The Tooth of the Matter

Our children cut their teeth like voters in a rigged election vote--early and often. Gordon, Laura, and Karren all had eight teeth while they were eight months old, and while Stuart's and Allison's records are not as readily available, I am confident that their timing was comparable.

So there were lots of swollen gums, irritable days, sleepless nights, and incessant drooling and chewing as each tooth (or teeth--sometimes two or three in one day!) drove its way to the surface. It seemed like no time at all until the kids were fully fanged and chewing up everything in sight.

And then the family journal records another first. Excerpt: [October 21, 1982] "Gordon lost his first tooth--he was so excited. He said, very solemnly, 'It's mine forever!' (Unfortunately, it has since been lost.)"

Allison took a different tack; she expected me to keep her lost teeth, and was hurt when I turned the collection back over to her, as if I were rejecting a gift she had made especially for me. But as everyone knows, I am notorious for losing track of things, even very important ones.

Such as lost teeth.