This might sting a little

Aubrey has a loose tooth.

(This would be an appropriate time to gasp, shake your head in wonderment, and marvel at her genius.)

At 6 1/2 years, the fact that she hasn't lost a tooth yet is starting to weigh heavy on her mind. She has had a mildly loose tooth for MONTHS and it continues to languish in its spot, never any closer it seems to coming out.

BUT THEN. Aubrey's dearest and bestest little friend at school lost her first tooth on Monday. Suddenly Aubrey had a mission. She needed to lose this tooth.

This evening, right before dinner, I hear a slam (a chair tipping over backward) and Aubrey runs into the kitchen, hysterically crying, holding her mouth.

"WHAT HAPPENED?!?!?"

"I KNOCKED MY TOOTH LOOSE!!!!!!!!!"

I fully expected to see either another tooth hanging loose or the current one barely in there.

I found neither. What I did find was the current loose tooth in a much looser situation and Aubrey sobbing that it was going to fall out (isn't that the point)? and that it HURT HURT HURT and mommy, I tried to knock it out!!

For your sake and mine I will spare you all the dialogue. It took me a solid five minutes myself to understand that she had decided that that tooth was coming out and preferably today. She then proceeded to open the front lid of her desk (you know, the kind where the front of the desk folds down into the writing surface), BITE THE LID, and try and slam it shut, all in the hopes of knocking out her own tooth. What she did accomplish was rattling her own skull around, hurting her entire head, and as intended, making that tooth much looser. After the initial pain and terror she was quite pleased with her idea. Here are some bits of dialogue from this evening, post tooth-meets-desk incident.

"Mommy, how you doin' grown up tooth mama? I'm almost a grown up tooth girl."

"Mom, isn't it funny that Johanna is getting teeth while I'm losing them?"

"It sure is funny to have a lose tooth. It seems just right for a 6 1/2 year old girl to have a loose tooth."

"I'm thinkin' that Nathan will think it's cool when I have a tooth out."

She is currently standing beside me, critiquing my blog post because it has words underlined in red ("MOM, that means you spelled it wrong!") and constantly wiggling her tooth.

Stay tuned. I have a feeling that the actual event will be a blog post unto itself.