The first lost tooth

When MissK lost a tooth a few months ago MissG was quite concerned. She wanted to look at it, and at the space it left. She remembered the discomfort of the dental work she had done last year. She asked lots of questions.... will it hurt when I lose a tooth? Will I be able to eat? Will the new tooth be big? And most importantly, will it bleed?

MissG doesn't really cope well with blood. We have talked about how clever her body is, and that when she bleeds her body sends platelets to clot the blood and form a covering over the cut so her skin can heal underneath. We have tried to convince her that seeing blood is good because it means her body is doing what it should.  We have told her the sting is temporary, and will pass soon. These days, she can talk quite calmly about it, and knows in theory that she doesn't need to worry. But when the moment comes that she cuts or grazes herself..... she panics! It's a quick rush to cover up the wound and soothe and calm her until the initial surprise and pain subside. Depending on the injury and her general state of mind at the time, this can take a while.

So MissG and I have both been a bit nervous about her losing teeth. I have been working on "wobbly tooth readiness" for a while. We have talked about what happens to cause your tooth to wobble, how it feels, how long it might be wobbly for, and what happens and how it will feel when the tooth falls out. MisG's older brothers and sisters have been drawn in to the preparation process, and have all told stories about how cool it is to get big teeth and that it doesn't hurt much when the baby ones fall out. 

Then her front tooth wobbled. And she got excited! 

We talked about what to do if her tooth falls out at school. We told her teacher that her tooth was wobbly and that MissG wants to save it and bring it home if it falls out at school.

We waited.

She wobbled it.

We waited. 

She got me to check it.

We waited.

She ate crunchy foods. It hurt. She ate soft foods.

We waited. 

She wobbled it more.

We waited.

She said, "this tooth has been wobbly for AGES!"

And then last night, while I was at the shops, my phone rang.

"Hello?"

"MY TOOTH FELL OUT!!"

I couldn't quite tell if it was an anxious yell or and excited yell. I went with excited...

"wow! That's great!!"

"I WAS IN THE BATH AND I WAS BLOWING THROUGH THE STRAW AND MY TOOTH FELL OUT AND I GOT IT AND PUT IT IN A BAG AND I WIPED THE BLOOD WITH A TISSUE AND I WANT TO TAKE IT TO SCHOOL TOMORROW"

She was *so* excited. 

I was so relieved. Preparation had been successful, and she was happy. It doesn't get better than that!

Goals and how we try to reach them...

This question was asked yesterday, in a fantastic online support group for ASD families- How do you talk to your child and siblings about their autism, if at all? 

This is a significant issue in our house at the moment because both ASD kids seem to be going through really obvious social awkward stages at present. Here is the answer I posted:

Why sunflowers are my favourite flower

Sunflowers are great. They start off as this tiny little seed. They sprout these two tiny little leaves. They have to manage not to be eaten by snails and slugs,