Long over due post... these things take time. This letter was written on August 17Th.

Dear Zada,

Today you lost your very first tooth. It took only six days and a lot of wiggling for it to finally fall out. You first noticed your wiggly tooth at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Toronto after a wedding. You were munching on strawberries when you felt as though something was caught between your teeth. I suggested you go to the bathroom with your toothbrush and see what you can do. Two minutes later you were rushing from the bathroom hysterical as if you saw the biggest spider in the world. You told me through your crying that your teeth were bleeding – it was gushing- I think is what you said.
My first thought was my goodness how hard were you brushing your teeth. Then you mentioned that your tooth was loose. You were so distraught at the thought of a loose tooth I had to help you back into the bathroom where I could inspect what exactly was happening. There is no way you have a loose tooth. You’re way too young! I had you rinse out your mouth with some cold water. You couldn’t believe there was BLOOD_COMING_FROM_YOUR_MOUTH! Sure enough – your very first loose tooth!
You managed to go an entire day of not eating. We even went to McDonalds for breakfast; I thought for sure that would cure the “pain”. You immediately said no to food. So we ordered you a blueberry muffin and an OJ despite your desire to eat. You took a nibble of the muffin; said it was too hard to eat and that was that. We tried all kinds of ideas to get you to eat but nothing was going to come near your mouth!
The following day was a totally different story. The bleeding stopped, the pain wasn'tt as bad and you got used to the idea of it wiggling. You managed to eat everything in sight! I think you ate four peaches in one day along with everything else that could be eaten from the side of your mouth! I hadn’t seen you eat like this before. You ate dinner with Dad and I and then you’d ate grandma and grandpas food, then desert, then something else and THEN you asked for a snack before bed. I suggested to Dad that maybe we should only feed you six days a week instead of seven. He reminded me that you had several more teeth to come out so it was bound to happen again.
As the week progressed the complaining discussion of your wiggly tooth subsided. I now know what I must have put your Grandma Jung through when my teeth were falling out. We of course assured you that we went through the same thing when our teeth fell out. You were pretty proud of your loose tooth after about the third day – you told anyone that would listen about it. You even mentioned to us several thousand times that your tooth was wiggly.
     Today is Friday August 17th, 2007. When you woke this morning you made sure to show me just how loose your tooth was. (In your defense I asked you every morning this week if your tooth was still loose.) I think I’m just as excited about your tooth as you are, ok probably more!
We left for Ottawa today around noon – we stopped at Webbers for lunch. We ordered you a Hot dog and Fries. You mentioned that your tooth felt a little funny. I assured you that it would continue to get wigglier until it fell out. You took a huge bite of the hotdog and started to whimper saying your tooth didn’t feel right.


We thought maybe you were just being dramatic about your tooth. I looked in your mouth and sure enough it was bleeding again. What we should have done and what we did were both very different things; we SHOULD have gone and pulled it out and dealt with whatever screaming occurred from it. What we did instead was told you to continue eating. We’re kind of new at this “loosing teeth” as a parent stuff. You tried eating a French fries when you turned to me with deer-in-headlights look and said “my tooth is gone!” You swallowed your very first baby tooth. I don’t know if you were more upset that you swallowed your tooth and now you couldn’t brush it like you wanted to do or because you just lost your tooth and now you’re kind of freaking out. I tried to hide my disappointment – I too wanted to see your first tooth.

I walked you to the car like I had walked you to the bathroom on that first day and had you rinse out your mouth. You kept looking in the side mirror of the car and then you’d cry. Then you’d look again and then you’d cry. When we started driving again you mentioned that you had a hard time swallowing because now your tongue went through the hole!
We made a second stop about 15 minutes into our drive to look at a shop and by now you were pretty excited about your new smile. You bolted from the car and said “Grandma look at my new smile!” Grandpa Doyle was so excited he bought you a moose for loosing your tooth!
I caught you a few times looking into anything that would give a reflection to see your latest smile. You were happy when you realized you could eat normally again. Tomorrow we will write to the Tooth Fairy to let her know that your tooth has been swallowed. We’ll place it under your pillow just like we would if you had your tooth.


Love Mom and Dad