Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Toothless

My baby is teething!

Nooo. Not those babies. This one:

Reluctantly leaving Camp Grammy & Grampy.

Caitlin just had her 7 year Wellness check and they determined that she has some number of molars coming in. Later that same night she started complaining that her teeth hurt.

Considering that all of her friends are losing teeth willy nilly, Caitlin is taking her time. She started off slow: didn't get her first tooth until she was 11.5 months old (BTW, this seems to be holding true for the twins as well - still nary a tooth at 9.5 months.). She has lost a grand total of three so far which brought us into questions about what teeth are worth these days.

What's the going rate for teeth where you are and is there any difference for the two front ones vs all the others or not? We heard from wealthier friends that they were offering $5 a tooth. I remember being excited about a quarter under my pillow. Maybe a half-dollar, but it was always coins, not bills. What about you?

All dressed up with some place to go on Friday!

And what does the Tooth Fairy do with all of those teeth, anyway? Seems kinda creepy to keep them all, but at the same time...my baby isn't a baby any longer. Her teeth are just slow to get with the program.

13 comments:

Jennifer S said...

She's such a pretty girl.

We paid $5 for the first tooth, and then whatever for the next ones. Sometimes $1 or $2, with an occasional $3 thrown in. We're not very exact about it (and it's often influenced by how many $1 bills we can find, or not).

That said, I couldn't have been more shocked when one of my friends reported that her husband put a crisp $100 bill under her girls' pillow when they each lost their first tooth.

I made sure my kids never caught wind of that little bit of news.

Missy said...

$5? Wowsa. My kids are totally getting ripped off. Please don't tell them. We gave a $1 for the first tooth, and for any that are "lost before their time." In our case that was the tooth that #1 fell and knocked out when she was 3, and more recently #2 had to have a tooth pulled to get a spacer put in. For all other teeth it has been 50 cents. We have had no complaints about that amount. As far as what to do with the teeth. My 7 year old has been keeping hers this year so that she can use them for a science fair project next year. I have no idea what the project will entail, and I am trying really hard not to be grossed out by the idea of all the old teeth collecting in her room.

I once got $20 from the tooth fairy when I was a kid. It was really dark in my room and all those bills feel the same you know!

Madge said...

she is beautiful. we are waiting for our six year old to lose his first tooth.....

Your Friendly Mindbloggler said...

Teeth = sympathetic magic..

The tooth fairy uses them as a compulsion tool to force people to deed their real estate and investment proceeds to her so she can continue to fund her lavish lifestyle. The amount of money left under the pillow is but a trifle compared to how much she will bilk you for in the future.

BigChunkySoul said...

I got a dime (I'm dating myself here). Spencer gets a dollar, when he remembers to put his teeth under his pillow, which is rare. He was BORN with teeth (two, they grew under and re-emerged at 12 weeks...he had 18 teeth at age one). I guess teeth just haven't been that big of a deal to him....whereas I would practically prop my eyelids open with toothpicks all night in the hope of catching a glimpse of the elusive fairy. Nowadays, my elusive fairy is named Joe, who moved to Denver recently and apparently is too good now for his worn-out Boulder friends. :-)

Trixie Twatwaffle said...

my niece got 5 for the first tooth, 2 for each additional one from the tooth fairy.

My parents then gave her more money.

I used to get a quarter or fifty cents for mine.

Inflation..sigh...

Suburban Correspondent said...

I wrote about this payment dilemma at length in the first paragraph of this post.

And we still pay a quarter a tooth.

Swistle said...

What great photos of her!

When I was little, we got 25c per tooth. Paul and I pay $1 per tooth and consider ourselves Big Spenders (5 kids x 20 baby teeth per kid = maybe we should put putting this toward a Wii instead).

Our particular Tooth Fairy puts each tooth in the trash and then shakes the can a little to make sure the tooth falls down so it isn't visible.

Pixi Rae said...

In our family, it was $1.00 per tooth unless the dentist pulled it, then it was $5.00. My dad made it extra special by buying one of those dollar-origami books - it was a dollar folded into a cool shape.

Woman with a Hatchet said...

Jennifer: ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS?

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear anything else you said after that and it blew everything else you said right out of my head.

Um. Wow.

For that kind of money, I'LL send some teeth!

Missy: Total score on the $20 when you were a kid! Very interested to hear about the science experiment later. I think.

Madge: Thanks!

HTMELF: Oooh! Nice theory. Makes certain things make a lot more sense.

BCS: Born with teeth? I bet that was rough on the nursing and having a teething twelve week old? Yow!

Margaret: See, 50 cents seems OK to me...

SC: I loved your post!

Swistle: Thanks! And...noted.

PixiRae: Hi! Five for a removed tooth? Hmm...not so sure about that one. I'm not sure if the tougher teeth that have to be extracted have a higher value to our fairy. We may yet find out!

Anonymous said...

My Matthew lost his first tooth in Disneyworld (around 1988) but I do remember giving him 5 Mickey Mouse Dollars which he still has.
AAAAWWWWWWWWWW!!!

filthEdesign said...

i think we did $1/tooth...although sometimes it was as many ones as we had (which usually isn't many in the age of check cards).

i have all of john's teeth (that he didn't swallow or lose) in a ceramic vase...

i thought about making a necklace from them :) but apparently that's really gross to everyone but me! :)

Pixi Rae said...

I know, long time, no talk! I've been lurking, reading you and Mist for quite a while. I have a public blog now, which is quite the change...

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