Tooth Fairy Etc.

Jack has had some trips to the dentist lately, thanks I guess to poor brushing on our part combined with unfortunate tooth heredity. So on Wednesday, after school, he and I had to go to the dentist to get a couple of his teeth filled. So I picked him up and, for the fourth straight week, we headed off to the dentist.

We got there, and turned out that Jack needed to have a tooth extracted. The dentist was funny; she said, "We just need to wiggle it. And sometimes when we wiggle it, it just comes right out. And then the Tooth Fairy comes."

As my family knows, there's a story behind the Tooth Fairy for me. The Tooth Fairy always left notes, Scott found out it was actually Dad, told me about it, and I was very upset. So that night I got a note from the Tooth Fairy that put my fears to rest. I think they were normally in my Dad's handwriting and now it was in my Mom's. Anyway, Jack was a trooper, he had his tooth removed, all during it he hung in there, giving me occasional waves and thumbs up and stuff, and I was pretty proud of him.

And then they finished up and he sat up and his mouth was bloody and there was a big hole where his tooth had been, yikes, but he was OK. And then he got stickers and such.

And we piled into the car and headed off, because, you know, Jack's first swimming lesson at SUNY Purchase was ALSO that afternoon. So off we went.

And the big thing I want to say about that is that we changed him into his suit and went down to a swimming pool he'd never been in before to be taught by people he'd never seen before, and he didn't cling to my leg or whatever. No, he got right in the water, and had his lesson.

And at one point they did this thing where they had to swim/lunge for the edge of the pool from a platform. And he did it himself, without a flotation device or anything. And when he was back on the platform he looked over at me, and he gave me the biggest, proudest smile, clearly very happy that he'd done it. And I remember that about an hour ago he was in a chair having a tooth pulled, and I grinned too.

That night, he put his tooth under his pillow. Emily and I debated whether the Tooth Fairy would leave a note or not. I think she talked me out of it, or my own note did. One of the two. But the note I ultimately did sneak in to leave, that he didn't see the next morning (he was too happy about his silver dollars), said "Dear Jack - Congratulations! I'm proud of you. Love, T.F."