I was beginning to think my baby girl was never going to loose her baby teeth. It seemed Ella was the last child in first grade who still had not gotten a visit from the tooth fairy. She was a late bloomer in getting her teeth as an infant. She was 10 months old before the first one popped through. It wasn't too surprising when all her classmates started getting wiggly teeth and she didn't. More than a year ago, her cousin Abby, who is only 4 months her elder, started dropping teeth by the handful. Ella has anxiously been awaiting this passage into childhood every since. But month after month, there has been nothing to report.
Then in January at our dental check up the dentist informed us that Ella did indeed have two wiggly teeth on the bottom row! Ella was so excited and has been working at getting those teeth loose every since. It has been a very slow going process, but it finally happened. On Wednesday, April 1st (no foolin') the first one popped out. Literally, it just popped out when she was taking off her shirt to get into the shower. It fell right into her hand. The tooth was so ready to come out that it hardly bled at all. Something I was grateful for since the site of blood when Marley lost her first tooth sent her into memorable hysteria.
Ella couldn't wait to share her news. She immediately started making phone calls to tell everyone who would listen. The cutest phone call was to her cousin Abby who shared equally in her excitement. Abby had been worried that Ella would loose her teeth while we were on our Disney vacation the prior week. She was worried the tooth fairy would not find us in Florida. Ella just couldn't wait to show Abby the hole in her mouth the next day when she got to school.
But first she placed the tiny little tooth in her adorable little tooth fairy pillow. The pillow has been in her dresser drawer for the best part of two years just waiting for this opportunity to arrive. The next morning Ella was delighted to find that the fairy came, took her tooth and left her a little money in return.
And then, just six days later, the second one fell out. It had been hanging by a thread for about two days. Ray and I had both done our best to encourage Ella to pull it out. She refused. Last night we were at McDonald's eating dinner while I watched her having great difficulty chewing her food because of the tooth. As she finished her meal and threw away her trash, again I encouraged her to pull it. Again. she refused saying, "I don't want it to come out until it is ready." As I tried to grab it in protest, she put her hand to her mouth to block me and WHAM! The tooth fell right to the floor! Apparently, it was ready!
On April 7th, the tooth fairy made a return trip to our house.
I just love Ella's new smile. Class pictures will be taken at school in two weeks. Finally, her smile will fit right in with the rest of her classmates.
