Mind the gap
We crept quietly into her room as she slept, snoring gently while on her back, lips parted slightly.
I bent over her and carefully nudged her lower lip just far enough to see the gap. “It’s gone,” I hissed. “Where’d she say she was going to put it?”
Kyle shook his head. “I told her to put it on her night table,” he replied. “Then she said she wanted to put it in her Tooth Fairy pillow. But just before I left, she said she would put it under her pillow.”
“All right. I’ll check in here first.” I began digging in the pocket of the Tooth Faiy pillow while Kyle scanned the surface of the night table. Both of us came up toothless.
We looked at our sleeping child. Was she sufficiently zonked that we could feel around underneath her pillow?
Apparently so. I went in from the left, Kyle went in from the right, and our fingertips met in the middle just as she emitted an especially loud snore. We stifled our laughter so as not to wake her, but neither of us found her tooth.
“Do you think she swallowed it?” he asked.
“Probably,” I replied. “Where else could it be?”
“Maybe it fell in the crack between her mattress and the bed.”
“Doubt it. Wait, look in her hands. Maybe she’s holding it.”
I took the left, and he took the right. No tooth, but her eyes opened slightly and she turned onto her side. Time to give up looking and fetch the payout.
“How much are we giving her?”
“A dollar?”
“Sounds good to me.”
One down, nineteen to go.
July 24th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
The first tooth. I remember it well.
My son sleeps like a windmill — by the time he got up, he had flung all covers and pillow (including anything under it) off the bad. So when he woke up he was crushed, and crying, because the tooth fairy took his tooth and didn’t leave any money…
Of course by the fourth tooth the delinquent tooth fairy forgot to come at all. Didn’t show up til 2 days later.
July 24th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Ben’s lost seven in the past year, and I am amazed at how often I forget to fetch the tooth and place the money! I ever thought I would just forget. With the fifth tooth, we forgot THREE NIGHTS IN A ROW!
July 24th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
I think we need to start a new tradition — the tooth gets taped to the bedroom door with a huge note. So the fairy won’t forget.
July 24th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Hopefully she doesn’t wake up in the morning, know where she put her tooth, wonder why she got a dollar…. and insist that the tooth fairy has to come tomorrow night because the tooth fairy wouldn’t leave her anything without taking the tooth….. Right?
July 24th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Thank goodness, another parent who figured a dollar was sufficient! When my son got to school his friends taunted him, saying the fairy brought them $5 $10 and even $20 per tooth. BAH!
July 25th, 2007 at 6:20 am
Aw…sweet.
July 25th, 2007 at 6:46 am
I have my kids put in an envelope.
not 19, more accurately 39… or 59 if you count the Bean.
Heh.
Yes, and a dollar is sufficient.
July 25th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
My daughter has recently been a tooth losing machine! In the last few weeks, she has lost 7 teeth! We have a special tooth fairy box that they put on the kitchen table with their tooth in it…apparently I am lazy/forgetful and if we do it any other way, they would not get anything.
July 25th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
This reminds me of a Charlie and Lola story, where Lola loses her first tooth and then misplaces it, heartbroken that she has nothing to put under her pillow. Her big brother Charlie tells her to have happy dreams and smile in them, so the Tooth Fairy will see and know that she’s lost a tooth.
A dollar is an awesome prize. Moving beyond change and into bills!!
July 25th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Very sweet.
July 28th, 2007 at 9:01 am
Want to make yourself really nutty? Start providing a snack for the Tooth Fairy (flower petals and a thimble of water) before bedtime, then leave the booty (we’re at a buck,too – hell, they’re FREE in the first place) with a sprinkle of glitter. It was my 8-year old son’s idea because he was feeling down that TF may not exist (and my 6-year old daughter loves fairy stories). Now it must happen with both. I have a good four years of this kind of crazy.
July 31st, 2007 at 11:03 am
$1 for the first tooth – .50 cents for each additional tooth…unless of course you are a bad tooth fairy and forget to put on your wings…then give then an extra .30 cents…
1st time I forgot I told the girls i simply forgot to call the Tooth Fairy to let her know she had a pick-up…now I am TOLD to call and e-mail her….
BTW – lean over and give her a kiss as you are digging under the pillow for the tooth…if she wakes up then you can simply say you came in to pull up her covers and give her a quick kiss…
8 down for me…many more to go….