If I took one thing away from my hour-long volunteering stint in Logan’s class yesterday, its that these kid’s teeth are flying out of their little mouths before they can say the words, “Tooth Fairy!”

Two separate girls approached me with a floss-made necklace around their necks with a charm in the shape of a plastic tooth containing said tooth which came out already that same morning! They wear their teeth around their necks! I get a real kick out of this! Their teacher is a pretty cool cat if she is so prepared for such a regularly occurring mass exodus of teeth that she hands out tooth-holder necklaces! In fact, one girl, with whom I had never met before, took a real liking to me and spent the whole hour at my table talking to me about her tooth. She had already been missing at least two, from what I could tell. She would take it out of her necklace box, mess with it, demonstrate where it came from by shoving it back up in the “empty window,” then putting it back in the box. Icky? Yes.

But, actually, it does occur to me that 1st- and 2nd-grades are the prime time of teeth-loosing experiences. I can’t remember when I first lost mine, but my sister remembers being in the 2nd-grade before her first tooth came out.

And, to answer the question that must be weighing on you, the answer is no. Not yet. Logan still has all of his teeth in tact, but I think he is eager to get a move-on with it. Seems like every child that smiles at us has more than one “window” going on in there! I especially feel like he is eager, not only because everyone else is doing it, but because evidently the Tooth Fairy’s prices have gone up, if you know what I mean…?

Last night at dinner we were talking about it all and besides my poor husband’s squirming in his seat over the details of Logan’s classmate so freely handling her tooth in front of me, we were informed that it is common nowadays to receive at least one dollar under the pillow for a tooth.

“Wow!” I said, kind of sly-ish, to Chris. “Times have sure changed since we were kids. Daddy and I remember getting something like a dime or a quarter for our’s.”

Logan was very matter-of-fact in laying it out about how it all works. Lose tooth. Place tooth under pillow. Receive cash in the morning. Well, there’s certainly one thing that I can count on when the time comes…I will be the helper of the tooth exodus and we’ll have to send Chris an email telling him about it.

Hehe! My point being, of all the things that he is brave and Daddy about, I’m afraid tooth-handling didn’t make the list. It’s ok. I always figured I’d be the one. I (think I) can handle it. And, besides, I may actually have pleasant memories of my own dad helping me with mine. But, ask me again after it happens, we’ll see if I still feel that way.

When did you loose your first tooth? If you’re a parent, are you the helper?