Hello, My Name Is The Tooth Fairy

My first baby lost her first tooth today.

All through the school year, Nutmeg has watched her friends show up to school with gaps in their mouths and get their names put on the tooth chart in her classroom. She has watched them wear teeth lost at school in little tooth reliquary necklaces distributed by the school nurse. She was waited.

Two weeks ago, we went to the dentist, which Nutmeg loves. While she was reclining in the chair, giggling from having her teeth "tickled," our dentist told her that her front two bottom teeth are loose.

Does every child lose those middle bottom two first? Does every child get those two first? They were first for Toth, that I remember since it only happened a few months ago.

The dentist said the teeth would be gone by the end of the summer. Nutmeg hoped it would happen sooner. She really wanted to see her name on that tooth chart.

Today, I was in the living room finishing up some work. Nutmeg was in the kitchen, "searching for a red mitton" in a puzzle from a Highlights magazine free sample that came in the mail. Remember Hidden Pictures? You know how it is when you're deep in thought? You chew at a cuticle or find that rough patch in your gum to worry with your tongue.

Or, you know, if you happen to have a loose tooth ...

"Mom!" she yelled.

"What?" I asked, without looking up from the screen.

"My tooth came out!"

I must have jumped halfway to the kitchen in one bound. I really wasn't expecting that to happen so soon!

I was surprised at how excited I was. My mind goes back to seeing the plus sign on the pregnancy test, seven years ago. We hugged. I cried.

"My big girl!" I said, and she grinned.

We called her dad, and while she talked I snapped her picture with her new grin, and then together, we sat down for a rite of passage that may well follow all big moments in her life.

We posted it on Facebook.

And guess who's crying in the other room right now with teething pains?


Here we go again.