Teeth

This is a picture of Cade's first lost tooth, a few month's ago.

Aidan just lost a tooth as he took a bite of a muffin.  Which doesn't speak highly of my muffins...I didn't think they were THAT hard, though. ;)

About a year and a half ago I took the kids for a family picture.  Aidan's teeth were wiggling, and I knew it would be years before we could get a picture without someone smiling that goofy, gaping  smile.  It's not so much the missing teeth, as the mix of large and little teeth in a kid's mouth, that is not very appealing.  Endearing, yes.  Attractive, no.  Oh, well.  Such is life.  And Aidan is only the  beginning.  When do kids move out of that, by age 12?  Because that means we're basically looking at 14 years of pictures with goofy teeth from at least one member of our family.  Well, better to have big teeth coming in than no teeth at all.  (I cringe when I think about bottle mouth kids I've seen.  Ick.)

My real problem with lost teeth is this whole tooth fairy thing.  How did that get started anyway?  I think the first tooth loss is pretty exciting, a sign of growing up.  However, I have a hard time maintaining enthusiasm for tooth after tooth.  And, now that we have more than one kid losing teeth-there are a lot of teeth floating around here.  These poor kids expect the tooth fairy to come for each tooth-and frankly, by 10:00 at night, she just forgets.  Another problem is that the Walsh tooth fairy very rarely has cash on her.  I feel bad every morning the kids wake-up, disappointed that the tooth fairy didn't come.  I tried to talk the boys into writing a note to the tooth fairy requesting a lump payment, something like $10 for the first tooth, and all the other teeth.  They should've done it.  Now, it's pretty much $1 for the first tooth and nothing but disappointed mornings for all the rest of the teeth.  I was a Santa believer for a ridiculously long time, but even my belief in the tooth fairy bit the dust at an early age.  The Wilson tooth fairy apparently couldn't keep up either.  I guess that's just part of life.  Another sign of growing up.

Still, I feel guilty right now, knowing Aidan won't be visited by the tooth fairy tonight.  Humpf, parenthood.