Six year olds lose teeth every day. It's a normal thing. Nature taking its course.

Except in our house where up until yesterday, every tooth that has been lost in this household has been pulled by the dentist. So forgive me for possibly blowing this entire event out of proportion. It's a huge deal for us to have a tooth fall out on its own! :) And yesterday, that's exactly what happened.

We went to lunch at Jason's Deli on Sunday afternoon. This precious girl has been doing nothing but wiggling and twisting and turning this poor tooth for days. As you can see, it took its toll. 

She loves nothing more than to gross us out by doing her "tooth trick". It works every time. Blech. 

Lunch was going along beautifully. Somewhere between finishing her fruit cup and starting on her pb&j, she looked up and said something to us. I think the three of us did a remarkable job of disguising our horror as we witnessed that front tooth making a break for it - her sweet smile suddenly included quite a display of blood and a tooth hanging in a position that no tooth should ever hang.

So Daddy did us all a favor (although my appetite was pretty much shot by that point) and took her outside to the car to put that poor tooth out of  its misery.

She came back inside the restaurant, grinning from ear to ear, and finished her lunch as if nothing had happened. I think it probably goes down as one of the best days of her life. She was thrilled :) 

 On the way to school this morning, I suddenly did a double take because I almost didn't recognize this grown up girl in the back seat. How can one missing tooth cause her entire face to age 5 years??

How is it that one little tooth can dictate what my mood will be for an entire morning? I have been near tears over that teeny tiny missing part of her. Of course it's not the first time one of my children has lost a tooth. But somehow, this time it's more "official" - because this time nature took over and I am powerless to stop her from growing up.  

I think God uses these little milestones to snap us back into focus and to remind us that while the days seem long, the years are most certainly short. So I will celebrate these growing up moments and look forward to the many more to come, and be eternally grateful that I get a front row seat.