This tooth

Isaac was happily eating his pizza last night when suddenly he erupted into tears. "What is wrong?" I asked him. "My tooth is wiggly!" he said, through sobs. I asked him to come to me and let me have a look. Sure enough, it looks as though he is about to lose his first tooth! It doesn't really matter if it's the first tooth lost, a first bike ride, or a first date. Any time there is a "first," a mama like me is sent into moments of tears and reflection.
I was thinking about that tooth, and remembering when it came in five years ago on Christmas Eve. I remember being so surprised to see it poking out of his little baby gums, and figuring out that it had been the source of those sleepless nights I had been having. It was my first "getting-a-baby-tooth" as a mom. Many teeth, and many crabby teething-baby episodes later, it is ready to fall out. This tooth was the first to come, and now it's the first to go, ushering in a new phase of childhood. Where did my baby go? He's still there, cleverly packaged in the body of a little boy.