Toothless Wonder

Sam has lost another tooth. He actually lost it weeks ago but I am just getting around to sharing. It is one of his top front teeth and he wiggled that little guy forever. He wiggled it so much, without committing to the actual pull, that it turned into a snaggle-tooth.

He is also at that age where he has lost his real smile. When someone is taking a picture of him you can see the inner struggle as he searches to remember what his smile is suppose to look like. Right now it is coming out more like a grimace.

It makes me feel better when I look at the pictures on our primary board at church and realize that every single child his age has also lost their real smile and there is a nice mixture of grimaces and lost looks.
That leads me to the real story of how Sam lost his first front tooth. We got his packet of school pictures back and when we opened them up. . . HUGE startled grimace. (My face probably looked a lot the same when I found out what they are charging for school pictures these days.)
Fast forward to November 25th. I was driving down the road on my way to deliver some Pampered Chef orders and when I wrote down the date in my mileage book I gasped. I was reminded that it was the day for picture retakes! I had not paid that exorbitant amount for a packet full of pictures I wouldn't use. I quickly called the school and informed them that Sam would be getting retakes and I would be there directly to get him ready. I raced home, got a nicer shirt and some hair gel and headed for the school. I got there just as they were rounding up the 1st graders and got him changed and spiked. He loathes gel so I got to hear him mutter about it the whole time. Then I turned him around to give him a once over and have him practice a "real" smile. I was greeted with his crookity, gray, snaggle tooth that was sticking out of his gums at a 45 degree angle. These pictures actually look good compared to what it had actually become.


I just said, "Wow Sam, let me see how loose that is," and I plucked that wiggly thing out of his head, told him to rinse at the drinking fountain and marched him in for pictures. All he said was "Ahhh, that kind of stings."
We got super cute, toothless pictures and he was excited to go to the nurses' office afterwards to get a tiny treasure chest to store that little guy in until he could collect his two bucks from the tooth fairy.
I love the way he looks with his toothy grin and how it has changed the way he talks a little bit. It is also cute to see how he has to bite everything on the side.