Missing Teeth and Growing Up

Today Lauryn had four baby teeth pulled. She has a small mouth like her mommy, and there is just not room for all those teeth, so four of them were evicted today.

This is an effort to hopefully prevent worse crowding in the future. Those adult teeth were already coming in behind the baby teeth...which weren't loose. We were told they wouldn't ever fall out because the adult teeth were so far back they wouldn't push them out.

It was hard for me, because she has wanted a loose tooth for the longest time, and here she is losing four...none of which she got to wiggle and pull out on her own. I felt like she was cheated out of that experience. I do trust her dentist, and believe this was necessary, but I just feel sad.

I literally teared up this morning as I watched her brush her teeth. I took the brush from her and just kept brushing long after the toothpaste was gone. She protested, but I told her this was the last time I would ever see those baby teeth in her head, so GIVE ME A BREAK!

She obliged.

Here she is first thing this morning...this is the "Before" picture...

And the "After!" I love the little tongue sticking through! She looks so cute and BIG!
I quickly made a tooth fairy pillow (we only found out two days ago at her appointment that she would be losing her teeth today) and she is excited but worried that the tooth fairy won't know she lost her teeth because the dentist had to take them out for her.
The tooth fairy will literally give this girl anything she wants after going through this today.

She did great during the actual procedure. She was nervous, but never cried. We did not go back with her, which was huge. I still can't believe she just walked off with the hygienist like such a big girl. Just an example of how far she has come, and how fast she is growing up.

Here's another example. After I took these pictures, she said, "Ok...now go put those on Facebook".

Please someone....make time stand still.