Another first

Yesterday, Thalia did that thing she does when she’s proud of herself. She raised her hands in a V, a look of triumph across her face, then raced toward me in that position, across Christina‘s den, finally swinging her arms around my body to hug me tight.

The first loose tooth.

So many of her friends had lost teeth already, Thalia started to wonder when it would happen for her. (Eh, typical Brooklyn kids, even overachieving in the dental health department.) But then, for Thalia the teeth came in late; why wouldn’t they go out late?

On one hand, I felt a little emotional about the end of all those firsts, the things you write in baby books. (Or, uh, don’t.) But then my mind, as it has a tendency to do), started to fast forward, through a list of firsts you don’t see in the baby books.

The first lost tooth.

The first morning waking up to the tooth fairy’s reward.

The first adult tooth.

The first cavity.

The first sleepover party

The first secret club.

The first crush that you don’t understand.

The first broken heart.

The first mean girl.

The first BFF that lasts.

The first walk to school by yourself.

The first soccer tournament.

The first chapter book read under the covers by flashlight.

The first B where you felt you deserved an A.

The first crappy boy band you love.

The first crappy girl band you love.

The first gold medal

The first realization that every kid got a gold medal.

The first time it strikes you that your parents might not know everything.

 

I’m ready for some of them. Not all, but some.

Of course Nate would tell me, shut up Liz. It’s just a wiggly tooth.

{19 Comments}

19 thoughts on “Another first”

  1. Allow me to reinforce that men and women are different. We read significance into lots of things. Some men dont. Dave Barry has a hilarious essay http://raysweb.net/poems/articles/berry.html on the topic.

    But now is the time for all good Toothfairies to get their sh*t together and decide how much each tooth is worth. (We did a $2 for the first one and will do $1 for subsequent.) And depending on Thalia’s manners, it might be worth a letter explaining that she prefers clean teeth.

  2. Oh my almos 6 year old can’t wait for her first lost tooth. Im also not ready for all these firsts! Especially the one that just happened: her first kiss!

  3. I love your description of Thalia’s triumphant run to you. Congratulations to her on her first lost tooth! I had not yet thought about all those firsts when it comes to my one-year-old son, but I guess there really is a first time for everything (including jet-skiing, horseback riding and planting basil).

  4. Unfortunately, mine got the mean girl experience IN FIRST GRADE.

    Those firsts come along whether you’re ready for them or not.

    Congrats on her first loose tooth!

  5. How about the first time she reads one of your posts and realizes that you love her right down into every atom of the cells that make up your body……

    And hope and pray that you don’t get the idiot tooth fairy WE got who left $5 for the first tooth and set a precedent that she couldn’t get out of. I mean, don’t these tooth fairies have conventions or something where they spell it all out for the new ones? Sheesh…….

    1. Aw Bren, what a lovely thought. I hope she knows that now.

      And I hope that when she forgets it later, she can come here and see that she was all wrong.

    1. Eh, I’d rather give her a buck and save the rest for those $25,000 7 year-old birthday parties I hear we’re supposed to be having here.

  6. So sweet and so true. It’s hard for our minds not to race to the next big thing. I think it’s a mom thing. Congratulations on the first tooth!

  7. Love this post! My husband would react exactly like Nate. And I would react exactly like you. Did you ever decide how much the tooth fairy would be leaving?

  8. I’m a NYC mom and in manhattan we have seen kids get $20s for teeth! No way we can play with that- take a tip from me to you and call on the international tooth fairy! She’s fun, affordable, the coins fit into piggy banks and it’s educational! Yesterday, a Euro, today, a Shekel, tomorrow a pence…

  9. it will be a lovely moment too when she her first boyfriend takes to home:D my little boy already takes the girlfriends to our home, it’s always funny, he’s a real mucho with his 5years..

  10. I love this for the milestones I am currently sharing with you and for the alternating joy and dread I experience in my heart over the ones to come.

    My small girl is working on her 7th lose tooth. The six she has lost have all come in – or, well… we could say they are *trying* considering the lack of room and all that thumb-sucking. They aren’t straight. But someday – that ‘orthodontics’ milestone will provide an answer.

    Oh – and our Tooth Fairy? She recycles. She has been gifting the very same silver dollars she gave me as a child. So far, they are unique enough that the lack of multiple dollar bills has been largely ignored.

    Good luck, Mom….. xoxo

  11. OH! This hits me right at the moment I am feeling SO aware of how fast my children are growing! It’s NOT just a wiggly tooth! Well, it is, but it’s also exactly as you say: worthy of pause and reflection and appreciation. Revel in the sentimentality, you’ve earned it!

  12. Our Tooth Fairy gave us Susan B Anthony dollar coins (in the early 80s). They seemed so exotic to us at that age, plus they were too precious to just waste on gum

  13. as an “old” parent of teenagers, I find myself wishing I could remember and had memorialized the “lasts”. Unfortunately, you don’t know when it’s the last diaper, the last nap, the last hug in public … sigh. I envy all of you with the firsts ahead of you. My parents send the kids $2 bills in cards for the various holidays. They won’t spend them or bank them and have quite a collection.

    1. That’s such an interesting perspective, you’re right. You can never quite anticipate the lasts.

      Although the last diaper? I don’t look at that one with much melancholy at all. YAY FOR THE LAST DIAPER.

  14. I never considered my child losing her teeth to be an emotional experience for me. But after reading this blog I realize that I’m going to feel sad because it’s a sign that my baby is growing up! Unfortunately, we’ve already been through her first cavity which was sad for a whole different reason! I found some great tips and advice on caring for kid’s teeth in this Mom’s Guide.

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