Mother's Day and Tooth # 2

Yesterday, oh yesterday. I had a great Mother's Day. Slept in, got flowers and kisses. Headed over to Rebecca's for brunch (thus while the kids had a blast playing, mommy here had some adult time too),and the day couldn't have been more beautiful. And then there was the tooth. Giulia's tooth (the one next to the tooth she 1st lost) was about to go. I mean, it was hanging by a very thin thread and in a matter of minutes was going to get lost, swallowed, something. But, like the 1st one, it was going to be gone, lost and Giulia wasn't gonna be able to have her much awaited and anticipated "put-the-tooth-under-the-pillow-and-wait-for-tooth-fairy-to-come-and-give-me-a-gift" experience. So I tried to pull it out. And Giulia, oh-my-God, Giulia, my beautiful daughter almost lost "it" (read: NOT her tooth)she was so scared. She had a melt down and thought she's let me down. To be honest, I lost patience (since in my mind, the tooth was already out and she was going to feel NO pain) and so we had a bit of a spectacle here. With my in-laws present and on Mother's Day. But my battle was lost and she wasn't going to let me go near that tooth, despite my pleading and my Mother's Day super-charged emotional blackmail. Sure enough, she lost her tooth at Rebecca's and we put it under her pillow, the fairy came this morning, and she lived the entire experience, the whole nine yards... What I learned from my child, however, is that despite all her kindness (she felt so bad for disappointing me, she asked for forgiveness multiple times, called me pretty - as she tried to "make it up to me" and cried to her dad that she knew she was being "really bad") she is who she is and if her fear is over-powering her, she won't budge. Not even for her mother who tried everything (including emotional blackmail) -- ON MOTHER'S DAY -- to change her mind. Giulia, it is now Monday night (a whole day after the events) and I still feel really bad. I feel awful for making you so scared (even though I knew you had no reason to have been) and for upseting you so much on "our" special day. Please forgive me and bear with me as I work through my own fears and hang-ups. But know that you help me so much in accomplishing this, and as you just being yourself, you teach me to overcome these issues, about people, about life.... more than you'll even know. Thank you for my amazing 6th Mother's Day. I love you.