  It wasn’t until someone on the Facebook page mentioned their child had an issue with loose teeth that the light bulb went off.

It made complete sense.  Think about how much pain in your mouth bugs you.  Now imagine you have a problem with sensory input, and turn that bug dial up to eleven.  A loose tooth is no less than an electric current to the brain that won’t stop until it comes out.

Once I realized what was happening, I wanted that tooth out of his head.  Unfortunately, Jack wasn’t on board with my plan.  I told him to wiggle it and make it looser, and to try and pull it out.  He wouldn’t have any part of it.

“The goo is holding it in,” he said.  He said that eventually he would grow up and the “goo” would let go of his tooth and it would fall out on its own.  I was curious as to what, exactly, the “goo” was.

According to Jack, we have bones and skin and goo that holds us all together. “When you break something in your body, you go to the hospital where the doctor layers bones and glues them together with goo until it’s all together again and you can leave.”

Of course.

Eventually the little tooth was hanging by the tiniest of threads, and still Jack wouldn’t touch it.  I begged.  I cajoled. I bribed.  I feared he would swallow it while he slept.  Alas, Jack held to his goo theory and went to bed.  It fell out the next morning while he was getting dressed.

And there was much rejoicing… until Jack realized that the Tooth Fairy would be coming.  While he slept.  Jack was wholly convinced that TF would either a) touch him while trying to get the tooth and wake him up, or b) touch him and accidentally turn him into a present instead of the tooth.  I have no idea where he came up with that one.  Both options made him nervous.

Jack lay awake in his bed until close to midnight.

Jack finally fell asleep and The Tooth Fairy made his appearance (TF is a dude in this house, for some reason).  He brought Jack a shiny Loon (a Canadian one dollar coin) and new toothbrushes for all the boys.

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, the second that tooth fell out of Jack’s head he was back to “normal.”  He was firing on all cylinders at school and sharp as a tack at home.

Then we realized that his other front tooth was loose, too.

Thankfully, Jack took stock of the situation and decided losing his tooth wasn’t the traumatic experience he had anticipated.  He set upon making the second one come out post-haste, and tooth number two came out just a few days later.

Two down, eighteen more to go.  I’m sure they’ll all come out as easily and drama-free as tooth number two.

Right?

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