It wasn’t until the day after her first birthday that I felt Pumpkin’s first tooth graze the surface of her otherwise gummy smile. I’d waited, not always so patiently, to feel that first sign of sharpness, to see that first glimpse of white. I’d asked her doctor on more than one occasion, “Is this normal? This not getting teeth thing? How can she not have teeth?”
“Don’t worry,” our doctor told me. “This is better, actually. The longer it takes for her teeth to come in, the healthier they’ll be.”
And then one by one her beautiful little teeth appeared, filling in what was already a beautiful smile.
Last night Pumpkin said to me at bedtime, “I have a loose tooth but it hasn’t come out yet.” I thought she was kidding. I don’t know why – her friends have holey smiles and the first awkward appearances of too big adult teeth growing in.
“Let me see!” I said and she pointed it out and I touched it lightly and yes, it had the give of a tooth at the early stages of wiggly-ness. “Look at that! Wow! Soon it fill fall out!”
She smiled at me hugely, her lovely little teeth straight and even.
Later last night I said to The Princess, “Did you know your sister has a loose tooth?!”
The Princess gave me a look. “Mom,” she said, “it’s been loose for like A WEEK already.”
A week? No. A week?!
I have struggled this summer with it being my first summer in seven years where I worked full time outside the home – and while I caught the big moments, it’s the little moments I’ve missed – taking The Princess to gymnastics practices, random middle of the day ice cream cones, loose teeth.
I’m not the type to get sad and mournful when time passes – because (as I’ve said before time and time again) each new phase brings new exciting changes and developments and I love to watch who my daughters are becoming – because they are becoming such AMAZING people.
I hate missing the little moments though, and I’m not sure how to catch them all or if it’s possible and I know it’s just a tooth, but it’s A TOOTH. A tooth I waited so long for. A tooth that has been smiling at me for years.
It’s all just life. And I’m going to miss some of these little moments.
But dammit, I don’t want to.
This is the hardest part of parenting, knowing there are always going to be at least some little things that we will miss because we have work and someone else will see. That’s when I tell myself that I am working to provide for them and then try not to think about it. I’m a big believer in, don’t think about it if you can’t change it.