First Tooth...

It’s been fun the last few weeks. Ethan still is getting green slips at school, but he still tells us about it each time. He also is learning his letters very well and is very good with numbers. Jenny and I are both very proud of his schoolwork.

Tonight was the annual Harvest Dance at school. The gym had a bouncy castle and a bunch of games. We spent nearly 2 hours there. Ethan decided he wanted to go as a Power Ranger just in case one of his friends was there who was also a Power Ranger. The best thing that happened, though, was Ethan lost his first tooth right there in the gym. This tooth has been loose for weeks already. A few weeks ago, Jenny and I discovered a new tooth growing in behind his baby teeth. We, being inexperienced first time parents, took him to the dentist who told us to just let nature take its course. I’ve been continually hounding him to keep wiggling it, hoping that the sure bet of braces could be avoided at least with this first lost tooth. He has been afraid of having anybody touch it except for him, and he hasn’t been that good at wiggling it either. Last night I even tried playing a modified college drinking game with him saying that each time the word “bear” was used in the movie “Brother Bear,” he should wiggle his tooth. Tonight, his worries and ours were finally put to rest. After putting a jaw breaker in his mouth, Ethan found that the tooth had finally worked its way out of its position. There was blood all over in his mouth. He opened up, and I did the final severing of the last pieces of tissue. Jenny had a tissue that she gave to him. Surprisingly, he didn’t mind having all that blood in his mouth at all. In fact, I think he kind of enjoyed it. It didn’t hurt or anything, he told me. On the way out to the bathroom to clean up, he had to stop by the registration table to inform the ladies working there that he had just lost a tooth. The rest of the evening he went up to each kid he knew and smiled at them, pointing at his newly vacant spot in his mouth.

Chalk another one up in Ethan’s history book. Today, Octoboer 27, 2006, Ethan lost his first tooth.