On Playing Tooth Fairy

Bradley has been wiggling his front tooth for months now. I thought it would never fall out. At night when I would read him a book, he would listen to the story with his thumb in his mouth, wiggling away at his front tooth. Every night after we put the bookmark between the pages I would check it out and give it a little wiggle myself. “It’s getting looser!” I would always say. “Keep wiggling it everyday.” Sometimes I would try to grab ahold of it and pull, but no luck. It was a slippery little tooth.

I bought apples, carrots, corn on the cob, cucumbers; all kinds of crunchy stuff so maybe he would lose that tooth.

It just took him wiggling and messing with it until it finally fell out the other night. I was frying bacon for BLT’s for supper and he came in the kitchen with a wash rag hanging out his mouth and a tiny tooth in his hand. “It finally came out!” he said, smiling real big with a little bit of blood on his top lip.

“Yay!” I cheered. “Let me see! Does it hurt? Did you pull it out or did it just fall out?”  I wish I was there when it happened, and not in the kitchen cooking. But oh well, there will be other teeth falling out. With all these kids I think I will manage. I will have lots of teeth to collect.

And oh, he looks so cute with that open spot where the tooth used to be, just like a little boy in a Norman Rockwell painting that you see in calendars.

“The tooth fairy is coming tonight!”

We put his tooth in a baggy and tied it up. “This way,” I told him, “the tooth fairy will be able to find it when it’s under your pillow.”

It seemed to take forever for bedtime to come. I was as excited as Bradley for the tooth fairy.It felt like christmas all over again with the waiting and anticipation.

I stayed up as long as I could to make sure he was good and asleep. At 10:30, I grabbed my wad of ones and headed up the stairs to be the toothfairy. I was so tired I wished I had wings to fly me up the stairs.

I listened at the cracked bedroom door, resting my hand on the robot poster tacked to the front of the door. I could hear their little sleepy breaths, in and out. 

I didn’t hesitate. I plunged my hand quickly under the pillow, holding my breath, and searching for the plastic baggy with the little baby tooth. I couldn’t find it anywhere and started to panic, looking around on the floor, all the while searching under the pillow. What the heck? Where could it have gone?

He grinded his teeth (ugh, a sleeping habit that drives me crazy) and rolled over. I held very still, ready to duck under the bunk bed if he woke up.

When he rolled over, I noticed the baggy was stuck to the back of his upper arm. I snatched it quickly, hoping he wouldn’t feel the plastic coming off his sweaty skin, and simultaneously slipping the money under his pillow.

He settled in and never had a clue.

I went to bed, anxious for the surprise in the morning.

xxx

My Little Tough Guy

I don’t know why everything always seems to happen to Collin. Maybe it’s because he’s two. Maybe it’s because he’s a little dare-devil. Maybe it’s because he runs around like a little mad man. Maybe because he is just a crazy goofy kid. I don’t know. But over the weekend we had another injury.

He was on the platform of the swing set looking out of the opening and waving wildly at Grandpa Don, “Hi, Papa! Hiiiiii!!!!” and cheesing it up with that super cute honery grin.

And before we knew it he was falling out, face first, from the swing set. A horrible nose dive. It was like it was in slow motion, but Grandpa sure did move fast to try to catch him.

I took him and rushed him inside, holding him close. I wasn’t worried so much about the blood between his eyes, it was how he landed. I was so worried about his neck. But he was moving okay.

It actually looks a lot worse than it really is. It actually doesn’t seem to bother him that much, unless he sees a picture of it. When he looks at a picture of himself with the owie he holds his face and says, “Ow, mom. Ow!”  Otherwise, he has forgotten all about it.

Poor baby. Everything seems to happen to him. You can read about his finger that almost fell off here, or another bloody lip here… and the list goes on. He always has scraped up knees and bruises, but this was a little more than that.

Brad said, “I don’t think any other kids will want to mess with Collin. He is a little bad ass. Look at all that he’s been through and he’s only two. Tough little shit.”

He sure is.

And I think I have some gray hairs now.

xxx

Dog Language

The sun had just set and the sky was a pretty purple color of dusk. The sliver of moon sat at the top of our backyard. Bradley and I were sitting on the back steps, we just saw our first lightning bug for the summer! It was a perfect ending to a busy day; sitting on the warm steps and spending quality time with my oldest son, a cool breeze cooling us off. 

Then Bradley turns to me and says, “Mom, I know how to kiss you in dog language.”

“What?” I ask him, not sure of what he actually said.

And then he sticks out his slobbery tongue and licks my arm!

Nice.

I get it now.

I think I need to get Bradley some “human” friends.

xxx

Kindergarten Graduation

I didn’t think I was going to cry today. It was Bradley’s last day of school, not that big of deal. Nothing like sending him away for the first day of kindergarten, which you can read about here. But I cried. I couldn’t help it.

The little kid chairs were lined up in front of the stage. A large yellow paper sign was pinned onto the stage curtains.

Someone started the graduation music on a tape player and the cute little kindergarteners started filing into the chairs. They wore little construction paper graduation caps and large white shirts that looked like graduation gowns. I was okay through this part. I didn’t cry. I waited and watched for Bradley in line so I could get a good picture.

I started crying when the principal said that “if she did her calculations right” this would be the graduating class of 2024.

Oh, my! 2024

That hit me like a ton of bricks. Maybe it’s because it is so hard to wrap my head around the idea of the year 2024. Maybe it’s because I am just facing the fact that my first baby is starting to grow up. He is just starting his educational career. Maybe it’s because I do not want to picture a young man sitting and looking for me at a high school or college graduation (not that I don’t want him to graduate, I just don’t want him to grow up. AND this would also make me OLD…er!). I want him to stay this sweet and cute little kindergartener. He is already growing up too fast! NO!!!

I wiped the tears from my eyes. I smiled and waved as he peeked over the heads in front of him to smile and wave at his mom. It doesn’t matter how old he is… or when he graduates. It doesn’t matter if someday there is a young man looking through the crowd to smile and wave at me. I will always be his mom. And even when he is a young man, he will always be my baby.

xxx