A toothless spell

As a reporter, I was told there's no such thing as a stupid question. With AJ, I've learned there's no such thing as a simple question. Because you just never no where the answer will take you.



For purposes of this story, take note of the big plastic tooth charm hanging around AJ's neck. (Ignore the messy face.)



For instance, after working all week on his list of spelling words (this week's activities included typing the words on the computer and in different fonts/colors, and writing them down on notecards and making a memory game) I asked him how he did Friday on his spelling test.

"Um, okay, but I didn't finish."

"Why not?"

"Because I was at the nurse's office and I came back late."

"Why did you have to go to the nurse's office?"

"Um, because..." (His hands started flailing as they often do when he can't think of the words he wants to use. He sort of pointed at his teeth, then made a twisting motion with his hands.) "My tooth started bleeding because I, um, I was..." (More uninterpretable hand gestures.)

I can't remember his exact wording after that, but in a nutshell, he couldn't twist open his water bottle, so he'd tried using his teeth, which further loosened his loose tooth, which made it start to bleed. And so he was sent to the nurse's office. By the time he got back, his class had started the spelling test and his teached told him to just do as much as he could.

Never a simple answer.

"So did you lose your tooth?" I asked.

"No, but the nurse gave me this!" (He proudly held out the plastic tooth necklace.) "When I lose my tooth, I can put it in here and put it under my pillow."

Oh, wonderful! One more plastic treasure for Gus to chew up. How ironic that a tooth-shaped charm will meet it's doom between some pointy puppy teeth.

So that was Friday. Saturday morning, AJ must have been wiggling the tooth while watching TV because he suddenly came into the kitchen and announced, "My tooth came out! This is the first time ever I lost a tooth in the morning."

(Perhaps he remembered my warning from last time - when he lost his tooth 10 minutes before bedtime - that the tooth fairy needs a little advance warning to add our house to her list of visits.)

By my count, this is gap #5 in his smile. Hopefully it's the last for a while. According to AJ, he doesn't have any other wiggly teeth right now.

Which means he shouldn't have any excuse not to finish his spelling test next week.