Tooth Fairy Turmoil

Well, we may officially be the worst parents in the world now. Actually I take that back. Come on there are some horrible parents out there. But we definitely aren't going to win any prizes for this victory.

It was like Chloe thought she was dying.
Like she thought we were killing her.

Here are some of my excuses:

• Her teeth had been loose for like 100 years and even though she was supposedly wiggling them all the time, she wasn't.
• The teeth had changed color and were looking dead.
• They were just "hanging there".
  
• She kept complaining about things she couldn't eat (usually anything in her dinner). Those teeth were impeding any and all healthy eating.
• She stopped brushing her top teeth. (This one I had to be a detective about since I was noticing some serious funk was appearing underneath her teeth. Sick.)

So we did what any parent would do, we gave her an ultimatum. Either she wiggled her teeth hard all day and made them fall out or she wiggled them all day and then we pulled them out. Either way, they were going to be out that night before bed. Let's remember this is our first kid. It's not like we know what we're doing. We just wing it most of the time with good results. There were a few times though during this evening when we wondered what long-term scars we were creating. I mean Chloe is 5, you can reason with her and she understands what we're saying and why we're saying it. But she kept having these involuntary reflexes where she'd grab her mouth and try to cover it, or when her body would be convulsing and spasming in this elaborate escape maneuevers. (Good to know her instincts are working.) So we were forced to hold her down and when she asked if we were going to pull it, we avoided the truth and when she said, "You're just going to wiggle it." we answered with vague noises. I looked at Daddy and told him in Spanish that he had one and only one chance at this. He had to get it out because there was no way we could do this whole production again. Then the yelling came. Then it was out. Then we told her we were going to get them both out because there was no way we were going to go all through that whole ordeal again. So we did. And she cried partly in fear, partly in anger, partly in pain, partly in relief, and partly in sheer joy.

After some major pep talking about how brave she was and how awesome she looked, some love and a long, warm shower (to recover from the adrenaline), she was so happy. She told me she was glad we did it and she was even more glad that she didn't have to do the other one the next night. She even thanked us.

It turned out that one of them had this like hook piece on it holding it in. That's how it was able to still have so much hanging on even though it was so loose.

And of course the tooth fairy came to visit. Each tooth was dropped into it's own clear water. She named one tooth Adam and the other Eve. This tooth fairy was green--obviously because her fairy dust turned the water green. She got some craft projects, $2 and a letter telling her how brave she was and to make sure she wiggles her loose teeth harder in the future. The tooth fairy likes to throw in advice wherever she can. ;-)