Olivia and the Tooth Fairy

We’ve been noticing a lot of great changes in Olivia lately. She’s much more social and interactive lately. Instead of hanging out in her room, she’s down in the basement playing with the boys. When we went swimming this weekend, she was playing with the boys and Matt and I instead of just swimming on her own. I’m anxious to see if this is happening at school too because it’s really exciting.

Her language has just exploded too. For a girl who was supposed to be non-verbal and “plateau” according to the doctors, she’s having the last laugh. All of a sudden she’s much more clear and she’s even correcting herself. Yesterday she was trying to say “smothering” and she couldn’t quite get it right. She kept trying until she got it. It was awesome! Her language is also much more conversational which is something we’ve been working on for years. She’s the first one to say “How was your day?” and answers in a few sentences when I ask her the same.

Last Friday, I got a frantic call from school. Olivia was having an absolute meltdown because the tooth had cracked and was bleeding all over. When I got there she had an army of people trying to make her happy. But she just wanted me. I called the dentist’s office to see if they could get her in and, thank goodness, they were able. I couldn’t remember if it was a baby tooth or a permanent tooth. What was concerning me the most was Olivia was going to get it out herself if they didn’t take care of it. I had visions of her spending the weekend digging out her permanent tooth and that freaked me out. Turns out it was a baby tooth and they pulled it. She was a total trooper. She told the dentist that his chair was “so beautiful” and she “loved his gloves”. She left with her tooth in a treasure box, a prize and a pair of those gloves.

We put her tooth under her pillow that night like we always do. She’s never really been into it or cared about it. When I asked her what the tooth fairy would bring her, she said “Pixie dust!” because our tooth fairy always leaves a pixie dust trail from the window to the bed. The next morning, I’m downstairs having coffee and I hear “MOM!!! Come quick! You’ve got to see this!” I run up and she not only shows me the pixie dust but she also shows me the dollar and says “Look! She left me money!” I was thrilled to see her “get” the whole tooth fairy experience. She was so excited about that dollar. She said “Is the tooth fairy like Tinkerbell?” and I could tell she had been trying to work it all out in her head. It was a moment!

Here’s to crashing through those plateaus!