Last Thanksgiving, while playing with her cousins, Madeleine bit into a basketball (don’t ask!) and when her cousin pulled it from her mouth, she felt something weird and asked me for a dental floss. Upon further inspection, it appeared her bottom tooth was A LITTLE BIT LOOSE.
I remember staring at her blankly and then immediately scheduling an appointment with the pediatric dentist because SURELY my BABY should not be losing her teeth just yet!
…then the dentist’s office called and cancelled the appointment because a 5-year-old having a wiggly tooth was actually totally okay.
** insert ALL the tears right here **
A few months later, right before bedtime, Madeleine proudly declared that she had LOST HER TOOTH.
Luckily, I’d picked up a little something at Goodwill to make the first Tooth Fairy visit a little more magical – this Floss & Rock Tooth fairy pillow and (not pictured) a Rainbow Fairy book featuring the Tooth Fairy!
Surely, I thought, we won’t see the Tooth Fairy for awhile after this. WRONG! I was SO WRONG! The following month, her other front bottom tooth fell out.
Also at night, while she was wiggling it before bed. SIGH. and for this one, I was not prepared beyond putting glitter hair gel on a $1 bill and making sure to LEAVE THE TOOTH because she was really upset when the tooth fairy took her tooth the last time.
Over the Spring and Summer, those two bottom adult teeth started growing in and eventually started to make me forget that she’d ever lost any teeth. They just looked like the other ones except more jagged on the top. I took the time to slowly start acquiring Tooth Fairy treasures.
Listen, I’m not a parent who wants to make things harder on myself. But Madeleine only has a short window of her life when she will believe in the magic of the Tooth Fairy and delight in whatever is left under her pillow, so I decided that each time she loses a tooth, she’ll get some sort of little treasure in addition to her glittery dollar.
When ANOTHER one of her bottom teeth came out, I WAS SO PREPARED. I had cute little fairy wings and a little jar of fairy dust and a new princess toothbrush ready for her.
She wrote on the little handmade envelope and everything. And wouldn’t you know, the excitement of the Tooth Fairy was overshadowed by a stomach bug that zipped through our family with SO MUCH PUKE. Hopefully the Tooth Fairy didn’t catch whatever was going around, but I have heard from a good source that she was out for a day.
Earlier this week I was watching Madeleine wiggling her super loose top tooth and I thought, “that thing will come out soon. I want to find a cute treasure since I used up all my other ones the last time.” and I immediately ordered a cute little Tooth Fairy bracelet on Amazon that would be delivered the next day. Because it was URGENT.
But of course, that night as the girls were settling into their beds, Madeleine said “Mommy, I’m sorry, I accidentally pulled my tooth out.”
I stood there for a minute and said “Hey Justen, I need to go to the store for some… creamer.” and I perused the aisles trying to find something that screamed TOOTH FAIRY TREASURE. I found this super cute Usborne Rainbow Fairy sticker book, which Madeleine LOVED.
So now Madeleine looks like… a kid. Even just looking at the difference between the first and last pictures in the post, it’s as if each lost tooth takes a little bit of her cute baby face away.
From the time she was born, I’ve tried to cherish every single moment. Every single milestone, every challenging part of watching her bloom, has been experienced and treasured. and somehow, here we are with a goofy little grin and her ADULT teeth poking through.
The days, as they say, are so long. The years? So short. so so short.
Shop some of my favorite Tooth Fairy Treasures here :
and check out my Tooth Fairy Treasure list on Benable!
