by Carolyn Robertson posted in Parenting

There are so many strange and unexpected parts of parenting. For example, I bet nobody told you when you had a baby that you would one day end up with a growing collection of teeth in your dresser drawer.
That's where I stash the kids' teeth, the ones the tooth fairy painstakingly exchanges for two dollars in the middle of the night. I couldn't tell you which tooth belonged to which child, they're all just jumbled together in a little drawstring bag in the top drawer, the one that's too high for curious, prying, sticky little hands to reach.

Every once in a while I peer into that bag, its yellowing contents rattling against each other, and it strikes me that the whole thing is a bit disgusting. I just can't seem to bring myself to throw them out, though. I'm not sure why -- after all, I may have kept the first lock of my daughters' hair, but I certainly don't gather up the discarded clumps after every single haircut. Teeth are different, though, aren't they" As any parent of a teething baby knows, teeth take work. I spent long nights soothing crying children as those tiny teeth made their way to the surface. I watched them grow in; I celebrated when they fell out. Somehow dumping them into the trash can just doesn't seem right.
The good news is, for those of us who are not quite ready to throw the baby teeth out, there are plenty of other ideas.
Some creative folks turn teeth into jewelry; this tooth sphere is one of many...