Smile

My oldest daughter's face is a symphony of expressions most of the time. When she smiles, her eyes twinkle like the heavens. When she's sad, her entire head seems to collapse within itself to accentuate the drama.

Nowadays, these interpretive expressions are filled with air---she has more holes in her mouth than Augusta National. It's given her an entirely new look. But hey, at least the Tooth Fairy's got a regular gig here lately.

And it's true that losing teeth is just one of the wonderous, natural byproducts of growing up. I even thought the first couple of losses were cute.

But when there are holes up, down and sideways, it makes eating a challenge. It makes feeding a challenge, too. I've resorted to serving her mushy anything-I-can think-ofs for the past couple of days, but there's one more problem: we have Halloween candy all over the place.

It taunts her from across the room the moment she's home from school.

"Mommy, can I have a Twizzler????"

"I dunno. Can you? Maybe if you shove it straight onto your back teeth and chew it up really well back there you'll be able to get through it okay without choking."

So far no choking, but it's a pretty sick joke in timing as far as I'm concerned. Poor baby. Poor, lispy, whistle-y baby girl.