The first lost tooth

Jonah came to me a few weeks ago and showed me a "bump" in his mouth...

...That turned out to be a tooth coming in!

He had just been into see the dentist a few weeks prior and I had a dentist appointment a few days later so I asked about it and our dentist recommended we have it pulled if the baby tooth wasn't very loose.

I told Jonah that we would have to pull it if we couldn't wiggle it out ourselves...

He gave a valiant effort, wiggling it all the time, and actually he made quite a bit of progress before we went it to have it pulled. 

I had to have quite a few teeth pulled as a child due to a small jaw, so I was able to ease a bit of his anxiety with my own personal experience.

I told him he would get to breathe in a special medicine that would make him feel relaxed and that the dentist would numb it up a bit, but it would probably hurt a little and then be over.

He was pretty excited to lose his first tooth so that helped the anxiety.

Here he is right before the big event!

He was so brave for the whole "procedure" and it went very well. 

I was probably more nervous that he was!

The dentist was patient, and said unfortunately he will probably have to come back and have more teeth pulled down the road as he has inherited my "teeth troubles"

It almost looks as though the tooth next to the one he had pulled would also be in the way, but the dentist was ok waiting.  That tooth wasn't loose at all so it would be much more difficult to remove.  He didn't want to make this a negative experience since we would probably be back again for more teeth pulled later.

Here is the proud tooth-missing-5-year-old!

We celebrated by going out to dinner at the place of his choice: Italian Moon.

I think he has been hanging out with Grandpa too much (that's his favorite place too).

Jonah was so proud and showed his tooth to anyone who would look: the neighbors, a sweet old lady in the parking lot at the grocery store, and even the manager of the restaurant.

Somehow he ended up getting $4 from these people!

I was worried this would affect the $0.25 the tooth fairy was planning on bringing.

Her budget is a little lower and 3 little mouths full of teeth = $$

The best part was this morning when he found the quarter from the tooth fairy and was so excited!

He had me write a note to the tooth fairy asking if he could please keep his tooth.

I did and regretted the decision when he announced this morning that he had packed his tooth in his backpack to show his teacher and class.

Hopefully that doesn't cause any problems!

Jonah was pretty sure no one else had lost a tooth yet, and he brought a book his Grandma Teresa had given him "Moose's Loose Tooth" to share for story time.

(The substitute teacher told me she thought there probably wasn't a single person at the school who hadn't seen his tooth!)

Jonah, 

        I am so proud of how brave you were!  I love that the excitement of this milestone was enough to distract you from too much anxiety and pain during the whole process! I am also in denial that you are old enough to loose teeth!  It seems like just yesterday your dad and I were shrieking with joy over your 1st tooth coming in!  It is going to take me awhile to get used to that tooth-missing grin.

      Don't forget! It isn't a race to grow up! Take it slow.

Love, Mom