Tooth Fairy

January 25, 2009

Tooth Fairy

We just realized that Waverly lost her first tooth. It has been loose for months and I just haven't been able to get a good enough grip on it to pull it out. She went to bed with all of her baby teeth and woke up down one. We aren't sure if it is in her bed or in her belly. But she has reached another milestone.

And in the celebrating, there is sadness. There is no tooth fairy pillow under her head as she sleeps tonight. No dreams of the coins that await her in the morning. No toy or stuffed animal she is saving her money to buy.

Just a little girl...content in her Daddy's arms...falling asleep.

Comments

Jawn said…

We actually weren't visited by the tooth fairy either when Kale lost his first tooth earlier this year. We decided instead to treat him to a special dinner out with just us (no sisters) Maybe you could do something special with Waverly to celebrate.

January 25, 2009 at 10:11 PM

Welcome to Holland

By Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland.""Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.