Toothless
Recently, my youngest lost her final baby tooth and I was wholly unprepared for the emotions this seemingly insignificant event would elicit. I kept thinking about how our family has completely transitioned from a house of little girls to a house of pre-teens. That may not seem like a big shift, and yet, somehow it felt marked. As a way for the universe to drive home the point, this last baby tooth came out with a braces bracket attached. I mean; talk about a metaphor! One single object held an artifact of early childhood and a harbinger of adolescence. Maybe that was what hit me. The period of time where we are parenting young children is so fleeting, while also feeling interminable. And then. Just like that. It is over. In its place is something entirely different…
