Mind the gap!

Life is a stairway. Continuously we reach new steps. That is especially true for children.
My twins have just reached a new step in the last two weeks - they both lost their first teeth. They don't look much a like, they don't act much a like, but certain things seem to be the same. They got their first teeth pretty much at the same time and it was for both of them the bottom middle ones first. And now they lost both their first tooth, middle bottom ones again. Sophie was first. First the teeth were slightly wobbly, then it became more wobbly and the same day it was out. Then she lost the second one two days later. And another week later Mark lost his first tooth. As with everything it was more difficult for him, he seemed afraid of what was happening in his mouth.



Of course the tooth fairy came to visit them as well. In Germany the tooth fairy is a newer invention, not a tradition. At least at the time when I lost my first teeth such a thing was not around. The german tooth fairies these days bring small toys to the children. My children have a book of the "Charlie and Lola"-Series by Lauren Child (just btw - I love these stories!) and one of the books ("My wobbly tooth must not ever fall out") covers how Lola gets her first wobbly tooth and what happens then. In that book the tooth fairy brings money. I have decided that it is a scottish fairy visiting my half-scottish children and that she will bring money as well. For the simple reason that Sophie lost her tooth at a time when I could not go out and get her toy in time for the magical fairy-exchange. She put her tooth in a little sachet underneath her pillow and the next morning - poof - there was some money for her.
When it was Mark's turn for the first tooth-fairy visit, I thought he could borrow the little sachet from her, but he flatly denied this on grounds that "not much would fit in there". He wanted to use a big plastic bag. I doubt that the tooth fairy would have found the tiny tooth in the giant bag. We agreed that he could use the case of his Nintendo DS.
I remember the times when I lost teeth and how my mom was horrified by watching me twist the loose teeth around in my mouth. And I remember that this encouraged me to do it even more. This time I was on the receiving end. I nearly lost the contents of my stomach watching Mark and Sophie's teeth doing the horizontal thing.