December 16, 2015 by Amy

These are not the teeth you’re looking for

Zoe had a big day today.

She has been messing with two loose teeth on the bottom for about a week now. Wiggle wiggle wiggle. She’s been late losing her teeth and her mouth is already over-crowded, so I’m big on the “Wiggle it a ton and get it out” mantra. This afternoon she came home and showed me a small plastic box shaped like a tooth. Inside was her tooth, which she pulled out herself in art class after a friend told her, “Just twist and pull!” She was happy it was out, because it had been hurting for over a day and she just wanted it gone. The nurse keeps a supply of the little boxes so the kids have a safe place to put their lost teeth so they don’t get lost all over again before they get home.

Then, because she’s on break from piano and got her homework done in after care, we had no obligations and were able to start her on the long-awaited Star Wars saga tonight. M and I have been stoked about this for awhile, and he finally pulled the trigger over the weekend and ordered the first six on Blu-Ray. They came yesterday, and have been shouting their siren call from the counter ever since he unwrapped them. He wanted to start her on I, and I wanted to start her on IV. He had a good case: it makes total sense chronologically to start from the beginning. You can take in the full story that way, no interruptions. I get it. But I also remembered the huge plot twists in the original three, the reveals that make you gasp for air and fit another piece into the puzzle. “Luke, I am your faaaather” won’t be powerful if you already know the results of the paternity test. I wanted her to experience those moments just like we did, just as George Lucas intended when he made IV, V and VI not knowing if he’d ever do I, II and III. Besides, it’s just not fair to start her off with Jar Jar Binks. She needs to have the history so she, too, can hate him as much as we do.

She loved the movie, of course. What’s not to love? Lucas is an epic story teller. I have so much respect for that man’s ability to craft a tale. Star Wars has everything: tension, resolution, cliff-hangers, loyalty, sacrifice, good vs. evil, love (both platonic and otherwise), comradeship, a sense of mission and greater purpose, and heroes. Lots and lots of heroes. Boy heroes and girl heroes and droid heroes. I almost burst into tears when wise Obi-Wan Kenobi sacrificed himself to Darth Vader’s light saber tonight, committing himself fully to The Force and enabling himself to be with Luke Skywalker through all his adventures. Everyone needs an Obi-Wan in their life. It was so much fun to watch with Zoe, and see her reactions to big scenes and funny asides. She loves Chewbacca. She thinks R2-D2 sounds like her guinea pig. She is now part of The Force.

As she was getting ready for bed, she showed up in my bathroom clutching a tissue and begging me to pull out the other tooth, the one on the left side of her mouth. Being in the middle of brushing my own teeth, I sent her back to her bathroom and told her to keep trying. I found her in there a few minutes later, melting down. I tried to reason with her. “You pulled out your own tooth in school today, right? Just do the same thing here.” She shook her head and wailed, “But I didn’t expect it to come out when I did that today!” So I took the tissue and gave it a try, only she wouldn’t open her mouth very wide and as soon as I got within a quarter inch of it she started wailing again. I pried her hands away from her mouth and tried to calm her down. That wasn’t working, so I moved to distraction. “Go ask Dad to pull it out.” That made both of us crack up laughing because he gets completely skeeved out just looking at an already-pulled tooth and darn near hurls if he sees her wiggling a loose one. When she started laughing she stopped crying, and then I pulled an old trick out of my dad’s bag: Let me just see how loose it is. I fell for that every darn time he pulled it on me, and she has fallen for it every time I have tried it on her. The man’s a genius. She didn’t think I was going to pull it so she relaxed and opened wide. I had the tooth out in two seconds and she didn’t even know it, just like I never knew it when Daddy pulled mine. M showed up a moment later, turned green, and made faces that caused us to laugh all over again.

Star Wars bookended by losing two teeth. What a day.

#blog#personal essay#writing#zoe