Jorn lost his second tooth today! We were on our way to a fair and it was just dangling by a "thread". His friend, who was with us, said he better take it out so he doesn't lose it on a ride. Well, the trip was about an hour long so just before we arrived he had played with it enough to have it fall out. Into my wallet it went for safe keeping it went until just now when he placed it carefully in his tooth pillow before bed.
I remember that tooth from the very moment it appeared disrupting his smooth baby gum line. It was the first to appear and the second to fall. When they are babies getting their first teeth simply means a world of solid food naturally opens up to them. It is survival, it is primal and like most of infancy it is basic. By 'basic' I mean that we as parents impose the meaning into our child's life at that point. We understand their development and the joy in it while they are doing only what their bodies make them do. We watch as they suffer pain they will never remember as each tooth comes in. We delight in their constantly changing smiles, dread the sleeplessness and thank the spirit-in-all-things for Highlands Teething Tablets. But losing the baby teeth? That's huge. It is magically trans formative. It's different.
Now, our children begin to make their own meaning. It's like some magical threshold they cross and all of a sudden not just solid foods but the entire world opens up to them. Though they might not grasp the symbolism just yet they are in fact shedding the "baby" and allowing the child to come through. Along with this change comes a different type of "teething pain". I have noticed a change in Jorn. He is struggling more with decisions and rules, thinking about them fully rather than just "obeying them". He is becoming more agile and adventurous, taking risks he would never have taken before because then my words of caution were the gospel. His thoughts and questions are maturing at an almost astonishing pace. In fact looking back, it is also around this time where life as the individual knows it begins, as memory. But I am not foolish, I know all of this has been gestating for some time now it just seems that the start of losing your baby teeth somehow coincides with these new developmental milestones. Now, the teething pain becomes the uncertainty of navigating this big world a little bit more independently, tooth by tooth if you will.
I meant to take the picture I took above but I didn't realize how relevant the composition actually was in relation to my feelings about him losing his baby teeth until I read this post before publishing it. There he is, near my center where he was when I carried him. And there I am, behind him now, there to lend support and offer advice but not get in the way of letting him discover him self. Hmm. I didn't think any of that when I sent up the shot but I feel that now when I look at it.
*Update* I also realized that while I am holding the camera in the picture it also kind of looks like I'm holding my head which may be more to the point of this new "phase" of boyhood, eh?
** BTW, in case you noticed I'm intentionally skipping over day 13/yesterday. At first I was planning on a post but then the number 13 reared it's ugly head. Let's just say there was a trip to the ER after my husband decided to cut his finger instead of the rope of the new tree swing he was hanging for Jorn. He's got 4 stitches and narrowly missed the tendon but he's fine.
My older son, Brian, lost his first and second teeth in the last few days! Time goes by too fast.
Posted by: Charity | August 24, 2008 at 01:32 AM
My daughter lost her first tooth the first week of kindergarten. It was like an exclamation point at the end her babyhood. Now my youngest heads to kindergarten next week and I am impossibly wistful. Seriously, where did the time go?
Posted by: Liz K. | August 24, 2008 at 09:22 AM
ouch for son and husband - bigger ouch for husband though :D
Posted by: rho | August 24, 2008 at 01:41 PM
Love the post! As I wait for Jack's first tooth, it was a post that also reminded of how fast they grow up!
Posted by: KeanaLee | August 25, 2008 at 07:59 AM
I love this post, I jumped here from your recent reference to it. My six and a half year old is about to loose one of her first teeth and I really resonate with your remarks! Also, love your knitting patterns!
Posted by: Sarah | October 20, 2012 at 07:59 AM