And with our angels...: The Tooth Fairy visits again...

Tonight we will have a visit from the tooth fairy and for the first time, the tooth fairy will be coming to visit someone other than Gabriel.

See it all started back this summer when Aaron pulled Gabriel's first tooth. Carefully observing in the background and watching as Gabriel basked in tons of attention, collected money and got to tell his story over and over, Michael decided what Gabriel had going was a pretty good deal.

So in an attempt to join "Gabriel's club", this summer Michael took it into his own hands to try and pull his front tooth using a "bat-a-rang" (some toy modeled after the Batman movies). In actuality it was a string tie from a Glad garbage bag, but Bat-a-rang or garbage tie, the result was, he broke loose part of his baby tooth and made it a prime target for extraction, Michael style that is.

After realizing Michael's desperate attempt to get money, I gave him a lengthily lecture about how it is not okay to try and pull ones teeth before they are ready to come out and I provided him a detailed list of all of the foods he would no longer be able to have if he tried to play dentist and pull his own tooth again. He obliged with my firm request, but the damage was done.

Since this summer that tooth has been loose and today when I picked him up from school the first thing he announced to me, (after exclaiming he didn't have to go to time out or do any think walking) was that he tooth was really loose.

Showing me his mouth and seeing the tooth completely bent over, it was obvious he was right. He said, "Mom, will you please pull my tooth?" Given that Jarrett and I are both not the best at wanting to extract teeth, I decided that since I had picked up the kids, I got dibs and to Michael's question I responded, "Oh Michael, Dad would LOVE to pull your tooth, lets wait til Dad gets home from work." Thankfully my stalling technique worked, or so I thought it had.

After getting home, we immediately started into our normal routine, me prepare dinner, get Isabelle's dinner ready, read Michael his homework instructions, observe Gabriel's homework efforts and get another load of laundry in the wash. In the middle of those tasks Michael decided he had to go to the bathroom and without even realizing it, moments later, I heard urgent screams that I could tell an emergency had happened... "MOM... MOM...MOM.. come quick"

Racing to the bathroom with a baby on my hip, I peered into the bathroom to see Michael smiling from ear to ear, with blood running down his chin and in his two hands carefully holding a teeny, tiny tooth. Spiting blood as he spoke, "MOM... I PULLED MY TOOTH!"

Realizing the emergency really wasn't that bad of an emergency, and by that time Gabriel, Isabelle and I were all in the bathroom with him, we congratulated him, while Gabriel shoved Kleenex in his mouth to try and stop the bleeding. We moved to the kitchen so, of course, Mom could photograph the history making moment. And Michael continued to celebrate saying, "MOM, I didn't even need Aaron's help to pull my tooth," feeling proud he continued, "I'm so happy my tooth is out"

All throughout the night Michael continued to bask in the glory that he had, "joined Gabriel's club, the big kids club." Meanwhile Gabriel tried to act all "in the know" and gave Michael advice after advice of how to act, what to say and what it means, now that he's so big. He said, "Michael, now that you lost your tooth, if you are scared in the middle of the night and you want someone to go to the bathroom with you, you can wake me up, okay?" I'm still trying to figure out the connection with losing a tooth and having a buddy accompany you to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I'm just going to write it off as a guy thing.

So tonight the tooth fairy will be visiting our house again and I can't wait for Michael's reaction in the morning. It is hard to believe our little Michael is no longer a little boy. He's a big kid and with each day that passes, I see him changing and growing into a wonderful big boy. I"m excited for him as he joins the gap tooth club, but with it also comes a ting of sadness. Athough I won't tell him, I can't help but feel a bit nostalgic that my baby boy, well, is no longer that.

Congratulations Michael on your lost tooth. I hope you're okay with what the tooth fairy brings you. I know you said you hoped the tooth fairy would bring you $62.00 for your tooth but mom got a text from the fairy... she said 4 quarters is the going rate.

The before shots... the ones we took when we got home.

This is how the tooth was resting before Michael decided to pull it.

And then comes the photos that remind me of Ed Helms, in the Hangover... you know the part in the movie when he realizes he's pulled his own tooth....