Creepy Weirdo OR Loving Mother?

Lucas lost another tooth yesterday. As I was standing in my bedroom in nothing but my bra and underwear at 6:00am yesterday morning getting ready for work, I heard Lucas screaming from the first floor. "Momma! Momma!" I couldn't tell if his voice was full of panic, excitement, or terror. My heart jumped into my throat and I immediately felt a rush of adrenaline. If my baby was in trouble, I had to go save him. Danger, be damned! Luckily, however, I did not have to tackle an intruder in my underwear. There was no emergency. Lucas came stomping up the stairs at full speed to inform us that he had finally lost the tooth that had been barely dangling in his mouth for a week. He had terrified his mothers for naught.

So last night, I had to perform Tooth Fairy duties. I was lucky enough to have two dollars in my wallet. I rarely carry cash and typically have to go scrounging through drawers and couch cushions for Tooth Fairy booty. The Tooth Fairy is not above leaving a combination of quarters, nickels and dimes at my house. However, having dollar bills definitely makes for an easier transaction. I tiptoed into Lucas room at 10:00 last night and reached under his pillow to scrounge for the tiny tooth. Then I quickly replaced it with two neatly folded dollar bills and ran out of his room as he snored, grunted, and rolled over.

Once I was safely in the living room again, I looked at the tooth I was holding in my hand. It was such a tiny little thing. When Lucas lost his very first tooth, I placed it in a little zippie bag and put it in his baby box where I keep all of the "Lucas" items that are near and dear to my heart. When he lost his second tooth, I wasn't sure what to do with it, so I also put it in the little zippie bag. Now that Lucas has lost about a half a dozen teeth, I have quite a collection going. I was informed recently by my sister that my keeping Lucas' teeth is just plain creepy and weird . I was shocked. Don't all parents keep their kids teeth? Apparently, they do not. However, it seems heartless to me to just throw them away. Lucas gets so very excited when he loses a tooth. He has a cute little plastic container he was given at school to keep it in until the time rolls around to place it gingerly under his pillow to await the Tooth Fairy's gifts. It seems cruel to then take the tooth and simply toss it in the trash. However, that's exactly what I did last night. Perhaps my sister is correct. Perhaps it IS kind of freaky to keep all of those teeth....tiny fragments of bone from my beloved son. Yea...that sounds a little deranged. I have three children. If I keep it up, I could eventually end up with a pretty gruesomely large assortment of teeth. Yea...probably borderline morbid and creepy, huh? I don't really want to be the weird tooth lady.

I must admit though...I felt a tiny twinge of guilt seeing that tiny white tooth sitting atop the half-eaten eggroll in my trash can last night.