I know this is probably going to sound pretty weird, but my son is nearly 8 years old — and he still hasn't lost any teeth. Yep, every single one of his baby teeth are still fully intact, and as far as I can tell, none of them are the least bit loose either.
And I feel kinda bad for the little guy. At least once a week, he comes home and tells me that another one of his friends lost another tooth — and he asks me why he hasn't lost any and when he is going to lose them.
Of course, I don't have the answer, so I just keep telling him that it'll happen soon enough and that he cut teeth late (11 1/2 months), which is probably why he hasn't lost any yet.
But if I had it my way, I think I'd keep his baby teeth in there for at least another year or so, as nutty as that may sound. (I swear my reasoning makes a whole lot of sense.)
First of all, I feel so lucky that we've managed to squeeze in one more school picture where he has a perfectly adorable little smile instead of some big toothless grin going on. Something tells me not many parents of second graders can say the same thing, so I feel like I've been given a gift in a weird way. And you know what comes after the missing front teeth pic — the photo where the permanent teeth are growing in all big and awkward and out of place. (Yeah, I'm not ready for that just yet.)
But besides the perfect school photo, there's another reason I'm not all that eager for his teeth to fall out. Yep, you guessed it. The longer they stay in there, the greater my chances for getting off Tooth Fairy duty. It's not that I don't find the whole idea really cute and traditional and fun. It's just that the older I get, the more I tend to forget stuff — and I'll probably fail to leave cash under his pillow a time or two, which will absolutely devastate him.
I'm guessing in another year or two, he won't buy into the Tooth Fairy bit. If he can hold off on losing teeth for a bit longer, she may get to retire in my household before she even gets started.
Hmm. Why do I feel like I just jinxed myself by writing about my kid's teeth? I'll bet you $10 that he gets off the school bus today and shows me that he has one or two that are a little wiggly.
That'll be just my luck. Guess I shouldn't hang up my Tooth Fairy costume just yet.
How old was your child when he/she started losing baby teeth?
Image via Mary Fischer
