Bravado

So, there's never been any doubt that Izzie is the brave-slash-crazy one in our family. She got more of her dad's genes than any of our children, obviously. You may have noticed in one of the hundreds of pictures I've posted lately that she's had a rather squirrely front tooth for a few months now. It was loose to the point of falling out one day, then the tooth behind it grew in and kicked it forward at about a 20-degree angle and firmed it right into place with the pressure. If she closed her lips just right  you could see the snaggle tooth poke through her lips, and it was both adorable and horrifying in the same instant.

Last week I started threatening to take her to a dentist because the tooth coming in behind was SO far back in the roof of her mouth I thought we'd need surgery or something to bring it in right, and I think she heard me and took matters into her own hands. Monday morning she started wiggling in earnest, but no luck. She then asked her dad to pull it out, but he couldn't get a good enough grip on the tiny little pearl, so she fetched and offered him a pair of needle-nose pliers to do the trick. He sat on the couch with her in front of him, mouth wide open, and gave it about four tries. On the second try he slipped and hit her lip, drawing a little blood in the process. He offered to stop but Izzie was adamant. "Just try it again, Dad."

The pliers were a flop, so we started teasing her about tying a boulder to her tooth and dropping it off the side of the roof of the house, or about tying it to the bumper of Justin's car. We were kidding, of course. She came up with an idea she'd heard of - of course it was tying it to an open door and slamming it closed, and decided she wanted to try it. I stepped out at this point because I have pain issues. And issues about causing my kids pain, unless it's completely necessary, like at 11pm when we suddenly have homework due the next morning. But that girl found the string, tied it to her tooth, and tied it to a door with her dad. He tried to close it once, to which she yelled "No, Dad, you have to close it HARDER!" and swung it closed herself with every muscle in her little body. The tooth popped out! So there you go, folks, it works. You heard it here, and she didn't so much flinch - even less cry. In fact, after a couple of months with the snaggle tooth I think she was really relieved to have it gone. Way to go, Iz!