Elation: palpable. Mention her loose tooth and she beams, she bounces.

I remember having loose teeth; but I don’t remember it being so gross. When she says, “Look, Dad!” and wiggles her tooth, my skin crawls. It’s been several days since she first noticed it and she constantly wiggles it or asks someone else to wiggle it. “Look, look! I have a loose tooth! I’m the queen of the playground, a shining star of kindergarten society! Wiggle it and bow before me!”

The only thing better, apparently, is having a hole where one’s loose tooth has fallen out. I’m hesitant to pull it. We’re going to wait a few more days. The lovely and talented wife says we should wait until she can spin it around. When she said that, I nearly fainted.

Children are completely unnatural.