Parable of the Lost Tooth, Part 1

WARNING: This story includes some poop talk. If that sort of thing bothers you, don't have children...and don't read this entry! :)

Here are the photos from whole tooth-chipped tooth (15 month) to chipped-extracted tooth (4.5 years old). That tooth hung on for 3 years longer than we had originally expected, and I'm thankful for that! 

When Leif was 15 months old, he had perfect little baby teeth. One day he slipped and smacked his mouth, chipping his left front tooth. It took months for me to adjust, but the chipped tooth became an endearing part of Leif's look for me. I was glad he hadn't lost it, but we knew it was loose, and didn't know how long it would stay put.

The wounds from Leif's Halloween fall.

In March of 2012, Leif hit his front teeth at a playground and the dentist wanted to extract them both, but we said wait. On Halloween 2012, Leif fell off of someone's front porch (luckily only 2 steps) and his chin landed on the sidewalk. It seemed as though his teeth were sparred until the next day when Leif started to complain about his wiggly chipped tooth. It was EXTREMELY wiggly, and hurting him on a low level constantly, so we knew it was time.


At the dentist they informed me that they give a novocaine shot for extractions, and I knew that would be rough for Leif, but I prayed for the best, which is all I could do at that point, since parents aren't allowed to be with their kids. The dental assistant brought me back to the meeting room and informed me, "The extraction is complete." (Horray!) "But, he swallowed his tooth." (WHAT?!) If Owen wasn't in the room with me, I might have sworn at this point. What came out was, "I'm going to be looking through a LOT of poop this week!" Leif had agreed to the extraction on the condition that we would get a special little box for him to keep his tooth in. This tooth was a treasure- you swallow a diamond, you sift through your poop. I knew it wouldn't be any different for Leif. The assistant then informed me that Leif was MAD, really mad. He didn't want her, he didn't want me, he didn't want ice cream. He told them to just put the tooth back into his mouth. Oh my.

Eating frozen yogurt together after extraction.

At this point it became a blessing that Owen was around because he was the only one Leif still trusted. They held hands leaving the dental office, and climbed into the car together. I mentioned that I wanted to them out for ice cream, and Leif was still quiet. We drove a minute down the road and Leif says, "Mommy, I swallowed my tooth!" And he burst into tears. I reached back and held his hand, and when I couldn't anymore, Owen held it. So, I let him in on my poop idea. "You know Leif, everything that goes in, has to come out the other end." Suddenly his tears were silenced. "We could, if you want, go through your poop for the next couple of days. The dentist says the tooth is really small, but we could try." And I had just written my own smelly future....
(Continued in Part 2)