poop beetle: lost tooth 10.2003 Awais lost his first tooth this morning. There was no trauma or blood- it was in the best possible way. Tooth is loose and kid wiggles and worries it constantly until one day, most likely while watching t.v. it falls out.
That's the first tooth. Later teeth are removed with more force, at least in my childhood home. There was a lot of experimentation with string and door knobs. My dad tells a story about my sister asking him to knock out her tooth with a coke bottle. We didn't get a lot of pocket money as children.
The best, but scariest way was my step-father's method. We'd ask him to "test" to see if it was loose enough, "but don't pull it yet!". He'd agree he wouldn't pull it, he'd just wiggle to see if it was loose enough to pull. This was a lie. Everytime. We knew it was a lie, he knew we knew it was a lie. When he'd go to wiggle test the tooth, if it was loose enough, he'd pop it out. Literaly, "pop"- with his big ole thumb. He was good. Splinter removal was about the same, and he's still an expert at that. (an hour of gentle coaxing/torturing my five year old through attempts to remove a viscous splinter- finally saw back at Papa's house- where he had it out in less than 5 minutes.)
30 years ago the tooth fairy brought us quarters. I have no idea what the going rate is now- enough cash to make this a pleasant and enduring childhood memory- but not so much, he'll start experimenting with string and coke bottles.
