Three Belles and a Beau: All I Want for Christmas...

Oh goodness... Emily has lost her first tooth -- wait, let me qualify that by saying Emily has lost her first TEETH! For some reason, I always thought that Caroline would be the first child in this house to receive a visit from the Tooth Fairy but she has been upstaged by her little baby sister! How did this happen? Well, to make a long story short, when Travis was little, he was diagnosed with a mild form of a very rare genetic abnormality called hypophosphotasia. Travis's parents first knew that something might be wrong when he was about eighteen months old (coincidentally, the same age as Emily is right now!) and he lost a baby tooth while eating spaghetti at the dinner table. His pediatrician referred him to the Emory University Genetics Clinic where a battery of tests were performed by pediatric geneticists. He was found to have this particular disorder and his prognosis was good with the exception of very weak bones and teeth. Hypophosphotasia prevents mineralization of calcium and phosphorous - so, basically, Trav's body doesn't know what to do with these minerals when they enter his body. No matter how much milk he drinks, his body will just flush the calcium out. This, obviously, would make anyone's bones weak and fragile. He went on to play contact sports throughout his childhood, teenage years, and college - and he definitely broke many, many bones - some of them severely! Other than that, he is fine and has had no other complications.
When Caroline was born, we were urged to watch her for the signs of hypophosphotasia. The only one she has ever shown is delayed dentition - meaning she got her baby teeth very late (15 months), but she has not other signs and the doctors have dismissed the late baby teeth as just late baby teeth. Thank goodness!
On to little Miss Emily! We first noticed that something might be wrong back in April when Mrs. Kayce called me at work one morning to let me know that Em had taken a tumble at her house and while the fall was mild, she felt like her two little baby teeth (the two bottom ones were the only two she had at that point) had gotten a little loose. I automatically though of the hypo. So, I called the dentist and asked them what they thought and they said don't worry about it - there's nothing you can do at this age anyway. They thought that with a little bit of time they might firm back up. They did - but they started growing in kind of jutting forward. When her other teeth started to come in you really noticed how crooked those first two were. Fast forward to July. All four of us were swimming at our neighbors' pool, and Emily was having a blast going down the slide. I was helping her up the ladder and then she would slide into Trav's arms at the bottom. On about her fourth trip up the slide she misjudged one of the rungs on the ladder and bumped her chin. It was a good bump - but nothing that would cause a normal tooth to become dislodged... but Emily does not have normal teeth! Her entire tooth came right out! It was awful for me! I felt so horrible - but I know that that tooth was going to come out sometime - I just hate it that it was on "my watch." The next week we were driving down the road and she lost her other one! It was crazy. So now she is our little snaggle tooth. The other teeth seem to be hanging in there just fine... the doctor has referred us to Emory Genetics (the same clinic that treated Travis in 1984!) and we are currently waiting on an appointment. It could be up to five or six months before we are able to get in. So... for now we are just going to enjoy our little jigsaw mouth!