Tooth and Nail-Summer Highlights, Part 4

I think it's the Waldorfians who link child development to the child's teeth. That milestones can be marked by teething, by cutting certain teeth and then by the loss of those same teeth later in childhood. If this is so, then the loss off Manny's front teeth mark a challenging season of sullenness, volatility and contrariness. (This is not to say that I myself have exhibited those same behaviors. But that's another blog entry altogether.) We have struggled and I will say what has "worked." "Worked" as in given us a momentary season of harmony, revealed moments of triumph:

Cooking with him in the kitchen--Manny can make his own omelette, toast, oj, even choose a recipe from his Wookie Cookie Cookbook and then pull out the ingredients. Taking him out alone on a date-- at the bead store, we sat in the cool and strung together this necklace that makes him look like an Incan King. And I blinked back tears at the cafe as he ate his whipped cream with a spoon. He was bent over his hot chocolate, this big boy, doing something so basic as feeding himself and I could see simultaneously how grown and yet how I take for granted his vulnerability. He has these adult affectations like clearing his throat and beginning sentences with "apparently." One trigger point for him has been his teeth. If anyone asks or mentions the loss of his teeth, he shuts down immediately. He grows sullen and leaves the room. Yet there he was in that coffee shop with me, eating that whipped cream and smiling at me, that full and glorious front-toothless smile! I hold that gift so close to me. It was so delicate, I could not let on that I noticed his smile and yet I was trying to take it all in.