Thalia bounded into my bedroom before the sun was even up with a smile so big, I could spot the missing tooth in the dark.
The first one gone.
I couldn’t help but be reminded of all those early childhood firsts–every week, so many new things to jot down (or uh, forget to jot down) in the baby book. The first smile. The first foods. The first words. The first crawl. The first steps.
It’s all so blissfully basic.
And to think that we worried about those things at one time.
As they get older, the firsts come no less quickly, but it’s as if they’re too complex to define as mere milestones. There’s no baby book page to document the first time she tells you she’s too old for Dora. The first time she walks into her classroom by herself. The first time she loses graciously. The first time she discovers how to really, really tell a knock knock joke so it works. The first time she defends her sister against a mean girl. The first “I hate you.” The first time a little boy breaks her heart.
Today, we just have the lovely simplicity of the first missing tooth.
I’ll take it.
Love this, Liz.
(and you could get her one of those flippers from Toddlers & Tiaras!)
You’re reading my thoughts and dreams, Marinka.
Great post… very true!
I’m so not ready for this. (does she have the tooth? In “One Day in Maine” it’s so shitty that her tooth falls into the mud where she’s digging for clams…not that Thalia was digging for clams, but still! Those things are the size of mini-chiclets!)
I remember that book!
Thalia woke up this morning with her tooth on her tongue. I’m just glad she didn’t swallow it…and then make me retrieve it.
We’re working on getting all the teeth IN. I don’t want to think about how soon we’ll be waiting for them to fall out.
It goes too fast…
It seems like days ago that I wrote that post about the tooth coming in. (Possibly the same one!) Fast indeed.
As a parent of a 44, 48, 49 year old let me tell you………the “firsts” don’t stop happening on a date specific. Maybe never. Love, DOUG
I love that, Doug!
I love this post. You’re right. The firsts keep coming. My youngest is getting her last teeth in now. My oldest… well, we’ve only got a year or two before hers start falling out. I put her in a leotard to try on her Halloween costume (butterfly), and my heart caught in my throat. She looked so old.
How does it happen!
Hello dear tenderhearted lady — I love your “first” riff. A tooth IS manageable. That first broken heart will most certainly break mine. xo
My older daughter has lost *seven* teeth. Between what’s gone out and what’s coming in her smile looks like a checkerboard. Ironic she’s a vampire for halloween, no?
Last night I played tooth fairy for the first time. Granted, it was because my 6-year-old had surgery to have a tooth pulled yesterday, but it was a first both for him and for me. Me…the Tooth Fairy…I feel so grown up. (Mind you, I could have waited for the first surgery. That was pretty hard on Mommy.)
Laura, we’re in the same boat! Raising a glass to you and our newfound adulthood.
Hope your kiddo is feeling better.
Sweetness. We have lots of tears/questions at our house as my son (5 and a half) waits to lose his first tooth. Many of his classmates have lost teeth already. The firsts keep coming and if only they could all be as simple as a lost tooth.
Oh you lovely woman, you. Sigh.
Oh, how this post makes my heart ache just a little bit. We just experienced Jakey’s first tooth and first steps, but we’ve also been watching Jakey do some not-so-easily describable things for the first time (putting the circle block through the correctly-shaped hole in the lid of his bucket). I’m constantly amazed as my little helpless baby becomes a boy, with brains and skills and a burgeoning sense of humor, and I can’t imagine how wonderful and terrifying this will all feel a few years from now.
I’m not sure I’m ready for this yet…
How excited was she about her first visit from the tooth fairy?
The last two will break my heart more than I can imagine. Love the celebration of this “first”.
Beautiful, toothless girl! Such pride and joy in that photo…I can feel it all the way down here in South Carolina!
Crap. I totally forgot to document the first tooth loss in my son’s baby book. I think I blogged about it though. That counts, right?
The little milestones are in our hearts always just as much as the “big” ones. 🙂
Oh, you all have no idea. My kids started Middle School, and now it’s “First time asked to a dance,” “First time un-asked to a dance,” “First time rolling my eyes and snorting and everything mom says.”
Good times.
I do love this stage — but it’s bitter sweet of lot of the time. Rather than sweet.
I miss those toothless times!
I think you should make a baby (kid) book with all these other firsts. Though I am so terrible and documenting them especially now with my second. (maybe an app then?) She just walked Monday, I wrote that down and then noticed all the blank spots were I forgot to note when she first stood on her own, first laughed, so many firsts and they all happen so quickly.
So poignant a post, brought about by such a natural and ordinary part of growing up.
Nothing like reliving these moments through a mother’s eyes.
Really heart warming…..
You’re really a Great Mom! The milestones and even the details of your child’s First Things, you wanted to keep an Eye! Not all moms could have notice those First Things, they even ignored it. I salute a Mom who really is that Keen and you’re one of them!