Teeth, teeth, teeth

Fiona and her beautiful teeth. She hasn't lost or gained any in years, but I

couldn't leave her out!

We have had a lot of tooth action in the Willis household in the past 9 months or so. It began last summer when Rachel lost her first tooth just days before Matilda's first one came in. When I showed Matilda's new tooth to Rachel, she exclaimed, "Hey!! The Tooth Fairy recycles teeth!" Anyway, after the first batch of new teeth (6 for Matilda in the space of a few busy - and sleepless - months, and 4 for Rachel), we had a little hiatus during which time I caught up on my sleep. But a few weeks ago, Matilda stopped sleeping again and started being really antsy (can't say she was fussy, for she is never genuinely fussy), and one day I noticed that she had two bright shiny top molars! Or at least, half the molar had erupted on each side. She is now working on the other halves, and a bottom molar has erupted too. So, no sleep for us until they are completely up, I'm afraid.

Here are Matilda's beautiful top teeth. She really has a cute smile, very buck-toothed!

"Show mama your teeth!"

Thankfully, the process is much easier the second time around. Rachel's top and bottom teeth, the ones to the sides of her new permanent teeth, have been getting pretty loose but they haven't fallen out yet. Well, just yesterday she noticed that she has two more bottom teeth that have erupted, well behind the milk teeth they are supposed to be pushing out.

Here are Rachel's new teeth: 2 on the top, and 2 on the bottom.

Where's the entertainment in all of this, you ask? Well, Rachel is, that's what. That girl is so impatient. Her first tooth to fall out, a bottom one, came out naturally last July. She was eating a black olive when, oops, out it came. Well, the second one seemed to take forever because, like its companion now, the permanent tooth erupted well behind it and didn't push it out. Apparently there was some competition between Rachel and her friend Solana to see whose tooth would fall out first, because all of a sudden Rachel started wiggling that tooth non-stop. And when Solana's tooth fell out first, well, all bets were off then - Rachel wanted her tooth out, and she wanted it out NOW. She must have known better than to ask me for help, because the next thing I know she and her father (yes, Ben. I do have to say, in his defense, that she really launched a full court press to persuade him) were in the bathroom cooking up a scheme to pull out the tooth. Here's the dialog I hear as I am sitting in the next room, nursing the baby to sleep:

Ben: "OK, Rach, we can tie some dental floss to the tooth, and then tie the other end to the doorknob and close the door."

Rachel: "That sounds good Papa. Will it really work?"

Ben: "Yeah, hold still..."

Slam!

Rachel: "Uh oh, it didn't work...Do it again!"

Ben: "Hmmm...alright, one more time."

SLAM!

Rachel shrieks and says, hand over her mouth muffling her voice: "Papa! It's out! It's out!"

Ben, in total disbelief: "Really? It worked? Uh oh, it's really bleeding!"

It turns out that Ben agreed to try this because he really didn't think it would work and was not at all prepared for a bloody tooth dangling from a length of dental floss. He vowed then and there that he would not be doing anymore home dentistry and Rachel would just have to let nature takes its course next time. Well, now it's "next time" and, while Rachel hasn't said a word to Ben about pulling her loose tooth, she hasn't given up. Now she's trying to get Fiona in on it. I heard Rachel saying to Fi yesterday, "OK, it's alright if I get a bloody nose if you miss, just punch me hard, right here on this tooth."