a new era.

we have entered a new era in our house. the era of losing teeth! that's right! ellie lost her first tooth today! she is SO excited!

a couple of hours ago she said "mom, look at my loose tooth!"

for about the 1000th time.

i said what i always say, "yes dear, i know your tooth is loose." as i continued folding towells.

"No, LOOK!" she said, "it's REALLY loose!" so i looked, and sure enough, it was REALLY loose.

she continued to wiggle it for awhile longer, alternating between wanting it to fall out, and not wanting it to, for fear of it hurting. finally she ate a cheese stick, to see if it would fall out, nope. then she tried gum. i went into the laundry room to start yet another load of laundry as she started to chew the gum. suddenly she ran up to me holding something out and grinning REALLY big.

she didn't say a word, just grinned.

and then i saw it, the bloody gap in her mouth where the loose tooth used to be.

"It came out!" i exclaimed, "oh my gosh! let me see it!"

i examined the gap, and then the tiny white tooth. wow. we called grammie, we showed nana when she came over, we showed papa, we told miss dixie about it when she called, we showed daddy and even daddy's employee, mr. vince. we're VERY excited.

i think she feels all grown up now. of course she is almost 5 1/2. i feel a bit nostalgic, she is growing up, but i'm happy for her. she is happier as she get's older. i've always said she is a little adult trapped in a child's body, she hates the restraints of childhood with a passion.

so, now we have a tiny white reminder of the little girl that she is leaving behind, and a gap to show the big girl that is coming. she's starting kindergarten soon, she's learning to recognize words and beginning to read, she's becoming an expert swimmer and starting to learn to dive, she has an incredible memory, and she's growing into her strong willed personality, in other words, she's growing up. it's exciting to watch all these changes take place. it really is exciting to be a mom.

so now we have entered the "losing teeth, starting school, big kid era." or something like that! you can see by her face how excited she is!