Dear Arianna, February 11, 2013

Dear Arianna,
    Today had a very exciting first for you, but I think I will let you explain what happened:

New tooth!

    Today, I was at school, I was eating my snack this morning and my tooth fell out.  It was bleeding.  So I got a drink of water at the water fountain and then I sat by my friends, and Ms. Caitlin put my tooth in an envelope and put it in my folder so my Mommy and Daddy could have it.  Then my friend Skye helped me play when my mouth was still hurting.  Suddenly, we made lots of decorations for Chinese New Year and we wrote all kinds of new words in Chinese.
    Next week I get a new job to help people, so after lunch I played and played with my friend, Skye.  She is the prettiest and nicest girl and I say hooray that she is my friend.
    The end.
   
    As you can imagine, the loss of your first tooth made you Mommy and Daddy tear up today.  You adult tooth has been coming in sort of behind your baby tooth for a few weeks now and the baby tooth had gotten so loose that it was almost sideways and facing forward.  I thought this morning that it was going to fall out when I was brushing your teeth, and it has been very tender for the past week, so this was no surprise, but still something very exciting.
    You are also very excited about the Tooth Fairy coming down to take your baby tooth in exchange for a gift.  I think when I was your age, I got 50 cents or even a dollar.  Like everything, tooth prices are facing inflationary pressure and you asked the Tooth Fairy for a new My Little Pony.  I guess having an entire stable full isn't enough.  Who am I to criticize, with my many many Transformers filling up an entire wall of boxes in the garage.
    The crafty project we've been doing the past few days is drawing on the patio doors.  I bought you a set of Crayola markers that are designed for drawing (and cleaning off) glass, so you know have a big set of canvases with our patio doors, front picture window, and front storm door to draw on.  On the back patio tonight, you drew the three of us on the one panel, and on the other panel, you drew the weather and the solar system.  They are hard to capture in photographs without the flash bleeding them out, but I took the best angle I could tonight to capture them.
    The badly drawn Daddy head is what I drew at your request for a self-portrait, and  I added the bow-tie to my picture because that is the kind of silly thing I have always done with my mediocre drawing skills, and it gives me that Eleventh Doctor look you like.  You drew my body because after seeing how I drew a head, I think you realized that you could certainly do better than your Daddy.  You also wanted me to point out that you have a heart balloon filled with "air love" and you want to fly around with it.
    Now it is time to get you to bed and put your tooth under your pillow now.  I wonder what the Tooth Fairy will bring you.

Love,
Daddy