Bravest Girl on the Planet

Ally has been dreading, no, positively Da - REDDING!!!! this day for years now. Years! She was absolutely terrified at the thought but knew it was inevitable. The day would eventually come. And it finally did.

She lost her first tooth.

Now, before you think, "What? That's it?", you need to understand Ally. She has 2 older brothers and has watched them grow, fight, wrestle, bleed, lose teeth, bleed, fall off of suburbans, bleed, lose more teeth, get stitches, bleed, concussions, ER visits, bleed, and here Ally goes about her business keeping down the Barbie fort and the princess clothes. She hates being injured. It freaks her out. So the build-up of actually having to endure the pain and blood of losing teeth was just too much for her to handle. Luckily for her, her first tooth didn't make it's appearance known until a few days before her first birthday so we knew she would lose them later, too. But, to have to wait till just 10 days before her 7th birthday to lose her first tooth? Yeah, we told her how lucky she was.

But, that was also the problem, too. She was older and terrified! When she noticed the first sign of a wiggly tooth, she panicked. She wouldn't let us come near her with a 10 foot pole. She had seen the trauma of trying to get the boys' teeth out of their mouths and she was going to have nothing to do with it. We didn't bother her with it. That is until her cousin yanked a book light out of her closed mouth - (I don't know why she was playing with a booklight in her mouth either) - and it just about ripped that loose tooth from it's socket! Oh the tears, the thought of losing that tooth. So we didn't bother her with it again. We thought, we'll just let this thing do what it will. That is until the fuzz that was accumulating on this loose tooth was so noticable because of Ally's fear to brush it! She couldn't bite down, it was in the way. She wouldn't bite into her food because the tooth was too loose. She would hardly get near it with her own toothbrush or tongue. I told her it was time.

I'll fast forward here and spare you details of the HOURS of tears, pinkie promises, bribes and convincing it took to let me get a tiny square of tissue in her mouth -with my fingers- to feel this thing. We made deals, agreed on hand gestures for communication - nothing offensive - and she let me "wiggle" it. No yanking was allowed. I do have to bring this part up though. I was trying to compare losing a tooth to her Kindergarten shots, that the thought is worse than the actual thing, it will only hurt for a second and then the pain is gone and you forget about it. She - through her tears - reminded me that the nurse who gave her her Kindergarten shots told her she would only have to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star one time and the shots would be done but that she had to sing it 4 times before the shots were finished! Okay, bad comparison.

So, "wiggle" was all I did and when she threw her hand up in the air motioning for me to stop. She was trying to be so brave and said she just needed a little break but that I could try again in a couple of seconds. I said, "Look in the mirror." "Why?" "Just look." Cue the full on siren crying! She had no idea the tooth had been pulled but the sight of the blood freaked her out! Through her panicked cry, I saw a slight grin and she was so happy it was out. It was the easiest tooth I had ever pulled and it literally fell into my hands so why in the world did it have to bleed so much? Take a look at the root on this sucker! Holy cow! I've never seen that size of root on a baby tooth! Crazy. She's got great teeth I guess. So finally we got her calmed down and moved over from the fear side to the excited side. It was really funny.

I promise, this tooth was ready to come out! Crazy root!


We were trying to take pics to document this historic event of our near 7 year old.

Hang on, Ally, don't look so scared. Yes, it's still bleeding. Try to smile!

Yes, that's better, great smile, but... it's still bleeding.

Here, bite down on this washcloth and try to get it to stop bleeding. We need to get a good "non-bleeding" picture!

Is it STILL bleeding?

FINALLY! Sheesh! Great! Now, flash that new smile, Ally!

Getting ready for the tooth fairy. She insisted on putting it in a baggie under her pillow so the tooth fairy could find it. Apparently, the tooth fairy had a hard time finding her brother's tooth one year. One last look, and g'night. Sweet dreams, Ally.

Score! WOW, the tooth fairy believes in inflation, too! I only got a quarter! So, her best friend told her yesterday that if she turns in a really shiny, clean, perfect tooth next time, that she'll get $5! I told her, there's more than one tooth fairy on duty each night and apparently we got the cheap one. :)

Her whispered words in my ear the following morning went something like this. "I think I've got the hang of this tooth losing business." That's my brave girl, 'cause you have 19 more to go!