Is it plaque?

As if waking up at 5:30am because Taede decided he was done with sleeping wasn't enough, Kael walks into my bedroom with a concerned look on his face and his fingers in his mouth. I immediately bark out: "Get your fingers out of your mouth!"

It is my biggest pet peeve when the kids stick their fingers in their mouth. Kael has done it on and off for years. It's an ugly cycle: he does it constantly for months then he stops for a long while, and then one day he's knuckle deep again. Malia has started doing it a few weeks ago and it drives me crazy. She has not been given hot sauce yet but the day is coming and it's coming soon.

Anyway, he yanks his fingers out of his mouth and tells me that his teeth hurt. Good god, what now?! First the brown spot of blood, now his teeth hurt??

I peer in there and see... nothing. I ask him where does it hurt.

"Right here! Is it plaque?! Do I have a cavity??"

I still don't see a thing. But on a hunch, I grab the tooth and wiggle it. Sure enough, there's some movement. The rite of passage that creeps me out the most is happening to my boy! I'm torn between being so proud that he's growing up, sad that he is growing up, and filled immense trepidation of the coming months where I'm envisioning teeth flapping and falling out and blood gushing everywhere.

Ugh. I'm already getting the heebie-jeebies. Not to mention traumatic childhood flashbacks of dental floss and door knobs.