Teeth!

I really don't expect milestones for Nathan to come early. He walked late, talked late, and got his first teeth at 18 months. I expected that he'd also be late to lose teeth, and I was fine with this idea. Maybe that's why I didn't even notice that he'd lost his first tooth. I had seen the gap in his mouth. Heck, we'd even photographed it! But somehow I didn't really acknowledge it on a conscious level until his dad pointed it out to me. I looked again and yep, no tooth. Also, a new one growing in.
Here is a pic of the previous state of the mouth, complete with teeth!

You can see there is a little gap on the bottom, because he has always been minus one baby tooth on each side-- they never grew in, which is pretty common with DS.

Here he is camping, clearly minus one tooth! The gap is waaaaayyyy bigger.


The picture was taken Friday. I really didn't notice until Monday. Extensive Google searching and polling of friends reassured me that while it is not typical, kids can lose teeth at 4. Then on Wednesday I noticed that the bottom front one next to the missing one is loose! I called and spoke to a dentist this morning. She reassures me that while early, it is totally possible to lose teeth at 4, these are the teeth one expects to lose first, and the top ones could be next. She says as long as a new tooth is growing in, there is no problem and no need to bring him in. She also says to go ahead and wiggle out the loose one. Nuh-uh! I am not putting my hands in there, possibly causing pain, and getting bitten!

Something about losing teeth so young: no tooth fairy. Nathan has no idea about the tooth fairy, his peers are not talking about her yet. He has no desire for or interest in money anyway. Also, we have no clue where the missing tooth got to, making it a little hard to put it under a pillow! Maybe she just cut to the chase and snatched it straight out of his mouth...