Last Saturday, we went to the mall. Little Miss Sunshine got a brand new cozy hoodie. It is pale cream with a rose-gold Mickey Mouse on the front.

She loved her new sweatshirt so much that she pulled it out of the bag in the car on the ride home, snapped off the tags, and put it on.

Then a tooth spontaneously fell out of her head. She’s 12, and up until then she’d only lost 9 baby teeth – she has a history of being very late with her teeth, and it had been months since she’d lost any others.

So we were all taken by surprise, and as the tooth fell, it splashed some blood on her new hoodie.

No need to panic, though. We rushed home and I washed it right away with some stain remover and it got the blood out and all was well.

The next day, because her new hoodie was all nice and clean and fluffy, she put it on again. A few hours later, we were watching TV and then another tooth spontaneously fell out.

(Well, this one may have had a little wiggling help, now that a certain someone knew what was possible, and was interested in seeing how the whole baby tooth process worked.)

And of course, that meant that blood got on her new hoodie.

More stain remover, back in the wash, good as new.

The next day was Monday, so she wore her new, clean hoodie to school.

They watched a movie in school that day and while the Little Miss sat at her desk, innocently, another tooth spontaneously fell out.

But this time, she didn’t get any blood on her new shirt! EXPERIENCE, right?

Then, on the way home from school, rushing excitedly to show me yet another empty space in her mouth, she tripped and fell in a mud puddle and splashed mud all over her new hoodie.

I said to her when she got home from school, “My mother always said that if you get something on a brand new shirt the first time you wear it, you’ll get something on it every time you wear it.”

She said, “It is amazing to me how many things Nanny says that are completely true.”

And then we did more laundry, while contemplating the circle of life that leads all daughters to feel frustrated with their own mothers, and yet to admire their grandmothers as fountains of wisdom.

(Also: the poor tooth fairy would like a break now, please and thank you.)