My Little Puzzle

On Friday, January 13th Abby Grace lost one of her big top teeth! This tooth had been loose for a while and she had a fear of the pain of pulling it out, although she had pulled out her two bottom teeth by herself at school. Well, Ray is the one that usually handles these events in our house, but he was not home that night due to taking our nephew back to College Station. So... it went something like this:

Abby: Mom, my tooth is loose.
Me: Okay Honey, want me to take a look?
Abby: When's Daddy coming back?
Me: Well Daddy won't be back until after you fall asleep. Can I look at it?
Abby: Okay, but don't touch!
Me: Okay

Well at this point she opens her mouth and it is practically hanging out. So we talk about what I see and then she goes into the restroom to look in the mirror and sees what I described.

Me: Do you want me to pull it the rest of the way out?
Abby: No! I will do it.

She proceeded to pull on it with her little finders and they constantly slip off and she becomes frustrated and tears fall. So I pull up on our bed, huge and love on her and calm her down.

Me: Okay Abby can Mommy try this time?
Abby: Okay (sniffle) just be easy Mommy.

So I proceed to try and my finger slips... she starts crying again. I try with holding the teeth with Kleenex and it slips still. So at this point, I am emotional, she is emotional and we call Ray on speaker phone while he is stuck in really bad traffic. He calms us both down and reminds me that when he had to pull Emma's tooth he used dental floss and tied it like a shoe lace and then pulled it out. So after about a five-minute conversation Abby and I both build up our confidence to try it one last time.

So I get the dental floss and pull a long strip out and tie it like he said. As the floss glides up the tooth I swear I heard a little slicing sound and Abby jerks... we grab the floss together and pull! The floss falls out and I think for a moment that the tooth cut through the floss. Then she looks up and smiles and the tooth falls out : )

After this, she proceeds to look at the tooth and goes back into the restroom to look into the mirror.
She turns to me and tells me, Mommy, I look like a puzzle! It was one of the sweetest and funniest little moments that I will cherish.