Sometimes, not often, a couple of new teeth come in before the old ones are gone, creating two rows of pearly whites. This is a temporary stage, sometimes called shark's teeth.
James has 8 silver teeth. Yep. Eight crowns in his mouth. He has more dental work that most adults I know. He was just two when he got them all. At one time. Under general anesthesia. At two, toddlers only have 20 teeth so at the time, eight crowns covered about one-third of all the teeth in his head. As you can see in the picture, he now has his 6-year molars sitting behind those crowns. And if you look really close, you can see his "shark tooth". I thought it was so exciting! James thought it was horrible. We were sitting at the dinner table when it happened.
James bit into his beloved Subway grilled cheese sandwich and he looked at me, screamed and then bawled!!! He thought his tooth was bleeding. "It hurts! It hurts!", he scream/cried. Like I said, he totally freaked out. It took about 5 minutes for him to settle down enough so I could check him out and that's when I saw it. He let me take a picture so I could show him. He was in awe but he still didn't like. He said he would never eat again. Liar. He did. Somehow, after all the drama, he still manages to eat candy and other girlled cheeses and goldfish.
To make things worse, he has a dental appointment next week. As you can surmise, the dentist is not his favorite place. He does well but he has actually told the dentist, "This is the worst day." I love that about him. I think the dentist handled it well and seemed to even appreciate his blunt honesty. He has gotten used to the idea that loosing baby teeth is going to happen. His fear now is that the dentist is going to try and pull that tooth. The poor kid. I totally understand. I HATED loosing teeth. Like nails on a chalkboard for me. And my dentist actually had to pull one of my upper front teeth. His office had yellow shag carpet that sounded like a wet sponge when you walked on it. I hated that carpet. Now James is dreading the dentist too. Sigh.
But there is hope! The Tooth Fairy cometh!
I have to give a shout out to Stan and Jan Berenstain. I love them even though I have never met them. Those bears have a book for every situation. The Berenstain Bears Visit the Dentist and The Berenstain Bears and the Tooth Fairy. James is very confident that the Tooth Fairy is going to bring him $1 for his tooth! And he then excitedly told me that sometimes the Tooth Fairy even brings presents. It was in one of the BB (Berenstain Bears) books so it must be true.
These books are so loved that James has already decided that he is going to save them for his children. He told me this just today. He's even going to let me help him name them. All together now: Awwwwwwwww. I was a good mom though. I told him that his WIFE might like to help name a kid or two. Since we were on the subject, I asked him how many children he planned to have. I want to be a Grandmother with a whole mess of grandkids. Seven! He wants 7 kids!!!
Update as of 2/26/2014: James is now willing to wiggle that tooth with his tongue. Progress!
