The Day a Boy Became a Man

On December 21, 2003, Sloan’s first tooth popped through his swollen little gums.

And on November 3, 2009 that very tooth fell out.

And, in his mind, he has now become a man.

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He came into our room this morning much earlier than I would have liked filled with awe and excitement as he held up the three crisp dollars the Tooth Fairy left for him.  She also wrote him a letter congratulating him on his tooth loss – because she’s cool like that.

He was very concerned about her taking his tooth, so I let him write a note last night asking her if he could keep it.

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And now I have a question for you, internets.

What do you do with kids teeth when they fall out?

Should I keep them in a little baggie and tuck them away in his baby book?

Because – um – ew.

Comments

  1. Yes, by all means keep them! There are cute little containers you can get for them these days. However, I used the bags. Those snack bags work great, and you can label it. You’ve kept great dates! I’m impressed. I loved the comparison of the 1st tooth entrance, and the falling out of that tooth. So sweet! Kids love hearing and seeing that kind of thing, AND the most important thing is, it translates into feelings of being loved. Be sure to keep that precious note. Can’t wait to see all of you. Thanks for the pictures, and for letting the kids call us. Your’re precious and I love you.
    Bebe
    P.S. I’m also impressed with the generosity of the St. Louis Tooth Fairy!!!

  2. I love the ToothFairy idea! So sweet. Congratulations on having one more man in your home!

  3. I know it’s grody, but keep them! I have 2 little boxes full of teeth that each will get handed back some day =)

    I ordered mine on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Maple-Landmark-Tooth-Fairy-Box/dp/B000NJ5UDK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1257350335&sr=8-3

  4. Absolutely – keep them! I still have a little baggie of teeth in my “wonderful memories box”. I may someday hand them over to the kids (now 23, 26, and 29) . . . or I may not!

  5. My mother kept some of my teeth. Sher recently gave me my baby book – of course I am the fourth child so pretty much nothing was written in there- but there were the teeth. It is pretty gross. I think there was even dried blood on there still. I am not sure what I am going to do with them and I really don’t think I will be keeping my child’s teeth. What do you do with them as an adult? Make a necklace or something, gross.

  6. Julie – the necklace idea was not one I had thought of. Very interesting. I was thinking that maybe I should bronze them like you bronze infant baby shoes. I could have a whole broanzed sculpture of Sloan’s mouth to set on my fireplace mantle.

    I guess I kind of see the sentimental reasons for keeping teeth, but really, what do you do with them? I don’t know if my mom still has my teeth, but even if she did, I wouldn’t want them. I don’t know. I guess I’ll keep them for awhile…

  7. I’m fully expecting Caleb to come home from Kindergarten today with a wad of toilet paper and a large gap in his upper gum line. Yep, # four’s about to come out. Halloween, I am sure, is a busy time for the tooth fairy… all those sticky candies really help pull the loose teeth out!

    Miss you.

  8. yay Sloan! Will has lost two so far, and I don’t know what to do with them either! I’ve kept them so far, but I think it’s kind of gross too! I will probably keep the first one from each. My mom still has my teeth, and I was totally grossed out by them when she showed them to me. I told her to throw them away!

  9. Ok…I must not be a cool Mom…but ew. I say throw them away. I mean maybe, MAYBE keep the first one, but that’s it. I have some scraps of Coop’s hair from his first hair cut…so I guess teeth go in that category too.

    All I keep thinking is that we are weird, weird, weird little people….Can you imagine if someone was observing us as a species? Weirdness…

    And yeah…that tooth fairy is setting a high standard! You do know you have 3 other kids, right? If you guess that each of your kiddos will lose about 20 teeth, then girl you are looking at paying your kiddos $180.00 for those teeth! WHEW! Ha ha ha ha ha…I’m just playing..I’ll go now…

  10. Yeah – we went over and over how much to pay. The problem is that Sloan’s got friends who have gotten five dollars from the Tooth Fairy! I started worrying that they would talk and he would realize that his Tooth Fairy jipped him. Plus I’m kind of hoping he’ll grow out of believing in the Tooth Fairy before he loses all those teeth. I figure they’ll be stretched out enough that it won’t hurt that much to pay out that much money though. Right? Right???

    Oh – and I agree. We are a strange species.

  11. So, was this tooth fairy note written in CHINESE?? Because I’ve heard she can do that……. 🙂

  12. Chinese, Cursive – What’s the difference? 🙂

  13. Kelli, if you bronzed them, than as an adult if he lost one of his permanent teeth, he could just put that bronzed tooth in its place. Genius idea!! Now I will have to keep Kaylee’s teeth:)