Hello sweet girl – my 80-month-old, snaggle-toothed girl. Or perhaps I should say “thnaggle-toothed,” because your missing front tooth has given you a little bit of a lisp. It’s adorable. 

Oh how you loved to torment me with your loose tooth this last month. You’d already lost two others, but this top tooth was particularly stubborn. You could twist it in all sorts of unnatural ways without dislodging it. Your favorite move was to poke it outside of your lips, all by itself. It was a look that your cousin Jones called, “Grandma Tooth,” as if you were an elderly lady with only one tooth. 

May I present: Grandma Tooth.

That tooth finally succumbed to the official Tooth Puller, a saint who works in the Media Center at your school, and who all school children visit when they need assistance with wiggly teeth. God bless her, because loose teeth give me the heebie-jeebies.

Jones had a chance to see – and name – your Grandma Tooth when he and Eli and Auntie Erin came to visit during their winter break. They couldn’t take the Boston snow one more minute, so we enjoyed a week of lots of outdoor time in the grass.

Jones even got to accompany you on a riding lesson, where Ms. Linda was sweet enough to invite you to “help” care for the animals. She even let you give Jones a pony ride. You felt like SUCH a big girl. 

Spring is simply glorious in our city, with a sudden explosion of colorful flowers. It’s even better because it coincides with the biggest party of the year in these parts – St. Patrick’s Day. Boo made you a special St. Patrick’s Day dress, and even made one for your doll Addie. Fantastic! And check out that awesome snaggle-toothed smile.

We joined the hundreds of thousands of parade watchers descending on downtown, and were thankful for a comfortable, elevated spot to watch from the front portico of our church.

Now that Boo is a Savannah resident, we absolutely had to bring her to watch her first St. Patrick’s Day parade. I do believe you were quite glad for her company.

I realized the other day that we haven’t heard too much lately about your “boyfriends.” When you were in Pre-K, you had several boyfriends. The first was Billy, but the longest-lasting was Quinn. But in the last 6 months or so, there has been no talk of any significant others.

But that doesn’t mean you’re not still noticing boys. In fact, you’ve recently begun identifying certain boys as “cute.” Actually, the way you pronounce it, the word has two syllables and is more like, “key-OOT!”

Currently, you have a crush on Obi-Wan Kenobi from Clone Wars.

And Seth Avett of The Avett Brothers.

And James Franco from a picture you saw on a movie poster.

Do you know what all these men have in common? Beards. Wonder why you like that? 

Oh, hello there Daddy-O.

You
even made the connection for yourself when you saw James Franco’s picture. “Oh, he is key-OOT. He looks like Daddy.”

Well you’re right. He is cute, and you two are key-OOT together.

Lucky, lucky, lucky. That’s what I am to have you two. I love you so much, snaggles. With all my heart.