Tooth Fairy as a horror story? Great.

T has a loose tooth. He first noticed it on our way here from North Carolina, but loose at the time was a pretty generous description. Every now and then T would mention it again. About a month ago, he said something about how his 'loose tooth' was bothering him, so we checked it again and sure enough it's officially loose.

T wasn't exactly excited about this, but I sure was. The more I talked about baby teeth, permanent teeth, and the tooth fairy, the more freaked out T became. Wisely, we stopped talking about it. That night before he went to bed, he started to cry. Not the 'I don't want to go to bed yet cry', not the 'I'm hurt' cry, not even the 'I'm not getting my way' cry. This was a pitiful, terrified cry that broke my heart. When I asked him what was wrong, he said that he didn't want to lose his tooth and he didn't want the Tooth Fairy to come and take all his teeth and then he broke down into inconsolable sobs.

Well. I didn't exactly see that coming. Now what?!?!

I consoled him the best I could and told him that if he didn't want the tooth fairy to come then R and I would make sure she didn't. That seemed to work somewhat and within a half hour, he was calm enough to go to sleep.

Fast forward to yesterday. It was my day to volunteer in T's class, and one of the other kids had lost a tooth over Spring Break. After he told us about losing his tooth and having the tooth fairy come and visit, T raised his hand and announced that he had a loose tooth too. After all the drama the last time that subject came up, I was a little surprised that he happily volunteered this information. I also took it as a really positive sign that he was adjusting better to the idea of losing a tooth.

And then there was today. At lunch T was eating some Teddy Grahams and all the sudden he started to cry and said that his tooth hurt. I took a look and there was a tiny bit of blood and the tooth was noticeably looser. As I was trying to calm him down, Mom pitched in to help by supporting what I was telling T (this was totally normal, his big boy tooth needed room to come in, remember that Cameron lost a tooth this weekend too and he was happy about it, so it can't be all that bad, etc.). T wasn't buying it. He wanted some glue to make sure his tooth didn't come out. Uhhhh...... That gets points for originality, but now I'm going to have to round up all the glue (and probably tape too) in the house and put it where T can't find it.

And then, because I hadn't told Mom that the Tooth Fairy freaked him out, she started talking about that. And whooo-eeeee! He was only slightly below hysterical. It took a really long time to calm him down. I'm getting concerned about his level of anxiety about this, but I'm not really sure how to help him. And yet, I also have to smile because when T gets upset about his tooth, then S finds something - anything - to be just as upset about. I swear I think that today she actually said that she had a toe on her left foot. You have to admire three year old ingenuity.

At dinner, he had eaten about half of his hamburger when this tooth started bothering him again. Again with the tears and hysterics. Mom, R, and I are trying to calm him down, S is trying to compete for attention, and Richard looks like he would rather be anywhere else doing anything else than listening to a five year old wail about a tooth that he hasn't lost yet. What can I say? We lead an eventful and exciting life. We ended up cutting his food into bite size pieces so he can eat without it bothering his tooth, because the only thing more distressing than T's loose tooth breakdowns is T with low blood sugar and hunger pains. I do not have high hopes for this going well at all.