A rite of passage

Evan lost his first tooth Saturday night! He was brushing his teeth and started crying, "My tooth is really loose and it's gonna hurt!" I got him to come to me and calm down and sure enough, his tooth could wiggle almost 90 degrees forward. It didn't really hurt him, it just kind of scared him. We were not expecting this to happen so soon, so we hadn't really talked about it a lot. Anyway, he calmed down and I asked him if he wanted me to pull it and he said yes. The first time I pulled it I thought I got it, but not completely. Another little tug and it was out. He didn't cry or complain or anything. I told him he was very brave, and he was very excited about the tooth and the hole in his mouth.

He asked what we would do the tooth and I told him about the tooth fairy before checking with Steve. (Again, we weren't quite prepared for this.) He was asking about the tooth fairy a few minutes later and I looked at Steve like, "Are we going to do this? Sorry I didn't ask before." I don't know if Evan noticed the hesitancy or not, but he asked, "Is the tooth fairy real?" I just looked at Steve and laughed. Apparently Evan decided he didn't need the answer to that question, because he went on with other questions like, "How does the tooth fairy know where it is?", and "When does the tooth fairy come?", and my favorite, "How many dollars does the tooth fairy leave?" I told him he may be expecting too much if he expects dollars.

As for the hole, he kept running his tongue through it and sticking his finger through it while we read before bed. One of the first things he did, though, was practicing the "l" sound, just to be sure he could still do it.

So, we put the tooth in the tooth fairy pillow that Steve used and left it on Evan's bed. In the morning he found lots of coins instead of the tooth. He had a dollar, but felt so rich that he shared with everyone! I thought that was so sweet. He found out later that he gave away more money than he meant to, but I have kept most of it for him. I was sick all day yesterday, but I heard him telling Steve, "I wonder when the tooth fairy did come. I thought I saw money in there (the pillow) when it was still night." Ahhh, always questioning and wondering. That is life with Evan.