Cali Loses a Tooth

The little girl stuck her finger in mouth. Something felt different. When she touched her bottom teeth, one of them moved. She wiggled it. It was loose.

Cali looked at her face in the bathroom mirror. Her teeth were all there, but that front one on the bottom looked funny. She poked at it with her tongue. It moved a little. “Aunt Lisa!” she called. Cali lived with her aunt and uncle. “My tooth is weird!”

Her aunt joined her and looked in her mouth. “Don’t worry,” said Aunt Lisa. “You have a loose tooth. That means you are growing up!”

“I don’t know if I like that,” said Cali. She loved the idea of growing up, but thinking about one of her teeth coming out make her feel funny. Her tummy did a little flip. “Then I will have a hole in my head.” That seemed strange.

Cali’s uncle walked by and stopped when he saw them. He laughed. “Cali, my dear, you already have a few of those! Think about your ears and your nose and your mouth. One tiny baby tooth won’t make much difference.” Cali never thought of that before.

“But try not to worry,” said Uncle George. “Soon it will fall out, and a shiny new big tooth will grow in its place.”

“Will it hurt when it comes out?” Cali wondered how it would fall out. Should she pull it?

“No, it won’t hurt,” answered Aunt Lisa. “It will just fall out by itself.” She walked out of the bathroom and into the kitchen to prepare a snack.

“Do you want me to yank it out for you?” teased Uncle George. “Then it would be gone in a flash! Maybe I should tie a string around it, tie the other end to the door and slam it?” he asked.

“That’s a terrible idea, Uncle George!”

The dog came over and stopped for a quick cuddle. Uncle George rubbed Kodiak behind the ears where he knew the dog liked it best. “What if we get Kodiak to play tug-of-war with you, but you use your mouth like he does? Then your tooth would pop out!” suggested her uncle. Cali thought a game of tug with the dog would be fun, but perhaps it was not the safest way to pull out her tooth.

“Maybe I’ll just leave it in for a while,” decided Cali. She’d had enough of her uncle’s crazy plans. She went to see what her aunt was doing.

Aunt Lisa was cutting up an apple into slices. She put them in a bowl and gave some to Cali. “Thank you,” Cali said. “You should hear Uncle George’s silly ideas for my tooth.” The little girl picked up an apple slice and bit into it. It was sweet and juicy.

As she crunched into it, Cali felt something strange. She took out the piece of apple and looked at it. There, in the middle of the fruit, was her bottom tooth! It didn’t hurt at all. She stuck her tongue in the spot where her tooth and had been, and showed her aunt. “Cool!”

Uncle George came into the kitchen, now holding a pair of pliers from his toolbox. “I’ve had another great idea,” he said with a smile. “How about you let me use these and-” He stopped when he saw Cali grinning at him.

“Too late, Uncle George!” she laughed. “It’s out!”