A Sure Sign of Adolescence

Today was the big day for Nolan... Braces! This day has been on the calendar for nearly a month. Nolan's assignment for the past month has been to wiggle his last baby tooth out. He hadn't worked on his task much until I started bribing him with money... $5 was mildly motivating, $10 was more so, but it wasn't until last night when I said I'd pay him $50 to get that tooth out that Nolan got really, really motivated. He worked on it a lot last night and started in on that tooth again this morning. Finally he was "ready" for the string to be tied around that tooth. I attached the string and he gave the tooth a big tug. Unfortunately the tooth did not come out. It made a bloody mess and now can be twisted all the way around, but it won't come out.It was time for the orthodontic appointment, so Miles and I took "snaggle-tooth" to his appointment. Nolan was afraid that Dr Hyde was going to "yank my tooth out". Nolan was really tense in the chair. Dr. Hyde tilted the chair back and Miles started to freak out. "No-nin! No-nin! No-nin!", Miles cried. Miles needed lots of reassurance that his "No-nin" was just fine. Dr. Hyde said that he'd leave Nolan's tooth alone if it didn't interfere with the wire. Lucky Nolan- it didn't! About an hour later, we left the ortho office- Nolan is sporting braces on his top teeth with red and navy blue elastics!