Sighs of Relief & Attack of the Tooth Fairy (Part 2)

I was looking back at our blog from a year ago and by some weird coincidence it was almost exactly a year ago (10th November 2005) that I posted about Emily losing a tooth and all the associated trauma. Bless her, yesterday was that time again.

The gum around an extremely loose tooth was bleeding on and off for several hours yesterday evening, but would the little bugger actually fall out? Nope. Emily was extremely distressed and practically hysterical in parts, but didn't want it taken out. Me, I just wanted to get it over with, but Daddy's wisdom prevailed and Emily eventually went to bed with tooth still intact....and this morning she woke up and promptly spat out a tooth with absolutely no further blood or fuss :-)) Poor love finds the whole thing so frightening. Hopefully though since this episode was calm in the end (no thanks to me, slaps wrist) it won't be so bad next time.

Fortunately, Emily's tooth/gum didn't start bleeding until half an hour AFTER **fanfare** The Ballet Exam yesterday afternoon, which seems to have gone remarkably well. She was feeling physically sick with nerves all day and was near tears in the car on the way there, but as soon as she stepped into the waiting room she was transformed - at that point I think I was more nervous than she was! Once she was there and able to start getting ready and having the colour identifying ribbons pinned in her hair and on her leotard, she was completely self-contained and composed and even smiley!

Emily's little group of three girls and one boy were all ready and lined up in plenty of time, waiting for some of the "big girls" to finish their interfoundation exam before they could go in. Mind you, once the examiner rang his bell and their teacher ushered the four of them in through the door and shut it behind them, I had to bite back tears. I would have felt better if the teacher had been allowed to go in with them, but she wasn't. Silly, I know, but it's a really big deal for them at this age, with so much to remember and so much build up to it.

So, me, the teacher and three other anxious parents sat on the other side of the closed door and listened to the pianist playing the music we've all come to know and love (rolls eyes) so well. And before we knew it, it was over - exit four young children with beams on their faces :-)) We won't know the results until probably the second week in January, but we're so proud of Emily for the way she's coped with it all. She's had tests before in things like yoga and karate but they've always been just with the normal teacher during a normal lesson - this is the first time she's had a stranger as an examiner under exam conditions with no teacher present and so on. And she was sooooooo nervous beforehand, I was stunned to see how suddenly calm she became! Bodes well for the future, anyway :-))

Back from ballet we had half an hour to spare before dashing out to yoga again (with bleeding tooth). For little momentoes of The Big Ballet Day, Jon and I gave Emily a "proud of you" card I'd made and a lovely miniature ballet shoe ornament, and Nana and Gramps came back later with a beautiful china doll to add to her collection too.

Today, we're expecting Uncle David and Aunty Barbara to arrive from Canada at any moment, bringing Grandad back from his holiday over there. Emily's made a fruit flan for them and we've also made tons of pizza dough ready to cook homemade pizzas for dinner tonight. Hope they're all hungry!