Calling Dr. Teeth

The Love Magnet is very aware of things going on in her classroom. She is determined to be treated like everyone else and doesn't want special consideration. When the class has a spelling test, my daughter insists on doing it as well. (If her aide helps her with sounding it out, she can spell as well as the class. Oh, yes, she is smart.) The Love Magnet also wants to do math, write sentences (although it takes her too long, in her opinion, to copy the sentences from the board so she makes up her own), and even do homework just like her classmates.

We've run into a wall of sorts. I can't fix this problem and it won't fix itself in The Love Magnet's time frame.

My daughter has noticed that all-important rite of passage that happens to first graders. She has witnessed her friends losing their teeth. When a tooth wiggles and pops out, the class celebrates and the toothless-ninny gets his/her name on the tooth poster. Its a very big deal to a first grader.

Its a Very Big Deal to The Love Magnet.

Kids with Down syndrome do lots of things differently. That includes the fact that all milestones happen later than usual. When it comes to teeth, kids with Ds have a longer wait for their baby teeth to appear. They often appear in the wrong order. It seems to take forever. It turns out that the same rules apply for losing teeth. It takes much longer for it to happen and it will happen in the wrong order. Which means The Love Magnet will probably start losing her teeth......in third grade.

There are no tooth posters in third grade.


Oh the agony!


The Love Magnet has taken matters into her own hands. She told her teacher she lost a tooth. Unfortunately there was no proof. When TLM realized that Plan A wasn't going to work, she quickly opted for Plan B.

She asked her teacher to pull her tooth. Please.

She asked her aide to pull her tooth. Please.

She asked me to pull her tooth. PLEEEEAASE!

Now The Love Magnet wants to call Dr. Teeth, my Brother-In-Love and our former dentist in Utah. ("Dr. Teeth" is the name bestowed on him by TLM because she couldn't say his name.) She just knows that he will help. After all he counted her teeth. He brushed her teeth. He took pictures of her teeth. Surely he could pull her teeth. See the logic?

The Love Magnet waits for someone to pull her tooth. Any tooth. She wants her name on that big tooth poster.

This tooth. Just in case you weren't sure.

Its going to be a very long wait.