The Missing Tooth

It has finally happened!

No, the baby hasn't come out yet, but something else has...

Ava has finally lost her first tooth. And it only took 7 years, 2 months and 13 days!

All school year Ava has been the only kid in her class yet to lose a tooth. In fact, I think at the end of the last school year she was the only kid in her kindergarten class yet to lose a tooth as well.

After a few months of wobbling her two front bottom teeth one of them has finally decided to let go and fall out. And Ava couldn't be more excited about it.

It finally fell out!

Yesterday morning Ava complained that her tooth felt a little funny. She checked it out in the bathroom mirror and after a few wiggles I saw her dive her hands into the sink to quickly catch her tooth before it fell down the drain. What a save!

Such a tiny tooth

Ava was pretty excited that her tooth had fallen out but also quite freaked out by the amount of blood that came with it. She got over the blood pretty quickly though and moved on to being excited about showing everyone her new gap. Not that there's really much of a gap there. The two front adult teeth have been growing behind the wobbly baby teeth for a few months now and are already almost as tall as the teeth they'll replace. Of course, they're also much, much wider so that little mouth of hers is going to be a little squishy until she's old enough for orthodontic work.  

Gappy smile

At school Ava was keen to tell everyone about her tooth. Her class has a chart on which the kids mark off the teeth that they have lost. Ava was excited that she finally got to put a tally mark on the chart.

Ava adds a tally mark to the class teeth chart

Back at home after school Ava filled out a special form to leave for the tooth fairy. I've had this "Official Certificate of Record" from the Office of the Tooth Fairy sitting in a cupboard for almost three years in anticipation of Ava losing her first tooth! I'm glad I knew where to find it after all that time.

Ava fills out her details on the certificate

The certificate is a beautifully letter pressed keepsake for a child's first lost tooth. It has places to include the child's details, which tooth they lost, an envelope to put the tooth in and a place for the tooth fairy to leave feedback. It's embossed with the official seal of the Tooth Fairy so you know it's legit! You can purchase the Official Tooth Fairy Kit from San Francisco based Notion Farm here.

Nicely filled out by Ava

Ava puts her tooth into the envelope

With the certificate in it's pouch it's ready to go under Ava's pillow

Ava puts the pouch under her pillow ready for the Tooth Fairy

This morning Ava was pretty excited when she reached under her pillow and noticed that the envelope that she'd left her tooth in felt quite a lot fatter. The Tooth Fairy must've visited overnight!

Let's go see what's inside!

Ava took the Tooth Fairy pouch to the dining room to have a look at what was inside. Lola was pretty excited to find out too. First up Ava found a pile of little paper coins. She was a little disappointed at first that it wasn't real money until I explained to her that the coins were made of special paper infused with plant seeds. If we plant them in the ground (or a pot) they'll grow root vegetables. As she is currently learning about plants and seeds in science class at school she was pretty excited about this. You can purchase the seed money in various denominations (each producing a different type of plant) from Berkeley based Leafcutter Designs here.

Hmm... what are these paper coins?

Seed Money

But there weren't just paper coins in the pouch. The envelope on the certificate no longer contained Ava's tiny tooth. Instead it contain five shiny gold dollar coins. Woo hoo!

How many coins do we have here?

Lola was pretty excited about all of those coins

Gold dollar coins!

The Tooth Fairy had filled out her section of the certificate too. She noted that it was a "lovely tooth" and told Ava to "keep up the good brushing and flossing".

Ava's certificate and goodies from the Tooth Fairy

Ava's other front tooth bottom tooth is also very wobbly and now that it doesn't have its friend there holding it in place I think it will be falling out very soon too.

Looks like the Tooth Fairy will be coming to visit again in no time!