December 1988.  Stephanie was 6 and we left her and her two sisters (Tredessa 5 and Tara 9 1/2) home alone for a few minutes while we picked up some church supplies for the Christmas season.  Wal-Mart was 5 minutes away and it was a small Nebraska city.  I wouldn’t try this now, so don’t call Social Services on me, people.  They were given strict instructions and told to behave.

We get to Wal-Mart and call home to check on them and are informed by the very responsible and afraid-she-might-be-in-trouble Tara that Tredessa and Stephanie were jumping on the bed and Stephanie had hit her head on Tredessa’s noggin, knocking her tooth loose.

It was very upsetting.  Rushing home I am thinking, “Oh no.  We have to save the tooth.  Oh poor Stephanie!”  But it ended up being a bottom tooth and when we investigated closely, she already had her first “grown-up tooth” coming in.  Tredessa’s head was a blessing in diguise.

Having 5 kids in less than 7 years, can I just tell you we kept the Tooth Fairy veeeeeeeery busy between 1985 and the early 90′s?  Then?  We had to give her a pink slip.

The grandbebes enter their tooth-morphing season.

Gavin is a man after my heart.  He loves to work and work hard.  He spent 4 hours one day last week shoveling snow.  His neighbor paid him $2 – for shoveling at his own house!  But he thought it was worth that!  After the Harvest Fest he dumped his huge candy haul on the floor and said, “I have to organize all this candy, Nonna!”  Organization is key for Gavin, a red-headed first-born.  Case-in-point, he had just organized the kitchen pantry that afternoon, emptying it of all its contents and carefully filling it back up.

So no surprise that this very detail-oriented and hard-working, freckle-faced kid only had that loose tooth for 2 or 3 days before it came out.  He is very consistent and organized that way.

Love you, Gavin!  Congratulations!  Be sure to tell the Tooth Fairy that prices have gone way, way up since December of 1988!…Love, Nonna