All he wants for Christmas

... is his FOUR front teeth!

At least he has some cash in the meantime.

When we were at my folks house, just a few days before Kindergarten started, Corban had a little accident and broke (yes, broke, there are still four shards of tooth still in his mouth) his four front teeth out.  It was kind of a fluke accident and I got the impression that it hurt him badly (he came in and cried for the longest time, the kind of cry that makes my mom heart really throb).  Once we calmed him down enough to get into the mouth to check out the damage, my brother came running in with a tooth so we assumed he had lost a tooth.  Got him to show us his mouth and we found not one, not two, but FOUR teeth were missing.

We took him to Ken's childhood dentist and found that the teeth had made a clean break and that no extractions were needed immediately, so we set an appointment with our pediatric dentist and headed on our way. I could not get over his new face, it definitely took me some time to get used to his toothless look.  He's such a beautiful boy (mom speaking) and I could not believe that suddenly he looked like a second grader.

However, in his mind, it was just the best thing to ever happen.  I can't remember the exact quote, but when I took him to ice cream on the way home from the dentist, I asked him how he was feeling and if he felt sad.  He said, "I didn't like it but I'm super glad it happened." Huge smiles from the mom.  In one fell swoop he had suddenly lost more teeth than his sister!

We got home and the kids were all in bed (another reason why he felt so special to be up late with everyone's attention) and he started writing a note to the tooth fairy.  It was one of the funnier moments in my life, watching him put it all together.  He taped the tooth (the one of four) that he had on the paper and wrote the number 4 next to it.  Then he had me write a note to the tooth fairy explaining that the other four were in the grass.  He explained to me that she would go out and check.

And then my dad chimed in and Corban drew a picture of the tooth fairy (belly button and wings included) holding a FIVE dollar bill (no 4 dollars).  My dad added a little compliment for the tooth fairy and then Corban flipped it over and started drawing dollar bills with larger and larger denominations.  Ha ha.  It was so funny, a good way for me to find the humor in all of it.

Too bad for Corban (and my dad), the tooth fairy had only five one-dollar bills set aside for the boy-- four for the teeth and one for the pain and suffering.  He was pumped!!

The next morning:





Toothless...





The note (I keep it in my wallet so I can look at it.  It makes me smile every time.





I've gotten used to it.  In fact, now Avery's lost a few more teeth and it's my favorite joke that nobody in my family has any teeth!  Calvin has none, Avery's missing four currently another is wiggly, and Corban's four front are gone.  Enough with the tooth fairy already!  :)