Finally!

Ava has had a loose tooth for months! We've thought for three weeks now that it would come out any day, but that stubborn little booger was just hanging on by a thread. Ava could twist it, push it straight out with her tongue and every time she said a word with a "P" or "S" in it, the movement of her tongue would force that tooth to shoot forward. Plenty of people offered to just pull the tooth for her, but Ava said she just wanted to let it come out on its own. I was all for that plan until the last few days when I became concerned her tooth would finally decide to come out while she was eating and she'd end up swallowing it. So, I encouraged our little "Loosey Goosey" to wiggle and twist with all her might. Still nothing. Then, last night I came up with a genius plan. I offered to "help" Ava brush her teeth. She has a battery-powered toothbrush, which I very gently used to get her tooth extra clean for the tooth fairy. Before we knew it, Ava said, "Mom, is my tooth coming out?" And sure enough, we finally broke that last stubborn thread and all that was left was a teeny little hole in Ava's mouth. We got to see plenty of that hole last night, because our toothless girl couldn't stop smiling (or staring at herself in the mirror).

Ava held onto her tooth for quite awhile last night before finally sticking it in her tooth fairy pillow. All she wanted from the tooth fairy was a silver dollar. Turns out, silver dollars are hard to come by these days and have been replaced with gold Sacajawea dollars. Knowing this, I taught Ava about Sacajawea a few weeks ago and explained to her the currency change. So, she beamed this morning when she woke up and found her very own gold Sacajawea dollar in her tooth fairy pillow. She's still holding it as I type this post.

It's hard to believe that we're already at the stage where our little girl loses teeth. I swear, she just got those things! She's got another loose one right now, but who knows how long it will hang around in her mouth. But, the tooth fairy would be wise to have a gold Sacajawea dollar on hand, just in case.