She met the dentist today and returned victorious.

No cavities. Just perfect, white, shiny, cute, little-girl teeth. It turns out the pain she was having in her mouth over Christmas was some new molars coming in. And the x-rays revealed that she’ll soon be losing one of her front teeth. There’s something amazing about bones growing and moving and changing like that.

What is it about bones falling out of a child that make you notice your little one is growing up?

Of course she was absolutely giddy with excitement. The first thing she told me when she got home, leaping out of the car and clapping her hands in excitement, was that she would have a loose tooth soon. She’s been bemoaning the fact that all of her friends have had a tooth fall out, that everyone in kindergarten has already lost a tooth, that she’s practically a poor, miserable, gimp because she’s the only girl in the whole world who hasn’t lost a tooth yet.

She’s totally craving that hillbilly “look.”

It’s definitely going to be a big change. Usually change is gradual, subtle. There’s nothing subtle about a tooth falling out of your head. That gap-to-be in her smile is nothing less than a ginormous sign that she will soon be leaving us to run off to college or spend a year travelling the world or — *horror* — get married.

I hate the dentist.