We interrupt our regularly scheduled post to share with you this exciting news from the Adventures of the Zoo Crew.
This little bitty thing
came out of this little guy just a little while ago.
When did this happen? That tooth just came in a few months ago.
I promise.
Or maybe it just seems like it was. Maybe it was more like six years ago.
So much has happened in those six years. He has gone from being what my Daddy called a “puddle of people” to an honest to goodness, walking, talking, forming opinions and sharing them, Star Wars obsessed funny guy. Who is six. Almost seven. Just four months shy. As he will make sure you know when you ask him how old he is.
Just tonight a couple of hours before Cooter lost his tooth, Aub was talking about him turning eleven. (She was eleven when he was born.) I had to make them *beep beep beep* back that up, because he is not even seven yet. “I know,” she said. “But I can’t even bear him turning seven. Six is still a little boy, but when he turns seven, he won’t be little anymore. Seven’s not a little boy, it’s just a boy.”
*sigh*
Yes, I’m aware.
How is it that this tiny little thing makes me cry such big tears?
In all actuality the tooth loss tonight was quite anticlimactic. No blood or gore or tears from the toothless wonder. It’s been hanging by a thread for such a long time I was starting to worry that he’d never let it go. I almost started calling it the Bubba tooth. Only it’s not really. Many years ago, my dear sweet sister friend’s daughter with whom Aub grew up had a front top tooth that was similarly stubborn about coming out. That joker was hanging sideways and still wouldn’t come out. Nor would she let anyone touch it. That, THAT was a Bubba tooth. (My brother Bubba would probably agree.)
But like the Bubba tooth, Cooter’s little tooth finally just floated away from its dock, and he picked it up and said, “I just lost my tooth. Can I call Baba?” That’s his big sister Aub. She didn’t seem to mind at all being interrupted at the football game to get the news. Have I mentioned lately how much I love my family?
And so the time ticks on. In my mind and heart I think of what Mama and Daddy would have said when he called to tell them. (Though it’s quite unlikely it would have lasted this long if Daddy had been here. Pulling teeth was kind of his thing.) I guess this is just another in a long line of life moments that I will think about in such a way.
It doesn’t help that I’m so sentimental and I think about things like how little this tooth is and how it’s the beginning of the end of the “little boy” phase. The day I have no Matchbox cars or Star Wars figures or Lego’s in my tote bag is the day y’all need to come over with chocolate, a pound cake, a gallon of sweet tea, and a big ol’ box of tissues. I will be DONE. FOR. This is my baby we are talking about.
I am happy for him. Our neighbor friend who was three months younger was losing them regularly right before they moved this summer. (I teased him incessantly that if he’d brush them maybe they’d stop falling out. He would laugh every time, bless him. Sure do miss them.) And Shaker, Mess Cat’s son, who is six months younger, has already started losing teeth. So yeah, it’s a rite of passage as far as Cooter sees it. Although he’s trying to play it cool. After the initial need to celebrate with his sister, he leaned back against the recliner and said, “Yeah. It feels…..I don’t know…..without the tooth in my mouth, it’s kind of…..boring.”
Oh good gravy. Get excited boy. You just lost your first tooth!
And he is. I could see it in his eyes. But, you know, sometimes you just have to play it cool.
Then again, what do I know? I sobbed for quite a while when his umbilical cord fell off. And now this. Only six and three-quarters years later.
How many more teeth losings do I have to go through?
A body and heart can only take so much. I think I might need a nap.
I Might Need A Nap 