Not that I was keeping track, but I think Miles' (first) tooth was "falling out" for close to two months. At least that's what it felt like - an eternity. It started to become a bit of a Chicken Little situation. Each day he would talk about it in painstaking detail and show us how it was growing progressively looser. We began to ignore him whenever he spoke of his impending tooth loss. Poor Miles. Sometimes it can really suck to be the baby in the family.
My (our) indifference may sound a bit insensitive, but with four children I have officially lost count of how many teeth they have lost, collectively. Some have come out quickly, some slowly and others have even been yanked out (with an anesthetic, of course) at the dentist's office. Catherine takes the prize however, for the most traumatic tooth loss experience. She lost her two front teeth at the age of two, as a result of a changing table "accident." The poor thing had no front teeth for years after that, until the new ones finally grew in, a few years ago.
Nonetheless, this was Miles' first, so no matter how long it took to fall out, it was important and meaningful to him. Wouldn't it just figure that when it finally did, we would be in a most inopportune place. Murphy's Law, I suppose.
On that particular day, we had embarked on a cool "road trip," that we read about online, driving the entirety of Sunset Boulevard, from the Pacific Coast Highway all the way to downtown. (with a special detour down Hollywood Boulevard for good measure). Twenty two winding miles, filled with every iconic Los Angeles landmark you would want to see. We made it as far as the Bel Air Gates (at Beverly Glen) when the big moment arrived.
It started when I heard commotion coming from the backseat and had to pull over. It took a minute or so to figure out what all the fuss was about. "My tooth is coming out, Mommy", cried Chicken Little (aka Miles)! "Mommy, get something, there's lots of blood," yelled Garin! After two long months of waiting, it seemed to happen just like that. The tooth was out. Now what, we all wondered?
We recalled, with great sadness, when Graham lost his first tooth, also in the car, some years ago. It was never recovered, but still remains in some small crevice of our car, somewhere, we presume. That is certainly not the experience one aspires to, when losing one's first tooth. So, first and foremost, after dealing with the blood loss of course, we had to make sure did we didn't lose Miles' precious tooth. As he handed it to me I was so nervous that I was going to drop it. Thankfully, that didn't happen. I found a used ziplock baggie in the car (I think it had previously contained someone's pretzel snack), in which to place the tooth for safekeeping. I then carefully placed the baggie in a zippered compartment in my purse, where I spent the rest of the day, checking and re-checking it, to make sure it hadn't gone missing.
After making our long sojourn down Sunset Boulevard starting in Malibu, to Pacific Palisades, to Brentwood, to Westwood, to Beverly Hills, to West Hollywood, to Hollywood, to Los Feliz, to Silver Lake, to Echo Park and finally to downtown, we ended the day with with a delicious meal in Chinatown, Chicken Little devoured his Orange Chicken and Pan Fried noodles without a single complaint about his missing tooth. From there we headed home, where the tooth was safely placed first under his pillow for the tooth fairy to find, and then in a special box for safekeeping.
Miles' selfie he took in the car as the big event was about to happen.
The tooth fairy visits.
His little tooth is now packed away for safe keeping.
Now we're just waiting for the new one to grow back in.
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