Daughter’S To Bring Forth, Mine To Cherish Always

I remember when my daughter, Jessica, was cutting teeth as though it were yesterday. The drooling, the teething rings in the fridge, the baby Tylenol and the numbing gels.

What a struggle it was for those sweet, soft, swollen, red gums to pop those teeth through. Then one morning there it was, the faint, white glimmer of “the” first tooth, the sharp, rough edge being a constant source of attention to my daughter’s tongue. She would look at me as if to say “so this is what all my misery has been about.”

Then sure enough, as the tooth fully erupts, its neighbor is well on its way. Then began the satisfying munching on Melba toast and other hard, crunchy foods that rapidly turned to a soggy, mushy, messy delight for my daughter.

Her smile seemed so much older after her first teeth came in. Gone was the gummy newborn and in her place was the rapidly growing infant with whom I was falling more in love every day.

Well, without so much as a blink of an eye, my toothy infant has become a grown-up little girl of 6 and is going through the excitement of losing those precious baby teeth that struggled so hard to emerge. They have served their purpose and are ready to take their leave.

When Jessica came to me recently to proudly announce that she had her first loose tooth and that “Mommy should feel it, give a little wiggle,” my reaction went from “oh yeah, a loose tooth!” to, after having actually wiggled the very unstable culprit, “Oh no, this tooth really is about to fall out. It just came in. My baby is growing up!”

I adore those little ivory teeth. They signify a triumph over the many sleepless, fever-filled nights of babyhood. But now I have the privilege of watching my daughter go through yet another triumphant stage of her childhood.

Just around the corner are the awkward days of toothless grins, sunburned noses, stringy hair, and gangly legs with scraped up knees.

Babyhood is gone, but childhood holds a very promising future of change and growth, and I am thankful for every day I get to experience that with her.

Children grow so quickly, and we should all strive to keep the memories from slipping away. One thing you can be sure of, this Tooth Fairy is going to keep a very special treasure box full of those little memories of baby days gone by.