The Toothless Wonder

by Lorna

Okay, I've been a mom for almost 15 years now and have three children, but this is a new one for me. Not an unheard of event among children, but new for me. Reed's preschool called me at work today during lunchtime to tell me that he had managed to knock out one of his top front teeth. He was leaving the bathroom area in his room and apparently did not look where he was going and walked smack into the wall. He completely knocked out the tooth, root and all. It would take something major happening to my children to really get me worked up, and it WAS one of his baby teeth, so I wasn't all that upset about it. I called the dentist and they wanted to see him, so I picked him up and took him over there. They said there wasn't much to be done about it; he was just going to look a little more "mature" (read: about 6 years old) for a couple of years until the permanent tooth came in. I talked to Reed about what exactly had happened. He said:

"I went potty after lunch. I was in the middle. I turned around to look at Trevor and then I bounced off the wall and my tooth came out."

I took him back to school after the dentist because he wasn't in any pain and seemed generally unperturbed about it all. However, this evening, he does seem concerned. Apparently, another child told him he was scary so he's now worried that he looks funny. However, on the brighter side of things, he has now been made aware of the Tooth Fairy's existence and thinks that's pretty cool. Money for a tooth. What a concept!

This was Reed a couple of months ago:
















This is Reed now: