A few weeks ago, my almost 5 year old made a statement one afternoon:

“Mom, my tooth hurts.”

The statement didn’t mean anything to me at that very moment, because she’d made similar statements such as “my bellybutton hurts”, “my fingernail hurts” or “my hair hurts” on a daily basis, all without any indication that she’s in actual pain.

So I simply said to her:

“I’m sorry to hear that, is there anything I can do to make you feel better?”

She said:

“Nothing”

And that was that.

That very evening, my husband and my daughter came to me and showed me that one of her bottom tooth was loose.

She was going to lose her tooth, my girl is growing up.

This actually had me in a little bit of a panic. Not yet 5, and she’s about to lose her first tooth, was that even normal?

I took the query to our sister Facebook Group “Managing The Motherload” and asked whether it was “normal”, and the consensus was that it is a tad early, but it happens. I emailed our pediatric dentist just to be sure, and they also confirmed that it was ok, but if I was indeed worried, I should make an appointment and have them take a look.

Following day, my daughter didn’t eat much breakfast, because she said each bite was a little bit painful for her, so I let her be.

We proceed to head to her summer day camp, and I dropped her off, kissed her good day, and went about my day.

I came back at 4:00pm in the afternoon to pick her up, and as soon as she saw me, she came running at me, with the widest of smiles.

There, I saw, right in front of my eyes, a gap.

She’d lost her tooth that day.

That was quick!

Well, any concern of whether I needed to take her to our pediatric dentist was no longer a concern, because there was no tooth to be had for examination anyways!

I don’t recall losing my baby teeth that quick, I’d remembered each darn thing would linger in my mouth in what seemed to be an eternity before my father had to intervene with his mighty muscles (or what seemed like mighty muscles at the time), and pulled it out for me. Mind you, I don't think I was as brave as my daughter, I was always very squeamish with them.

So naturally, I wanted to know how she lost her tooth.

The response I got was not what I had expected:

“Oh mommy, I just put my fingers right in there and pull it right out, like this!” She proceeds to do a very dramatic re-enactment of how she did it.

I said the only thing that I could think of when she told me what she did:

“Oh wow, you go girl!”

You go girl indeed!

That night, we put her tooth under her pillow, and the tooth fairy paid her a visit with a brand new toothbrush, and $5.00.

Since her first tooth loss weeks ago, she’s been knocking at the other tooth. I guess her determination paid off, because for the past 2 days, she’s come to me, mouth wide open while wiggling at it madly. That tooth, if it wasn’t meant to be lost for a while, was certainly expedited by my daughter’s obsession. Last night she spent a good half an hour trying to pull it out herself. Tonight, she’d spent over an hour trying to pull that thing out. Finally, I told her to go see her grandpa downstairs for assistance.

So she did.

He gave it a bigger wiggle, and she put her hand back in there, and pulled it right out.

Once again, she’s ecstatic with how she’s pulled that thing out.

She gave it a good rinse, and put it under her pillow.

Rumour has it that the tooth fairy shall come by  tonight with a toonie, and a new tube of toothpaste.

She's certainly been very determined with pulling her own teeth out.

I just hope she has the same type of determination for life in general, as she does her teeth!