Halloween Here We Come!

When Noa lost her first front tooth a few weeks ago, we were pretty sure its partner tooth wouldn't be far behind. It was already loose, and there was pretty much nothing to stablize it on either side - in fact it seemed to be in a different position every time she opened her mouth. Still, it managed to hang on for about three weeks... until Mommy finally decided to intervene (and thanks to Aunt Pate for the suggestion of rubber gloves to get a good grip on the tiny, slippery thing).

Noa took it all well. We'd been talking about it for days. She'd open her mouth and show me the tooth - and I'd say "do you want to give it to Mommy?" and she'd sign "No. No." One night even woke us up in the middle of night and was signing "help help" and showing us the tooth - though she wouldn't let me touch it.

Finally, Monday night, she had gotten to the point where she didn't want to eat or drink at all. You know when pureed food is too much to bear, it's time for the tooth to go!

Ben and I decided that we would just have to yank the tooth (we=Mommy, of course) and that it was probably best to do it in the morning before school so she could at least get some food in her. So we woke her up and started talking about the tooth - finally we told her it was time for the tooth to go bye-bye. She signed "no, no" and "finished" - but we just assured her that it was okay for the tooth to go away, that she was a big girl and all that good stuff.

While she objected to the idea of mommy touching her mouth and taking the tooth in principle, she didn't seem to object too much once it was out. And she recovered pretty quickly: just played with the empty spot for a minute, asked for a drink and then proceeded to eat a double breakfast.

And so now, just in time for Halloween, we have Vampire-Noa!