The Tooth About Growing Up
The Beginning of the End of the Beginning of the End
Over the weekend, The Hammer lost a tooth.
It wasn’t the first tooth he’s lost, but it is the most prominent: one of his top front chompers! Its absence has left a huge gap in his smile, one that’s both adorable and foreboding. Because the loss of that tooth means the impending arrival of an adult tooth to take its place and thus heralds the swift departure of the rest of his baby teeth and thus his baby smile and thus his childhood and thus the rest of my life.
Mom and Buried has long struggled with our kids slow progression from childhood to infinity and beyond and now, somewhat surprisingly, I am too.
Let me be clear: I don’t want another kid. We had a decent-sized gap between our first and second babies (almost 5.5 years), and if we were to have another it would be even bigger. Besides that, we’re both older and I, for one, am really beginning to feel my age and also my bank account (or lack thereof).
I’m no Robert DeNiro or Al Pacino (the disgusting brothers!) for many reasons, the latest of which is the fact that they’re both having newborns in their twilight years, which is insane, and will make it significantly harder for the two of them to avoid barbecues and ballgames. For me, the freedom is the juice, even if the freedom that comes from both of my kids being 18 and out of the house won’t arrive for another decade.
I know, I know, what am I whining about? The Hammer is only 7! He’s not ready to vote, he’s barely even out of first grade. He’s still a little guy! But over the next couple of years, his little guy-ness will evaporate, and the disappearance of his baby teeth is just one more signpost on that road.
Despite my best efforts to deny how quickly he’s growing up, and how soon we won’t have a little kid around anymore, and how little it’s getting to me, it’s definitely getting to me.
I talk a big game, but like having a little kid around! Sure, sometimes the little kidness is too much, especially when I’m trying to get him to eat dinner or he’s throwing the occasional shitfit, but it’s nice to have the handholding and the cuddles (even though he gives most of those to his mom), and it’s nice to have a reason to buy another stuffed animal (even though he mostly wants snakes), and it’s nice to not have to pay full price for theme park admission and the like.
It’s inevitable that your kids grow up. In fact, it’s the entire goal of this thing: doing everything you can to make sure your babies become adults. But that doesn’t mean it’s all fun and games when it happens. I already have a tween who has a foot (and a couple of smelly armpits) in the teenage wasteland, and already it ain’t no picnic. So even if it’s out of character for me to admit it, I wouldn’t mind my youngest staying young for a bit longer, and helping me hang onto a little youth in the process.
After that it’s just a (hopefully long!) wait for grandkids.
Social Media Round-up
(Again, Substack has really dropped the ball on these social embeds, so much so that I might need to remove this section. LAME! Bear with it a bit longer, I guess.)
Pop Culture Stuff
A few quick hits: The Succession finale was incredible, I am still a few episodes behind on Barry, and I’m excited to see Across the Spider-verse and a few of the other big summer movies, hopefully some without the kids (MI: Dead Reckoning - Part One, anyone?).
Before I move on, I have a quick question: WHY IS EVERY EPISODE OF TED LASSO AN HOUR LONG? What is even going on with that show? As an early adopter who told everyone I bumped into to check it out after the first season, I am flabbergasted by its evolution. (Please no spoilers; I still have half the season to go. Hoping Nate dies.) Succession stuck the landing, Ted Lasso fumbled the bag.
ANYWAY…
This isn’t pop culture per se, but over Memorial Day weekend we took the kids to LEGOLAND in upstate New York. Mom and Buried and I were invited to the grand opening of their new water playground section, with water slides and water cannons and a big bucket that I gleefully watched spill all over the aforementioned tween (see the IG post above for full highlights).
We had a blast, and the weather was nice and warm, which made it a perfect day for the water stuff and for the rest of the park, as well as the hotel pool, which we chilled by on Saturday. Sure, The Hammer smashed his face into another kid while running around the indoor play-space in the hotel lobby, which hastened the losing of his tooth and exacerbated my creeping sense of mortality, but overall it was a big success!
Now we just have 3 more months of summer activities to come up to fill the kids’ time. Hooray! At least they don’t get out of school for another three weeks!
My daughter has a 7yo and a 5yo, with one last one on the way. I’m pretty excited to welcome a new baby. At least the two older ones are still into stuffies, even if their last choices were a skunk and a black widow spider. 😂
I wouldn't get too excited about being "kid free" once they turn 18...not the way the economy is currently heading. My last two (twin daughters) are 20 and still at home working and going to university full time. It's not so bad though. They mostly clean up after themselves and pay their own bills and buy their own food. Still, enjoy those kidlet years while they last. I'm still shocked at how quickly it went by...especially the High School years.