Another milestone, Another meltdown

So often I think to myself, "I should write that down" when Bryce will say something to me that's funny, or special, or poignant.  Yet he's outgrown his baby book, and I know I'll never keep track of a notebook or loose papers.  I'm a bit behind with my scrap booking, too.  (Henry's birth is still waiting to be properly pasted, decorated and journaled.)  So I decided to start a blog to remember those moments and share them with others.  There are days when dealing with Bryce's disorder gets to be too much, and I know that there are others out there who feel just like me.  I regularly prowl the Internet looking for moms that are in my boat and may be willing to help bail with me.  And then there are days that the accomplishment is so sweet, and the victory so hard won, I just need to shout it from the housetops! So this is where I will come to do just that.  Unlike Jared's humorous, snarky blog (which I love reading as much as others do) this will just be a place for me to put my thoughts to paper (or screen, I guess) and hopefully help others along the way.

Yesterday, Bryce lost his first tooth.  What would normally be an exciting milestone in a child's life was a terrifying experience for him.  I saw him fiddling with it, and could tell it was about to come loose.  I really didn't want him to swallow it-that would have made explaining this process even worse! So after a little cajoling, I managed to get my fingers in his mouth and pull out the tooth.  Instead of the triumphant "Ta Da" that most kids get, Bryce started to sob uncontrollably.  He kept asking me to "fix it" and started to panic.  In these situations, it's really important to get control before he totally goes nuts.  There have been times when it's taken over an hour to get him settled back down after he gets upset over something.  Henry was also picking up on the tension and starting to cry as well.  I rinsed out Bryce's mouth and made him look me in the eye as I explained to him that a new tooth would grow in place of the old one.  As a matter of fact, it was already showing and I kept pointing it out to him.  He stopped crying and starting asking for a watering can.  "You need to get a watering can."  I thought, what?  I kept asking him why he needed a watering can, and finally he said, "You need to get a watering can and pour it in your mouth."  It finally hit me- he understood what I was saying about his new tooth GROWING and according to him, growing required water from a watering can and sunlight! It was so cute.  I told him we could use a water bottle instead and every day he should drink water and eat good food and we'll check on his tooth as it grows.  That seemed to please him.  What pleased him even more was when I told him we would put his old tooth under his pillow and when he woke up in the morning there would be a present there! (He has absolutely no concept of money whatsoever, so that won't work in this case.)  We borrowed the tooth pillow from Grandma and this morning Jared, er, I mean Bryce, was thrilled to find Wipeout for Wii under his pillow.  I believe this sets a dangerous precedent for tooth fairy fare, but Jared insisted, and I'm a sucker.  Besides, how many times do you lose a first tooth?