Tooth Fairies Welcome

A quick note to show you this. My daughter made a path for the tooth fairy from the doorway to her pillow. Do you think the tooth fairy will miss it?

A lot of predators along the way. It’s more like running the gauntlet. Or rather, flying.

And there was great rejoicing in the land!

When one of the children loses a tooth, it is a very big deal. Not because they think, “Yea, I’m becoming a big girl!” or even “Cha-ching! Come on, Tooth Fairy!” But because it means a whole lot less whining going on around here.

Initially the loose tooth is an exciting topic of conversation, meriting daily, if not more frequent,  updates as in, “My tooth is a little wiggly!… I can move it back and forth!… Now I can move it left to right! See!” (open mouth shoved in face.) “Now I can touch the bottom of it with my tongue!…It’s hanging by a thread!”

You would think by the time we’ve reached that last level of development we’re sitting pretty, but no, that stage lasts about a week. These children will keep that tooth in there as though their lives depend on it. Why? Clearly they aren’t motivated by greed. They don’t worry they’ll have nothing to talk about once the tooth is gone. They’re not even concerned about diminished chewing quality when one tooth down. Nope. It’s the simple fear of pain.

Here’s where I go from being World’s Greatest Mom to, uh, something a little closer to the opposite extreme.

Let me explain.

The Tooth Fairy has a difficult decision to make

Artist’s impression of the tooth fairy. (Wikipedia)

It all started with the nighttime prayers when my five-year-old prayed that her bothersome loose tooth would come out soon. It was only a little bit loose, mind you.

Then, at tooth brush time, for the first time in days, she didn’t say, “Be careful of my loose tooth.” She had been saying this at every teeth brushing for the past several days. At the previous brushing, I finally told her, “I know. You don’t have to tell me every time,” with just the slightest bit of irritation.

As you’ve probably already guessed, because she didn’t say it, I forgot about the loose tooth and managed to clock it with the princess electric toothbrush she got from the dentist. Ah, the irony.

It started bleeding and was now very loose. I grabbed a square of toilet paper to wrap around it, and, naturally, the tooth fell out between my fingers. She  mewed a bit when I showed it to her. “See how quickly God answered your prayer?!” She actually perked at that.

Invisible high-five for me.

Tucked snuggly in her bed, tooth safely stowed under her pillow, the bleeding having stopped, my daughter said,

The Tooth Fairy Has Stiff Competition

Image by Jacob Johan via Flickr

My son lost hit first tooth. We told him if he put it under his pillow the tooth fairy would bring him $1. He wasn’t really excited about that. He wanted to keep his tooth because the school nurse gives out