The Week of Teeth

Four of my daughter's adult teeth arrived too fast, too cramped, and too well, not positioned over the last six months. The baby teeth however, refused to budge, leaving my daughter's smile more than vaguely sharklike. Eery, in fact. I wanted to pluck the leftover mushrooms out. She, being of sound mind, was not having me anywhere closer than necessary to all things dental. It was driving me crazy, and I was looking forward to her next dental appointment, made last year!! So that the Dentist might pull the little ramoras off. There are six kids in my family, none of us ever had any kind of orthodontia, some of us have never even had a cavity. All of these children's children, though, have run the gamut of dental experts up and down the severity and complex chart. That biological Gene pool-skip stuff.  On top of that genetic possibility, my daughter's biological father is British. So.

Monday, my little one said, “Mommy, I can twist this top tooth.” Ahhh, yeah, I remember that, I thought. Cooool. Sure enough, the tooth came home after school in this tiny treasure chest, having not withstood even more twisting in the halls of academia. The tiny treasure ensconced tooth was placed under the pillow, and goodnights were said

The tooth fairy woke up to pee, and tiptoed into the tooth waiting area. My daughter's room faces east and streetlamps.  I felt under the pillow. Arm, hand. Wouldn't move. Sigh, from me. More probing. I deposited the coins in a stack, felt in vain once more for the chest, and tiptoed out. At 6 AM, still dark, I went back in to see if I could get the tooth. My daughter said, “Hi there.” Oh! I came in to see if she took any of your stuffed animals. I laughed. No. She told me. No animals. But she left me 75 cents and a Chucky Cheese coin.

I laughed again, well, that was cool, thoughtful too.

Mommy, she left the tooth.

Oh, I said, where was it?

It fell on the floor.

Well, she got tired of looking, I guess. OK, I'm going back to bed.

Me too.

That was it.

Tuesday. Second tooth, different color treasure chest, more coins, this time I could reach the tooth. Found it. The smile is looking almost normal on top! Just one hanging mushroom off to the left of the middle left.