My Son Looks Like a Boxer

He’s lost four teeth in the past four months. He even shared his gaps for Show and Tell two weeks ago because the slightly separate arches on the top row and the close arches on the bottom row formed the shape of a famous cartoon character. We call it “Mickey Mouth.” Needless to say, he’s been raking in almost as much from the tooth fairy as from allowance. We might need to sell some stocks if he keeps up this habit.

When we were in Arizona for my grandmother’s funeral, he showed me that two more teeth were loose. (We just got back last night. I’ll update you on the funeral trip in my next post.) Tonight he was spinning around, doing his own version of karate, when he fell to the ground crying. As soon as he cupped his mouth, I knew it. “You knocked a tooth out?”

He nodded and took the napkin I handed him to staunch the blood flow. Now he’s missing three on the top and two on the bottom. I don’t see any signs of the adult teeth popping out any time soon, so he’ll either need everything cut into little pieces or pureed for the next month or so.

His teacher had sent a fun assignment for him to complete for missing so much school. He wrote a story about what the tooth fairy does with all the teeth she takes. He imagined she painted them gold and made them into necklaces and bracelets. Ironic that he’ll have to edit the number of teeth he lost even in the short hours since he wrote the story.

A spike of root was still protruding from the hole when the bleeding stopped so I told him the tooth fairy might bring him something extra. Under his pillow he’ll find a dollar … and a “root” beer candy.

Which brings me to my suspicion: eventually, he’ll knock them all out and never have to brush his teeth. He’d love that!