Signs of a Growing Girl

Is it just me or is it kind of difficult to believe that Harper is starting kindergarten in six days? Although lately it has been impossible to deny that she is growing up fast.

Back in March Harper began telling me that she had a loose tooth. For the record, Harper has been having imaginary loose teeth since she first understood the concept of the Tooth Fairy. Pre-kindergarten is pretty young to have loose teeth, and we'd been to the dentist and been told she probably wouldn't lose any teeth until she was at least six. This is my way of saying that I didn't believe her. Then, still in March, when we were all enjoying a round of the stomach flu, Harper woke up screaming one night. I thought she'd been sick in her bed, but she was upset because something was in her mouth - it turned out to be an adult tooth coming in behind her front baby teeth (on the bottom). Her tooth had been loose all along.

"You really do have a loose tooth!" I told her - which made her burst into tears. I'm pretty sure she was feverish at the time.

Then we were in the car, about an hour from home, after our Memorial Day trip to Wisconsin when she piped up from the back seat, "My tooth came out!"

Again, I did not believe her.

I know! What kind of mother am I? But sure enough, she'd pulled her tooth out and there it was in her hand.

Evidence:

(See how her other tooth was pretty much up already?)

I wish I'd taken the time to write about this when it happened, it felt so profound to me, such a concrete sign of her getting older. I cried and cried over that tooth.

Incidentally, I have it, and the one that came out a couple of weeks later (which she also pulled out herself, I was under the false impression that losing teeth would take some kind of intervention on our part). What do you guys do with baby teeth?

Here is a summer shot of her with both bottom front teeth missing...

As if the teeth weren't enough, we decided a significant haircut was in order before school started. So THIS happened last weekend:





I LOVE the way her haircut looks, but watching it happen was a little like getting punched in the stomach. She looked dramatically older to me in a matter of moments. It was completely unnerving. In reality, she wears it with the sides pulled back most days, which still looks cute, but doesn't age her quite as much. Phew!