On Teeth, and the Collecting of

Today, Cathy over at The Camera Chronicles blogged about squirreling away her kids' baby teeth the way Hilary Duff squirrels away her kid's umbilical cord (ewwwww). And my first thought when I learned that Cathy has a box filled with tiny, blood-crusted teeth was:

EWWWWWWwwwwwww!!

Yet... I have a basket of teeth. Yep.

I can't seem to throw away the tiny, gnarly little things that have fallen out of my two children's mouths (2 from Annelie, 6 from Gracie).

And every time I add a tooth to my Nantucket Lightship Basket o' Teeth, I think of the time I discovered the collection of teeth in my mom's jewelry cabinet and was thoroughly grossed out (yet completely fascinated). Why in the world did my mother collect teeth! What a creepy hobby! I don't know when I figured out that the teeth weren't just some odd collection but the teeth once belonging to my brother and me. But I couldn't call her on it at the time because I was, of course, snooping through her stuff when she didn't know it.

I'm pretty sure if my kids found my Lightship Basket o' Teeth, they'll know just what they've come across, because I just had to save the letters the girls have written to go with them.

My dreamy soon-to-be-seven-year-old writes notes of love. I don't think she'll ever consider the possibility that I might be the Tooth Fairy - she's too in love with the magic and sparkles of it all.

Her little sister, on the other hand, just likes her money. (so says her note)

Will I keep these things forever? Ew, I hope not. But someday, if the kids are curious about their baby teeth, or if they decide to be collectors of gross and odd things, I'm totally prepared.

Speaking of teeth, and the collecting of, have you read Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor?
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Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

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I loved it! Also, I was furious that the sequel is not out yet. Books shouldn't be allowed to have sequels that aren't out yet, in my personal opinion. Because then you have to wait for them, and waiting is NO FUN.

How about you? Do you keep a stockpile of baby teeth just because?

xoxo,