So, we said lots of prayers for the poor Cowboy. Because he was really trying to endure this constant aching. But it was starting to wear on his little emotions.
And then, one Saturday afternoon, our prayers were answered...
All three of the boys were outside playing on the grass. Then I hear the crying start, and Witten comes running in with a bloody mouth. And wouldn't you know, his bottom two teeth that had been loose for months are dangling by threads. Both of them.
"Yay! They're finally coming out! Both on the same day! I better call the Tooth Fairy and give her a heads up!" I say, trying to calm him down as we head to the bathroom.
"No. They're not coming out. They're not ready." Witt says through the blood and tears.
"Witt, they're barely hanging there. Look."
His sad little eyes move to the mirror where he examines his mouth from many angles.
Then the sad little expression changes to a determined one. And I think he's decided to pull out those little dangling teeth. But then he says, "They're not ready. They're not coming out."
And this is where Witt and I hit heads every time we don't see things the same way. Because I have never met a more stubborn kid in all my life. And if you ask my mom, she'd say the same thing about me. (Which, off topic, I will argue that stubbornness is not a bad quality. I like to look at it as one of my strengths. And for Witten too, when we both turn it in the right direction...)
Stubborn.
Both of us.
I hunch over a little so we're looking at each other's stubborn expressions in the mirror. "What do you mean they're not ready. Look at them."
"They're not ready."
He spent the afternoon going about his business, and I went about mine. He even went over to a friends house for a few hours with dangling teeth. And he came home with dangling teeth. He was determined those teeth were not coming out.
When dinner rolled around, he asked for soup. So I sit him down with a steamy bowl of chicken noodle soup and see those two dangling teeth just hanging there. Both of them.
After a few moments I look back at him from across the table, and...there is only one dangling tooth. And he didn't have a clue. He just sat there eating his soup. I glance in his bowl, around the table before I finally say, "You want to know something, Cowboy?
"What?" he asks, taking another sip of soup.
"How's that back tooth feeling today?"
"Doesn't hurt."
"That's great! Probably because these other teeth hurt a little more right now, hu?"
"Yeah."
"I bet you don't feel a thing when you decide to pull them."
"They're not ready."
"Hmm. You sure about that?"
"Yeah," he says with that stubborn look.
"Why don't you go look in the mirror again," I say with a smile.
He closes his mouth and I can see him working his tongue down around the front of his mouth, then his eyes get all big and he starts looking in his soup, then in his lap and on the floor. He gets up off the floor, eyes wide, and says, "I think I swallowed one of them."
"I think you did too."
He runs to the bathroom to look in the mirror.
One little dangling tooth.
And his eyes start to water, but he doesn't want to cry. "Does the tooth fairy still come if you swallowed your tooth?"
"Yes."
"Okay." His eyes stop watering and he stands a little straighter in the mirror. "Good. Because this one," he looks at me and that stubborn look returns. "This one isn't ready!"
?????
Needless to say, in a few hours the tooth was literally picked up out of its little place in his mouth. Not even pulled. Picked up.
And for the whole weekend, Witten's back tooth didn't hurt (And he ended up getting it one pulled on Tuesday).
And he thinks the Tooth Fairy is pretty awesome. Because did you know that she comes even if the tooth is pulled pulled by a little boy, or a dentist, or even if the tooth is swallowed?
She still comes! And she's got some awesome Jedi Force!
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