Lose a Tooth, Gain Some Authority

Exiting news in our house. A tooth has been lost--the first lost tooth of the next generation and C now has the cute, tell-tale gap in his smile. He came to us at 1:15 in the morning to report that it had popped out. I hoped I was appropriately excited for him in my state of half-consciousness. How he woke up and realized it was gone is beyond me. We knew it was wiggly for a day or so, but he opted to let it take the natural course and fall out on its own (as opposed to his dad yanking it out--a job I could never do) with a bit of help from a probing tongue. Now why it had to choose the wee hours of the morning to free itself from his mouth and couldn't fall out as he bit into an apple at, say, 3:00PM, added some mystery to the moment.

While P and I know intellectually that this is an everyday occurrence around the globe, it just felt big to us, some sort of marked confirmation that yes, our sons are growing up. I actually got a bit verklempt over this tiny sliver of white sitting in C's palm. S, too, got a bit teary-- for different reasons, however. No matter how many times we try to make the point that while they are twins and this is special, they are really their own people-- it seems that they do view themselves as a unit or package, a fixed entity. S explained that he was jealous that C had a lost tooth and he didn't. Suddenly, C gained some new authority in S's eyes-- and C's as well. They reckoned that since C lost a tooth first, he must really be the older brother and the boys have talked about this fact for the past three days. To C's credit, though, he immediately began making plans to share his expected bounty from the tooth fairy (and displaying some solid math skills): "I'll give S three of the dollars and keep the other two dollars for me."

Whoa--hold the floss! FIVE DOLLARS. Where did he get that notion? The price per tooth went up from a quarter in the years since I was six? After a bit of discussion, P and I slipped two quarters into an envelope and surreptitiously placed it under C's pillow while the boys slept the following night. In the morning, C ran into our room excitedly, clutching the unopened envelope. Ceremoniously, he ripped it open, let out an appreciative, "Wow!" and immediately passed one quarter over to S. Now how's that for confirmation of growth?