Toothless

     Years have been invested in Liam's teeth.  Time and care and patience have been put into their growth and then their cleaning.  We tracked their appearances.  We visited the dentist at about 2 years and have returned whenever they have asked us to since.  We eagerly awaited the next stage in Liam's mouth-development.  We awaited... the Tooth Fairy.  We even watched the movie, The Tooth Fairy, starring The Rock, as a preset so Liam wouldn't be too startled by the concept.
     Our adorable little baby boy who grew his front teeth first and gave us those first toothy smiles was finally losing teeth.  One-by-one... actually, make that two-by-two because apparently once one falls, it's neighbor loses all will to survive and must fall out too.  And before you know it, the adorable toothy grin turns into... a toothless awkward grin.  Yes, that's right.  Awkward. 
     Currently Liam looks as though he has been punched in the jaw.  And this is an improvement over what you would've seen at Christmas-time.  He is missing a front tooth and the second one has jutted out, already growing to jinormous proportions and is distinctly using the extra space to lean to the left.  Meanwhile on the bottom of his mouth, his two new front teeth have jagged tips. 

 "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth"

     The bottom left is a sore scene.  Liam recently lost his fifth tooth, which I was getting quite concerned about it.  Behind it, the adult tooth was already growing and it now seems content to sit back there, as if being left out from the row in front.  Yes, for a couple of weeks, Liam was growing a second row of teeth behind the first, much like a shark.  Maybe I should have put an end to this ridiculousness, but I just couldn't bring myself to yank that tooth. That's why I was in fact happy when a friend of his elbowed him on a bean-bag chair at his afterschool program.  It was one of those fateful afternoons when I could have arrived slightly earlier, had I not stopped to talk in the halls.  But I did and as I walked into the afterschool care to pick up Liam, I saw him running frantically to his teacher and then, when he caught my eye, to me, holding his tooth.  We didn't have one of those little blue treasure chests to put the tooth into so instead we nested it inside of one of Liam's origami paper boats he had made afterschool that day. We carried it home gently and when we got home, we put it into a little blue treasure chest we keep just for this occasion and slid it under his pillow.
     Liam's mouth is now in such a poor state, that I think it is only fit to schedule an early appointment with the dentist.  Surely these teeth will rearrange themselves into order... or is it more likely they will continue to trample each other and cause disarray?  Perhaps the dentist will help...  Cute songs can prepare you for the inevitable, your child will lose his/her baby teeth no matter how well you take care of them and he may even lose these two front teeth on or near Christmas... but nothing can quite prepare you for a toothless grin, a temporary lisp, the grossness of dried tooth blood on a tiny blue plastic treasure chest box and the idea that soon you will need to pay for braces.