Tuesday, November 11, 2008 ;
3:07 PM
ds1 started having his right lower incisor being shaky and loose, around 14 Sep. See pic below. The new permanent tooth is peeking out already. We were worried because it looked very far out, and totally not aligned. (But now, after both teeth dropped, the new emerging teeth do realign themselves and are moving closer and closer into the correct positions.)
He was very very excited and asked me to check every day, if it was going to drop off. We had read about the tooth fairy in a book sometime ago, and he couldn't believe that it was going to happen to him soon.
I let him watch a video clip on tooth fairies on YouTube. Lost the link now, but it is an old old cartoon about tooth fairies.
Maybe it was a mistake, because after that, he kept trying to pull his tooth off, using his hands. He'll use his tongue or fingers to pry at the tooth every once in a while too.
I thought it would drop off soon, but it didn't.
On 21st, Sunday, at night, when Dh was in MudanJiang with his boss, and I was alone with the kids, his left lower incisor dropped off instead!
It was very unexpected. Such a surprise for me.
I read them their bedtime story and then brushed their teeth for them when ds1 said his other tooth is very shaky too. I felt the "other" incisor, the incisor that he had neglected the whole week because he was busy loosening the first one. But it turns out that the newly discovered loose tooth was even looser than the first one.
Ds1 insisted that I could pull it off for him there and then. I hesitated. Dh is not at home. What if I try, and I pull out the incisor top, breaking off the tooth and leaving the root inside the gums?? What if I can't stop the bleeding?
I felt the tooth again and decided that I could give it a try. It was very loose and could be tilted back and forth with ease. One side of the tooth was looser than the other. So I washed some of my sewing thread.
Chose a grey color so it will stand out against the tooth, and I can see clearly. Tied it a few rounds around the incisor, and then I got ready to tug. On the first few tugs, I used just a little strength, because I was afraid to hurt ds1. He said it didn't hurt, and suggested he helped to move his head downwards while I pull upwards. He urged me to use more strength!
Ok, I tried again, this time pulling harder at the direction where the tooth seemed more entrenched in the gums (as opposed to the shakier side of the tooth). I pulled in a slanted manner, from more stable side of tooth towards already loose side, and upwards.
And I said 1,2,3 just before I pulled, so that ds1 can move his head downwards at the same time.
Voila!
Both of us shouted at the same time. Actually, I think ds2 also shouted, because he was watching the whole thing with a lot of interest.
The tooth was dangling on the thread! Yay!
Ds1 was so happy, he forgot there was still blood oozing out of the gums, and he jumped on the bed, causing some stains on his clothes and the bedsheet.
I got him to rinse his mouth and then got some cotton wool to stem the blood flow. It stopped after some time, and I got a close look at the "hole" just to confirm that my fear of leaving the roots behind was unfounded. This is him, so happy and proud of himself.
I had already printed a Tooth Fairy Cert from the internet, in preparation for the right lower incisor, but could use it for the left lower incisor now.
We had decided we would give him the cert and the "gifts" directly, in exchange for the tooth, even though it was supposed to be under the pillow. I was too afraid to lose the tooth if he placed it under the pillow, haha. Anyway, he wouldn't believe in a real fairy, so we just let him know the traditional story and carry out the gift-giving for fun.
Aunty Angeling also had a gift for him. She acted as the tooth fairy from Spore. So ds1 received 2 knights. One from me and one from Aunty Angeling. And the knights were brought over, thanks to another "fairy", Dh's boss, who brought it over to Tianjin from Utah. Because I ordered them online via Amazon.com and had them sent to Dh's boss's address, just before he left Utah for Tianjin.
So the "fairy" did fly far this time. Ds1 is into the medieval kingdom now, so he had been asking for a crossbowman and a knight with a sword and shield for ages. He was thrilled to bits.
When Dh got home later that week from his business trip, he was sore at missing out on this milestone. I think he had secretly wanted to be the one to pull out all of ds1's teeth! Cos he volunteered to pull the other loose incisor out. It came out around the 26th of Sept, can't recall for sure, but Dh jumped at the chance, ensuring that I wasn't at all near ds1's teeth.
So I got the camera and shot this for him. The ego-man. I didn't have any pic to remember myself pulling his first tooth, do I? :-)
rainbows every day, do not worry for the morrow
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I had already printed a Tooth Fairy Cert from the internet, in preparation for the right lower incisor, but could use it for the left lower incisor now.
We had decided we would give him the cert and the "gifts" directly, in exchange for the tooth, even though it was supposed to be under the pillow. I was too afraid to lose the tooth if he placed it under the pillow, haha. Anyway, he wouldn't believe in a real fairy, so we just let him know the traditional story and carry out the gift-giving for fun.
