Pulling Teeth

New moms spend much time (I know I did) examining the mouth of their baby looking for signs of the first tooth.  I think that may be why babies cry so much.  The crying causes the mouth to open wide allowing Dentist Mommy a much easier time to check on those elusive pearly whites.  After a while, that one bump on the gum turns into a tooth and before you know it you're looking at a full set of beautifully new teeth!

After the baby/toddler stage/preschool stage, things began to change.  These teeth stop looking so exciting and begin to make sounds that sound a lot like a cash register; in fact, there have been times looking at my kids teeth that they began to talk and I swear I heard the sound of the "credit card receipt rip" coming from their mouths!

If things go well, around age 5 or 6 those pearly whites begin to fall out on their own.  It's at this stage that Snaggletooth and Bucky begin to seem like more appropriate names, but being good and kind mothers, we would never say that...out loud! 


Well, as I said, if things go well.  Our 2nd daughter was patiently waiting at age 6 1/2 to lose her first tooth.  It had seemed loose (or at least had SOME give) for so long, but just wouldn't take the big plunge.  But her day finally came.  Now TOOTH #1 was really, really loose.  What to do.

Of course, being a bit squeemish, I really dislike the idea of offering assistance in such a situation.  Not pulling a tooth out of another human being's mouth was #156 on my list of things I simply would NEVER do when I was a parent!  Thankfully, our daughter is fairly independent minded and didn't want my help anyway!  She had another plan.

We were getting home from vacation and Mr. Dangle Tooth was still hanging around.  We pulled in the garage after a 2-week vacation, at 8p.m. at night, and she scampered inside and upstairs.  Very tired, I looked up the stairs and locked eyes on impending insanity.  She was coming down with her Nerf Gun and a big, big, Snaggletooth grin asking if I knew where to find string.

Oh no, she wouldn't...

Oh yes, she would!

Since her tooth was everything but out anyway, we complied with her plan.  You guessed it, one end of the string was tied to the nerf dart, one end of the string was tied to her tooth and....WHAMMO....the tooth was shot about 8 feet into the middle of the room!  Success!!

Cheering, happy squeals and a 10 minute game of family scavenger hunt to find the tooth ensued!

Sometimes we just have to let them do the unthinkable (when it's safe to do so!) because, after all, they will be adults soon enough and will be thinking too much all the time then.

Mamas, saying no so often to our children can be more out of habit than out of necessity.  Are there more ways to add YES to your child's day?

I'm not saying nerf-dart tooth pulling should occur in every home.  Frankly, I can't believe it happened in mine!