Family Forum / Parenting / Mothers / January 2008

Katherines has a few wobbbly teeth come out without fuss. This
particular tooth though was rather stubborn. it started wobbling this
time lasr year.

By april we thought that its falling out was imminent. It hung on. By
summer I was concerned that it might fall out during pony camp and that
would confuse the tooth fairy. After it had stubbornly hung on I took
her to the dentist . He reassured her that if she were just to flick it
out it would come out really easily as it was almost there. We could
rotate it upside down it was so loose.

Just before Christmas the dentist aknowledged that it really was a
stubborn bugger and he would remove it for her if it wasnt out by
February. he asked Katherine if she would mind having an injection. She
said it was ok but really she didnt like the idea.

So we came to tonight. During dinner she asked if she could tie a string
round it and slam the door. dh and I inwardly winced and pulled faces at
each other across the table. I said it was ok if thats what she wanted
to do.

Attempt 1. Tie string around tooth. String too thick and wouldnt go
round. So used some embroidery thread. After many tries we successfully
tied the tooth up and tied other end to handle. Katherine after a few
'I'll do its, no I can't do it' slammed the door shut.
The thread broke - far too flimsy for job. bother.

Attempt 2. Eat an apple primarily using wobbly tooth. Apple fully
consumed. declared delicious. Tooth still in head.

Attempt 3. Twist tooth manually upside down while staring in mirror. I
was too squeamish to watch her do this so left her to it. No luck.

Attempt 4. Tied black strong cotton to tooth. Unfortunately Katherine
couldnt bring herself to slam the door. I jumped about and cheer leaded
her on with lots of 'Go Katherine, Go katherine' but she dithered too
much and cotton fell off.

Attempt 5. We decided to let nature do the work. We tied her tooth up.
Tied other end to kitchen door. I opened back door. dh opened front
door. Resulting gale slammed kitchen door shut. Tooth pinged out on to
floor of the pantry.

I cheered. K looked shocked and started to cry a little. I bent down and
went to triumphantly hand her her tooth. She looked at it. Her tears
changed to fits of giggles. I looked more closely at what was in her
hand. Oops - that wasnt a tooth it was a little dried white bean that
must have fallen out of a packet and evaded my housework. Puzzled I
looked in her mouth. Tooth had definitely gone. So we scrabbled around
and there disguising itself as a small pile of dust was that stubborn
little tooth.

I expect the tooth fairy may be a little more generous than usual, once
shes had a good shot of whiskey ;-)

sarah