My oldest daughter just lost a tooth. She has been wiggling these teeth for ages and has at least 2 more that are loose. Soon she will be done losing all her baby teeth, her faith in the tooth fairy already diminished. She is approaching her teen years, proving it with emotional upheaval and occasional but certain confidence that she is right and I am wrong.
Rewind 10 years, and you have my youngest, a baby who is still cutting her first tooth, crying when it becomes tender. She is still working on early milestones like sitting upright. She has yet to say her first word, draw a picture, wave goodbye. She still has so much to experience in her life.
Watching these two girls, ten years apart in age, it amazes me how quickly time passes. It seems only yesterday that my first child was that age. She developed severe asthma starting with an infection at 2 months old, and we became very familiar with her doctor's office, sometimes driving an hour each direction almost daily when she was at her worst. We'd spend time at home giving her albuterol treatments every four hours around the clock, and barely slept in between for worrying about her breathing, watching her chest retract in an effort to force air back out of her lungs. We narrowly escaped a hospital trip on New Years Eve 1997, and fell asleep long before midnight, exhausted. She was our first, and we didn't know anything different.
Now you would never know that she was such a sick baby. She plays softball, has her own garden, and is a girl scout. She plays piano. She takes care of her sisters. She has grown up, maybe not all the way, but so much in the last 10 years. She is losing her baby teeth, because she isn't a baby anymore. And I know I will eventually have to let her grow up and move on.
It has been especially important to us, knowing she is our last, to enjoy our youngest daughter's "babyhood." It is all too obvious when I look at my girls that time is precious. I am afraid I will turn around and there won't be any "baby teeth" in our house at all.
1 comment:
Important to note, our little baby just sprouted her first tooth. How beautiful and endearing it has been to see such a beautiful toothless smile from our little baby girl.
We have been blessed with three of the most beautiful little babies we could have imagined. As for me, I'm surrounded by women, ages 34, 10, 8 and 8 months. Based upon the evidence, I conclude I am a ladies man.
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