Favorite Photo Friday

Kendall Leigh & Her Two Bottom Teeth

April 2005

Kendall wanted so badly to have an empty spot on her gums for the last day of 1st grade today.

She came into the kitchen this morning with a grimace on her face.  When I asked what was wrong (expecting a comment about how itchy her dress was or how her shoes were hurting her feet), she responded with, "My tooth really hurts, Mommy."

For a week now she's had a "sore" tongue where she's been wiggling that tooth back and forth.  All four of her front teeth are loose, but only one is close to making an exit.  Kendall's friend Emma (who just graduated kindergarten) lost her second tooth on Wednesday, so the pressure was on.  I think only one other child in Kendall's class hasn't lost a tooth.  While I keep explaining that her birthday is later than most people's, she just doesn't get it.

Or she just doesn't care.

Either way, she wanted that tooth out this morning.

Which did not happen.  It's still hanging on pretty tightly.  And I'm not going to be the tooth-puller in this family.  So unless she was going to rip it out herself, she'll have to wait for Daddy to get home.

In honor of how passionate Kendall is about losing that tooth, I wanted to use this picture of Kendall when those two bottom teeth first entered her mouth.  Now that I see her teeth didn't come in until she was almost a year old, I understand why they are coming out so late.

But I'm OK with that.  Her little life is moving along a bit too quickly for my taste right now anyway.  Everyone once in a while Tim or I will see her sitting on the couch, legs crossed like a lady, looking way too big for her almost 7-year-old skin.  Occasionally I can still catch a glimpse of my baby; she still gets that twinkle in her eye when she thinks something is really funny.  When I can get a hug from her, she still tangles her hands in my hair like she did when she was a baby.  Sometimes, when no one is listening, she whispers in my ear, "I love you."  But this year has gone by way too fast.  She will be 7 in a few weeks. I know moms say it all the time, but it really does seem like yesterday that she turned 6!  Heck, it seems like the day before she turned 1!!

For so many months (or sometimes years) we wish for time to speed up.  I know I wanted Kendall to move to the next stage so quickly when she was a baby.  I wanted her to hold her own bottle, to eat solids, to sleep though the night, to sit up, to walk ... now, as she conquers something new every day (reading, riding her bike, helping me cook, multiplication and division), I just want to scream, "STOP!!  Slow down for a second!!"  I'm not ready for her to move to the next stage (mostly because the next stage is going to come with more attitude than I'm prepared to deal with) though I know she has to do it.

I cannot believe my little girl -- the one I dreamed of and loved before she was even in my belly -- is at her last day of first grade.  

I have a second grader.

Geesh.

I'm not even old enough to have a second grader ...