Parenting Guru: When the first missing tooth goes down the drain

My son was late to get his teeth and even later to start losing them. At the ripe age of 6 ¾ he finally had his first loose tooth. We were so excited, even our family abroad knew about it. As we remained on "Tooth Watch", weeks upon weeks went by with no progress. We all began wondering if that tooth would ever come out. Since my son wouldn't dare let anyone get near it, we were just going to have to wait. And wait. And wait some more.

My wiggly-toothed boy carried a little baggy in his lunchbox every day in the hopes he'd bring it home with a toothless smile. Every day that baggie came home…empty. We had big plans for his first missing tooth that included a special Tooth Fairy pillow ready to nestle that little tooth and the accompanying exchange of said tooth for cold hard cash. Like the baggie, the pillow remained empty.

The morning of my son's spring school program arrived and we were running late getting him in costume for his performance. In the interest of a picture perfect smile, I inspected his toothbrushing skills a little closer and could instantly tell he had banned his toothbrush from that wiggly tooth. After much protest and my unwavering promise to be gentle yet effective I grabbed the toothbrush and brushed ever so carefully. As he rinsed, out came that stubborn tooth. We gasped. In slow motion, that famous first tooth swirled around the sink, my reflexes practically laughed at me as I attempted to save the tooth from certain drain. I was too late; the tooth had gone to swim with the fishes.

Tears, drama, panic ensued. I attempted to explain that the Tooth Fairy would know he lost his tooth and come anyway. He didn't buy it. Now officially late with show-time looming, I realized hysteria to this degree wasn't going to be rectified easily. Enter my husband with a pipe wrench.

Within 5 minutes, my sink was disassembled and the missing tooth was recovered. Relieved, my son placed the tooth gently in the Tooth Fairy's pillow for safe keeping.

As he arrived to school just in time, he told absolutely everyone about our excitement that morning. He was the last kid in his class to have lost a tooth and the collective classroom rejoiced.

I can honestly say of all the children smiling in the spring program that day, mine was smiling the proudest.

Mommyfriend goes by Lori Garcia in real life and is a Shine Parenting Guru. She writes at www.mommyfriend.com where she's busy finding perfection in imperfection daily. When she's not folding laundry she's a Featured Parenting Contributor for Associated Content for Yahoo!