Brigham's First Lost Tooth

Sometimes I forget how old Brigham is.  Since his communication is behind, he often feels a lot younger than he is.  So I was kind of taken off guard when I realized he had a loose tooth.  How do you tell a kid like Brigham that his tooth is going to fall out?  In fact, this is just the first of many teeth that will fall out over the next several years.

So, I played it up.  Every once in a while I'd ask him about his tooth and he would immediately wiggle it for me.  Since he is my son, he wouldn't let us pull it out.  It had to fall out on it's own.  It was getting pretty ridiculous, it was bending all the way forward.  I was really worried that it would fall out and he would either accidentally swallow it or toss it away in horror.  I considered e-mailing his teacher to keep an eye out for it.  It was stressing me out.

Finally, one day Brigham and I were at Wal-mart and he stopped and moved to put something in my hand.  There was his tiny little tooth!  I tried to take a picture right there but it was too difficult to get him to smile with his gap showing and we were blocking the isle.  So, I took one as soon as we got to the car.

He looks so grown up, and he'll show me his missing tooth every time I ask.

When we got home I had him watch me put his tooth under his pillow.  I debated doing this at all since he doesn't really understand money, but I figured he'd understand enough.

The next morning I asked him where his tooth was and he looked under his pillow and found a pack of M&M's!  Even better.