The tooth would not come out. None of her teeth is in a hurry, but this bottom tooth was outrageously pokey. I mean, it’s been months and months and months.
Tonight, she tried crunching an apple as hard as she could. Still no good.
“I could pull it out with a tissue,” I said.
“Sure. Pay no attention to my gasping in pain,” replied Sophie, before opening her mouth and waiting patiently. Hattie sat nearby, for molar, er, moral support.
Soph and I looked at each other. The time of reckoning had come. I pounced, I yanked UP, and blood filled her little mouth. YIKES! But it came out, with an enormous root. Inch-long baby tooth!
“That must have gone all the way down into my JAWBONE!” yelled Sophie, bits of blood and Kleenex sticking to her lip. “EW!”
We all felt a little woozy and had to sit down.
“That has to be worth at least $10, for the pain,” said shrewd Sophie.
“I don’t know that the Tooth Fairy will go for that,” said I.
“All right. $4.10. Ten cents extra for the suffering,” Sophie bargained.
Must go scrape together $4.10. I love you all. Goodnight.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Ouch! I’ve got some quarters and a couple dollar bills. Poor baby. Wonder why it had such a deep root – even Joe wasn’t ready to pull it in July. Well, the deed’s done. Good on you. I can’t believe Sophie’s lines – she speaks like a grownup, already. Hope you all have a peaceful night.
You know what I love most about you? You said, “None of her teeth IS is a hurry…”
Good grammar is SUCH an aphrodisiac. You rock so hard.
Way back when, when you asked for work/job suggestions, I meant to say… Personal Support Worker
I see you offering the same grace and quips and so forth with those people who need help at home doing the same things – in a way – that you offer to your children. Plus, Mr Economy can do nothing about the fact that the Boomers are still a large population that will need carrying for.
Funny to think that at the end we end up back in diapers and with no teeth and soft food and help with bathing.
Ug. Depressed (more) now. Goodnight.
Ouch! Yo-Yo was such a wimp—would NOT let us touch it. It was hanging on by a thread. So gross. And there was still blood when the tooth finally tumbled out.
-JJ
The gap toothed grin — priceless.
ditto what Simon said about the grammar. i was already so woozy from that one sentence that the mere thought of a 1-inch root felled me.
xomox
Hah! The post I have up right now is about my son losing his first tooth. With pictures!
Definitely worth $4.10. And I think we should have a photo of the giant root to admire. Maybe rinse the blood off first.
Ouch! I feel your pain, literally. I blogged about having to do the exact same thing yesterday, lol!
Tell Sophie for me that my grandpa used to give us options, priced based on terror level. A penny for biting an apple, a nickle for one end of a string tied to the tooth and the other end tied to a doorknob… all the way up to 50 cents per try with the greasy old needle-nosed pliers from his workshop! Guess which one my cousins and I ALWAYS went for. And none of us died of blood poisoning.
And BTW, perhaps not coincidentally, one of my favorite Halloween costumes ever was the Tooth Fairy, complete with needle-nosed pliers (and eight-hole docs). What’s Sophie going to be this year?
You are a braver soul than I am. I had to sit down just reading about it.
Teeth things make me gross in my whole stomach area. And it gives me the shivers, real bad. You must be a whole ‘nother kind of bad ass.
You are being featured on Five Star Friday:
http://www.fivestarfriday.com/2008/10/five-star-friday-edition-29.html
You are an awesome mom. I passed out simply trying to change the gauze in my son’s mouth after his wisdom teeth were extracted. Imagine – there I was, on the floor, and he had to get out of his sickbed to help me up.
AND then change his own gauze. Oh mah holy hell.
My daughter (also Sophie) has stubborn teeth as well. We’ve had FIVE pulled by the dentist at $70 a pop. I would do it myself — I don’t have a “blood” problem, but she won’t let me near her. Last week was #5 and she nearly passed out when she removed the gauze. It took juice and much fussing to get her out the door. The tooth fairy left $5 (trauma price), and forgot to take the tooth. I told her that’s what happens when the fairy is cutting you off.
We convinced James to pull out a “little tooth that wouldn’t” with pliers. His uncle was up doing some work on the house and James had been admiring his cool tool belt (probably a uniquely boy-thing). Fos got the idea for a manly story of how he once pulled a stubborn tooth out with tools. James was all over that – wanting to be “manly” like his dad (who, by the way, is kinda afraid of needles…). Fos sterilized the pliers, clamped the tooth, James grabbed the handles and yanked. Voila – tooth came out and James had a cool war story to tell all his friends.