First of all, sorry for the long hiatus! It has been over six months since I last blogged and it’s been a constant roller coaster of school needs: of which we play a major part (husband is on the PTA and we are just overall very involved parents). Additional to that, my own workload has gotten larger (no complaints actually) and I have also been trying to jump-start this thing called a social life (hahahahelpIdontknowhowtodothis). In all of this, L has gotten bigger and chattier by the millisecond. He has evolved from watching PJ Masks to obsessing over The Last Airbender, to obsessing over FullMetal Alchemist; writing amazing stories at school, insisting that he hates to read, then saying that he loves books, then wishing he had a youtube channel. Year 6 has been a year and I brace for year 7. At school, L has basically charmed the pants off every teacher with his intelligence, empathy and overall good behaviour (yay we are doing something right!). So far, his report books have been coming back with mainly A’s – something we praise, but we also acknowledge the work he has to put in and develop good habits and the importance of loving what you do.
Anyways, on to the topic at hand! Teeth, teeth and more teeth! We are up to six lost teeth, four replaced; all molars in with a gap-toothed grin to cap it off. I personally am thrilled every time he loses a tooth (and he is too because he sees it as an exact indicator of growing up. He gets adult teeth now!). However, I have a weird thing about teeth. My husband insists we keep them all, but after seeing two in one spot I am no longer the person who puts them away. (cue horror movie scream) In any case, L has been a trooper for the most part. The first four teeth were lost and replaced with much fanfare (and no pain), the first front tooth was forcibly removed (accident in gymnastics class with another boy), and the recent one came out with some grilled cheese.
So, when it comes to the whole, ‘put tooth under pillow and find money in the morning schtick’ we were actually surprised, but not surprised when he stated after the first lost tooth that he did not believe in the tooth fairy and he didn’t care for it. We were surprised because we did not even tell him about the tooth fairy so we expected him not to know; but of course he goes to school so we should have expected differently. So, we asked him if he was sure and he was more amazed about the rate at which he was losing and growing new teeth than the dollars he stood to gain. So we left it. However, because adults are adults (rolls eyes) every time one saw he had a lost tooth they asked him what the tooth fairy had left him. He would answer nothing, and they would all be shocked and look in our direction as if we somehow failed at parenting. We brushed it off but I guess the constant questions about it made L waver on his stance so this recent time (second lost front tooth) he declared that he wanted to ‘play’ tooth fairy just to see if he could get some pennies. I laughed and said, well we don’t have pennies here (we don’t even have the 1 cent anymore), but if he was sure he wanted to do the whole tooth fairy thing, cool.
Yes, we are very practical in these parts and shockingly it has not taken anything away from him experiencing anything with child-like wonder and awe and all the other adjectives we like to ascribe to childhood. He does not believe in Santa Claus either (he rationalised that he didn’t exist at around 3 years old and we didn’t lie to him). He wasn’t hurt at all by this, in fact, he seemed satisfied that the truth measured up to what he was figuring out. What we did tell him is that he should not ruin any other child’s belief. Don’t go telling Betty Sue that Santa doesn’t exist, that is for their parents to do. Santa doesn’t exist here, but Christmas is still his favourite holiday because he knows why it is special. The reason for the season is what we emphasise.
You might think, ‘oh no! give the child some magic! Give him something to believe in because life comes at you fast!’ And to that, I respond, we prefer to be straight with L. We prefer to make magic in moments and events that aren’t fleeting and won’t feel like a betrayal when the truth is revealed. His imagination is astounding, his grasp of things beyond his years is amazing and for that, we recognise that we need to treat him as such. In fact, we have been facing things with him in non-typical ways since birth because we realise that he interacts with the world in a way a tad bit different than most other children. In any case, we are no longer exempt from the kid securing his ‘bag’ and making some bank via the tooth fairy. At least now, the teeth aren’t falling out as fast so I won’t have to keep hitting up an ATM. I hope I at least get something cool for mother’s day out of this…haha!
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