Monday, September 15, 2008

milestone reached by brute force

I went to pick up Seth and Maryn from a birthday party on Saturday afternoon to find Seth sitting on his friend's dad's lap crying and bleeding. Apparently, Seth and two of his buddies were wrestling in the jumping castle when Seth took a knee to the chin. The impact knocked one tooth completely out and loosened the other one significantly.
It took him a good hour to calm down and stop whining about his tooth. Finally he said to me "Mom, I can feel the space that my tooth left in my mouth and I'm getting kind of excited." (Excited about the tooth fairy, which he had never heard of, which I had just finished telling him about, which now I regret doing.) He had trouble eating for the rest of the day because he kept forgetting about the remaining wobbly tooth and biting into hard things like bread.
"Mom, how is my tooth ever going to feel better?"
"When you decide to be brave and let me pull it out."
"Will it hurt?"
"No more than having your other one knocked out."

He woke up the next morning with four shiny quarters under his pillow. (Tooth fairy payments have increased significantly since I was 5 and losing teeth.) He spent the whole morning wiggling and fretting over the remaining tooth until finally he came up to me and said "Mom, I'm ready to be brave." (I admit, I was still a little nervous to pull it out, my biggest fear was that I wouldn't get it out on the first try.) After one swift yank later, the deed was done. He didn't even cry and patiently bit down on a wad of tissue paper until the bleeding stopped. That tooth still had a considerable amount of root on it (about 3-4 mm for you dentally-inclined types). It probably wouldn't have fallen out on its own for 2-3 more months.

I think he's going to have those two huge holes in his mouth for a while, so I'm really glad it wasn't his top teeth.

Seth's just excited to have earned two dollars in two days.

8 comments:

Lara Neves said...

Sounds like he earned it well, though.

Chloe just got a tooth knocked out similarly yesterday by Bria. :)

Pat and Dave said...

If I can remember that far... I think the rate circa 1959-1960 was one dime per! How much did the Tooth Fairy leave you, Tina?
-Papa

Huebner's said...

What a cute boy! Work is good - the office is doing great! We have a new associate now... she's GREAT!

Carlie said...

trevor had prosthetic teeth put in when his front 2 were knocked out too early. when those were busted out too, they left them out. thus, most of his pre-kinder years have big toothless grins.

Pat and Dave said...

I love pulling teeth! I haven't pulled one yet this year.... I'm in a dry spell!

You are right in thinking you only get one shot at pulling it! Better make sure you get it the first time!

Good idea you used tissue to grab it. I use 2: one for grabbing, one for biting! I make them count to 100! I think I missed my vocation.... although dentistry is much more than pulling baby teeth! Giving shots would drop me in my tracks!

Mom

Mindy said...

Wow!! What a milestone. That is a big deal! (good thing they are the bottom teeth, he is probably a year away from growing them in, don't you think?) I am dreading Bailey losing her first teeth. Actually, I think I am more concerned about the permanent one's coming in and them being huge or something. I am glad I have slow tooth growers!

Jonathan G.Thwaits said...

Seth is such a gangster!

peachytiffers said...

I can't believe you did that! Just thinking about it makes me cringe!!!