A Changing Landscape

Two teeth gone in one day. She pulled one in the morning before the sun came up and she pulled the other out with a little extra nudge from a friend that night. How often does the tooth fairy secretly lift the pillow of a sleepyhead to discover TWO teeth? A rare find, indeed! Now that the teeth are gone, the windows in her smile are numerous, allowing for a nice airy breeze. What I treasure most about her new smile is that she is clueless of how………., well, how UNIQUE it is. Even when the top one was almost sticking straight out when she talked and smiled, she had no idea she looked like she might could build a pretty good dam. When my camera comes out, as it often does, there is no turning of the head, no covering of the mouth, just a big wide beautiful grin. Since this whole teeth pulling process started, her only complaint has been that she can’t eat apples very easily. I can’t help but think of all my complaints, even with each tooth present-- hair that prefers a ponytail, crow’s feet (just how many “toes” does a crow have???), coffee stained teeth, larger than life pores, eyebrows that are full-time maintenance (thanks, Daddy, to the latter two)--- and this just from the neck up! How wonderful it would be not to have the knowledge that these things are subpar and just give the world a full face smile every time. With Julia, she’s actually proud of her gappy grin. Of course, Jeff and I think it is adorable but each time I see the new landscape of her mouth, it reminds me of how quickly things are changing.

That very night her front tooth came out, she was with some of our friend’s kids. Once we picked Julia and Brighton up, celebrated her tooth and loaded up the car, she got real serious and started this conversation.
“Momma, why does [friend that is a boy] pick on me all the time?”
“What do you mean, Julia?’
“Well, he just teases me a lot and when he saw my ring, he said I was engaged.”
“Oh, honey. He just likes to play with you and make you laugh. His daddy is a big teaser.” (I am not wanting to get into the flirting/ “because he likes you” thing.)
“Well, I don’t like it," she said adamantly.
“It’s just like when Daddy teases you or PaPaw or Uncle Blake. They just like to make you squeal and laugh. You know how they do.”
“Oh, no, Momma. It’s not like that at all. It’s completely different.”

How does she know???? She’s 6!! To this kind little boy’s defense, about a year ago, I observed Julia flirting (there is nothing else to call it) with him. We talked at length about it afterwards and I remember being relieved to figure out that she really didn’t know how her behavior was coming across. Who knows how our little friend teased Julia Saturday night, but I thought it was interesting and intuitive that she put him in a different category than her Daddy. I can only hope that this was our first of many “boy” conversations. I want to know everything that crosses that girl’s sweet mind about boys.

Things are changing—her relationships, her thoughts, her responses, her preferences and the one that is easiest for me at the moment, her smile.