Lost First Tooth Written By: Niki Ishikawa
"IT FELL OUT. DADDY IT FELL OUT."
Captain Awesome comes running into our room bursting with excitement.
"IT FELL OUT. IT FELL OUT. I WAS SLEEPING AND IT FELL OUT."
My husband, who's side of the bed is closest to the door sat up and responded almost immediately with just as much excitement as our eldest son's.
"Alright...Let's see it," he sort of whispers with anticipation as he turns on his bedside light. "Cool. Show Mommy."
I heard all the commotion, but am still laying there with my eyes closed, snuggled under the blankets, trying to get just one more minute of sleep. After all, I couldn't have been asleep that long, it still feels dark out. It can't be time to get up, not yet. I hear his little body round our bed and approach my side. He's standing in front of me, I can feel his delight and pure joy radiating onto me. I can't help but feel excited for him too. He's been waiting for this day for months.
"Mommy look. My tooth. It fell out, while I was sleeping."
"It did?"
I begin to get up, attempt to pull myself up to sitting, and reach for the light, when I hear.
"Oops. I dropped it."
"What? You dropped it? Where?"
I scramble for the light and turn it on. Meanwhile Captain Awesome is running his hands up and down the sheets of our bed looking for that first lost tooth. My husband jumps out of bed and turns the overhead light on. I begin to panic, what if we've lost it for good? In my panic and sleepy fog, I grow short with my little boy.
"Where did you drop it?"
Part of me is afraid to move, because I believe he has somehow dropped it onto me, and I don't want the tooth to fall off of me onto the bedding or carpeting to be swallowed up forever, but I know I need to help him. I begin feeling the same places he has already felt on top of the quilt and along the fitted sheet.
My oldest son has been anticipating this moment for the past few months basically since school started, but has been extra focused on it since his tooth first wiggled only days after Christmas. He can name all of his classmates that have missing teeth and how many teeth they've lost. He has been working on loosening his tooth, biting into each food he eats with growing anticipation. It was a macadamia nut, that finally did it, just two days ago, causing his tooth to hang to one side attached by a tiny corner.
"Mommy, if you lose your tooth at school, the nurse gives you a little box to take it home in." He assured me when I sent him to school worried that he would lose the tooth at school.
I have been waiting for this moment since the day he was born when my mom gave me a little porcelain box divided in two. It is shaped and painted like a tiny fire truck, on it reads, "first tooth" and "first curl". I collected the curl only days after his first birthday when his grandma cut his hair for the first time. But the tooth, we've all been waiting for it.
Even his great gram, anxiously awaited this day, over five years ago, giving Captain Awesome a hand knit Sherlock Holmes doll, who's sole purpose is to guard the precious tooth in his messenger bag, ensuring the safe transaction of tooth for money with that mysterious tooth fairy.
But Captain Awesome, he's not worried about his lost tooth. He's too fascinated with the new hole inside his mouth.
"It feels weird," he says as he stops searching for the tooth in my bed. He stands on the side of the bed facing me with both his tongue and first finger simultaneously feeling the gap where that infamous tooth just vacated.
"Mommy look it's gone. My tooth fell out. Feel it. It feels funny."
I stop my search too and breath in the present moment. He's excited, overjoyed to have lost his first tooth. This is my time to celebrate with him. It is not time for me to be short with him for waking me up too early or snap at him for dropping his coveted first tooth.
I take in that precious moment and look at him. My six year old child. His soft, beautiful, innocent face. His newly changed somewhat goofy smile. He pushes out his lower jaw, accentuating that empty space. Oh how I love this child.
"Mommy feel it."
I touch the space where his tooth fell out and smile. I am reminded of how strange it felt when my own baby teeth fell out.
"Wow..." is all I can say. I am overwhelmed by this moment. My son is growing and changing so quickly and while it amazes me, it somewhat saddens me, for it reminds me that he is not a baby anymore and before I know it, he will be a grown man. It seems like just yesterday when I first felt the little bump of that same tooth cutting through my chubby 8 month old baby's bottom gums. I stop and breath in the moment again. I cherish it for what it is. I kiss him and hug his little body.
"We better find that tooth, so the tooth fairy can leave you some money tonight."
I gently shake out my night gown and then feel around the fitted sheet again, lifting my body up off the bed slightly, that's when I feel it, that hard little tooth under my hand.
"Here it is."
I drop it back into his little hand and we both stop and stare at it in awe.
Captain Awesome comes running into our room bursting with excitement.
"IT FELL OUT. IT FELL OUT. I WAS SLEEPING AND IT FELL OUT."
My husband, who's side of the bed is closest to the door sat up and responded almost immediately with just as much excitement as our eldest son's.
"Alright...Let's see it," he sort of whispers with anticipation as he turns on his bedside light. "Cool. Show Mommy."
I heard all the commotion, but am still laying there with my eyes closed, snuggled under the blankets, trying to get just one more minute of sleep. After all, I couldn't have been asleep that long, it still feels dark out. It can't be time to get up, not yet. I hear his little body round our bed and approach my side. He's standing in front of me, I can feel his delight and pure joy radiating onto me. I can't help but feel excited for him too. He's been waiting for this day for months.
"Mommy look. My tooth. It fell out, while I was sleeping."
"It did?"
I begin to get up, attempt to pull myself up to sitting, and reach for the light, when I hear.
"Oops. I dropped it."
"What? You dropped it? Where?"
I scramble for the light and turn it on. Meanwhile Captain Awesome is running his hands up and down the sheets of our bed looking for that first lost tooth. My husband jumps out of bed and turns the overhead light on. I begin to panic, what if we've lost it for good? In my panic and sleepy fog, I grow short with my little boy.
"Where did you drop it?"
Part of me is afraid to move, because I believe he has somehow dropped it onto me, and I don't want the tooth to fall off of me onto the bedding or carpeting to be swallowed up forever, but I know I need to help him. I begin feeling the same places he has already felt on top of the quilt and along the fitted sheet.
My oldest son has been anticipating this moment for the past few months basically since school started, but has been extra focused on it since his tooth first wiggled only days after Christmas. He can name all of his classmates that have missing teeth and how many teeth they've lost. He has been working on loosening his tooth, biting into each food he eats with growing anticipation. It was a macadamia nut, that finally did it, just two days ago, causing his tooth to hang to one side attached by a tiny corner.
"Mommy, if you lose your tooth at school, the nurse gives you a little box to take it home in." He assured me when I sent him to school worried that he would lose the tooth at school.
I have been waiting for this moment since the day he was born when my mom gave me a little porcelain box divided in two. It is shaped and painted like a tiny fire truck, on it reads, "first tooth" and "first curl". I collected the curl only days after his first birthday when his grandma cut his hair for the first time. But the tooth, we've all been waiting for it.
Even his great gram, anxiously awaited this day, over five years ago, giving Captain Awesome a hand knit Sherlock Holmes doll, who's sole purpose is to guard the precious tooth in his messenger bag, ensuring the safe transaction of tooth for money with that mysterious tooth fairy.
But Captain Awesome, he's not worried about his lost tooth. He's too fascinated with the new hole inside his mouth.
"It feels weird," he says as he stops searching for the tooth in my bed. He stands on the side of the bed facing me with both his tongue and first finger simultaneously feeling the gap where that infamous tooth just vacated.
"Mommy look it's gone. My tooth fell out. Feel it. It feels funny."
I stop my search too and breath in the present moment. He's excited, overjoyed to have lost his first tooth. This is my time to celebrate with him. It is not time for me to be short with him for waking me up too early or snap at him for dropping his coveted first tooth.
I take in that precious moment and look at him. My six year old child. His soft, beautiful, innocent face. His newly changed somewhat goofy smile. He pushes out his lower jaw, accentuating that empty space. Oh how I love this child.
"Mommy feel it."
I touch the space where his tooth fell out and smile. I am reminded of how strange it felt when my own baby teeth fell out.
"Wow..." is all I can say. I am overwhelmed by this moment. My son is growing and changing so quickly and while it amazes me, it somewhat saddens me, for it reminds me that he is not a baby anymore and before I know it, he will be a grown man. It seems like just yesterday when I first felt the little bump of that same tooth cutting through my chubby 8 month old baby's bottom gums. I stop and breath in the moment again. I cherish it for what it is. I kiss him and hug his little body.
"We better find that tooth, so the tooth fairy can leave you some money tonight."
I gently shake out my night gown and then feel around the fitted sheet again, lifting my body up off the bed slightly, that's when I feel it, that hard little tooth under my hand.
"Here it is."
I drop it back into his little hand and we both stop and stare at it in awe.
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| Captain Awesome's First Tooth |
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