Almost every day of this school year, Harrison has gotten a ride home from one amazing mama friend or another (and sometimes his Daddy); that really is not the focus of this post, but it has been the biggest help in the world to me (allows me to get other kids fed and to bed for naps before he gets here) and I figured that with the school year ending this week, they deserved a shout-out (Thanks, L, L, & D!). Here’s the part that pertains to today:

As Harrison was in the process of climbing out of my friend’s minivan (and she and I were chatting because, hi, that’s what those 2-5 minutes in the driveway are totally for), he excitedly announced hollered, “I HAVE A LOOSE TOOTH!”. Now, I’m not sure why, but after giving him my drop-jawed surprised face look, I turned to my friend to confirm, as if perhaps she could explain to me how such a monumental I-am-becomming-a-big-kid moment could happen in the span of one morning at preschool. She did, by the way, agree that this was The Big News of the ride home, and was glad that he had told me so it could be his news and not her news.

“He is almost six,” she reminded me, as I think my drop-jawed surprised face look lingered. Apparently I’m oblivious to the obvious fact that, yes, my first baby is growing up. First it was Kindergarten round up, and then a comment about how much older he’s looking suddenly, and now this. A loose flipping tooth!

Just last week I was scrolling through Pinterest (as one does) and saw a cute little pillow with a tooth pocket on the front where one could, in theory, leave a lost tooth and then find a surprise from the Tooth Fairy the next day and I honestly paused to took at it and wonder, when would that happen in our world? Clearly not for a very long time. Right?

Wrong!

In less than three hours of even learning about the wiggly lower front tooth, the sucker was out! And really? Thank heavens, because lunch was a nightmare (trying to get HD to eat his normal PB&J and PB&H sandwiches? traumatic, as he was in tears for most of the attempted meal because of weird/painful bites and plain old odd discomfort even though it was the aforementioned, relatively soft food!), and he would not for a second keep his hands out of his mouth.

I was surprised, however, because it actually came out shortly after I got the kids up from nap while he was sitting in break-in-the-action, so when I came into the living room from the kitchen to talk with him and (attempt to) move on with the rest of the afternoon, there he was, gap-in-the-grin and tooth-in-the-hand, just like that! Do they normally come out that fast?!

Thanks to the beauty of the interwebs, I was able to quickly survey Facebook to find out what people are doing for Tooth Fairy duties these days. The “golden” dollar coins and two-dollar bills seemed to get the majority vote, and fortunately no one mentioned a single word about fashioning a unique and hand-crafted tooth pillow (my Pinterest skills have been used for this month!). We did manage to convince Big Man that he should leave his tooth in the kitchen and that is where his surprise will be waiting for him in the morning. I’m not sure how we pulled that one off, but here’s hoping it is a precedent we can maintain for the next 6-8 years of kids in our family losing teeth (how long does the whole Tooth Fairy thing last, anyway??) because it sounds sooooo much easier than remembering to crawl into their dark bedrooms at night to slip a golden coin (which somehow I managed to get from the bank, kid-free and before the lobby closed for the day!) under a pillow.

HD’s take on the whole thing now that he can comfortably chew and eat again? “I have a new smile now!” Darn right, Kiddo; and it’s a good one!