The Tooth Fairy Ran Out Of Money

You know how children are somehow your genetic miniatures even in ways that shouldn't be genetic?  The first time Mister Man had ice cream, he picked up the bowl when it was empty and proceeded to lick it clean.  I swear he'd never seen me do that, but yet he somehow innately knew that when something's that awesome, you don't let a drop go to waste.

And then there's Little Miss.  Mister Man will let a tooth be loose forever before it finally falls out when there's barely anything left holding it on, simply because he's afraid of the pain - or he has to have me pull it because there's another tooth growing behind it.  Little Miss?  Not so much.  Suddenly late this spring, her two front teeth were gone.  You saw how I had to fake our Christmas card early, right?

I thought we were done with losing teeth for awhile.  And then in the middle of August, Little Miss announced that she had just lost another tooth.  None of us even knew it was loose.  Just like me, the second she got a loose tooth, she worked it until it fell out.  I now had a peg tooth daughter.

I asked if she had any more teeth loose.  She assured me she didn't, and I settled in to have at least a few weeks where I wouldn't have to worry about another tooth popping out.

The night before school started, Little Miss came downstairs with another tooth in her hand.  I stared at her in disbelief, but she truly had another hole where a tooth should be.  We are, by the way, hiring her out as a human jack o'lantern this Halloween if anyone needs one.

I sent her upstairs to put the tooth under her pillow in the special bag we have, as she does each time.  And then we all went to bed.  She said nothing the next morning, and it took me another day before I realized that the Tooth Fairy had not come.

As soon as she headed off to school, I sped upstairs to check on the status of her tooth.  I lifted the pillow only to find ... nothing.  There was no tooth.  I asked her when she got home what had happened, and she simply shrugged.  That's when I found out that she hadn't put her tiny little baby incisor into anything but instead just laid it under her pillow.

The next day, I did a thorough scouring of her room.

What can I say?  The girl likes to sleep with her toys.  All of them (including the cute cat).  I was lucky that she didn't have her rubber duck collection or Toy Story toys in bed with her, as she usually does.  Unfortunately, under no mattress, nor tucked behind no toy, nor rattling inside no mattress was a tooth found.

So now what?  The tooth is gone.  And the Tooth Fairy rule is that there has to be a tooth for an exchange, right?  The wee ones decided that Little Miss simply lost her teeth too fast and she ran out of money.  What's your theory?

Letters To The Tooth Fairy Backfire

As my husband and I drove to dinner the other day, I received a frantic call from Mister Man.

Mom!  Mom!  You'll never guess what just happened, he exclaimed.

Ummmm, you just lost your tooth? I inquired innocently.

Yes!  I said that I was about to lose a tooth and then I reached into my mouth and I pulled it out, and now I have a mouth full of blood, he declared proudly.

Oh, that's wonderful, Mister Man, I replied.

Yep, and as soon as I finish dinner, I'm going to go upstairs and brush my tooth really well.  It has a little bit of black on it, and I don't want her to throw it away.

Oh.  Oops.  Yeah, about that.  Remember how the wee ones have been writing letters to the Tooth Fairy?  And how the Tooth Fairy wrote back?  Yeah....

In the most recent letter, Mister Man had asked what the Tooth Fairy does with the teeth she collects.  She wrote back that she uses teeth to build her castle and that she has to keep getting more teeth because she needs to rebuild the walls when the dragon comes and knocks them down.  What I thought was my stroke of brilliance was adding that she was always looking for more teeth because she wanted the whitest, shiniest, cleanest teeth possible and that she threw away the dirty ones when she received better ones.

Brilliant, right?  What better motivation to brush well and keep teeth clean than that, right? 

Apparently not so much with my wee ones.  Mister Man decided to simply clean his tooth after it was out of his mouth.  Of course.

Now I'm afraid to see what havoc the most recent letter has wrought.

So what were your "brilliant" ideas that went bad?

The Tooth Fairy Rides A Motorcycle

Little Miss is officially without her two front teeth. She lost the first one on Thursday at school, and the second one came out last night. She's quite proud, and I have to admit that she's pretty cute without them. The morning after her first front tooth, she proudly announced that the Tooth Fairy had given her a quarter from Arizona, and she was thrilled.

Last night? Ahem.

I have to admit that I was once again down all weekend with a migraine. In fact, the only reason I even knew that Little Miss had lost a tooth was because she came (quietly) into the bedroom to tell me that she'd lost it and proudly display her grisly trophy. My husband, thankfully, took charge and insisted on finding a different state quarter for her. He went through his change bottle and discovered one from South Dakota that he put aside for her.

This morning, she announced that the tooth fairy didn't come.

Oh, that's too bad, Sweetie, I consoled her, while mentally wringing my poor husband's neck. What do you think happened?
Oh, she announced with no hesitation at all. Mister Man already told me that it was too windy for her to get her on her motorcycle. She has to wait until it's safe to ride it before she can come.

Huh. Who knew.

This afternoon, I made a quick visit upstairs to her room to verify the location of the tooth. It was under her pillow, as usual, and it again had a note included with it. I'm pretty sure the Tooth Fairy is going to tell her that she can't grant the power to fly, but ummmm how exactly do I bring this up with her to find out why she needs to fly and who and how she is challenging (which is what I think the note says.

So how did you kids - or how do you - show their imaginative skills?

Dear Tooth Fairy

It's been a tooth losing week here at our house. Last Thursday, Mister Man tripped over a friend in gym and out popped his tooth. On Saturday, Little Miss called me from my mom's house to announce that her tooth had come out all by itself, Mommy! It just fell out all by itself, and there wasn't even any blood!

The tooth fairy managed to come, but there's a twist now. First Mister Man announced that he was waiting for Thanksgiving to give his tooth to the Tooth Fairy in the hopes that he would get a bonus. I giggled but said nothing. In the end, he decided on his own to put the tooth under his pillow, but he had something extra to add. He wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy.

Let me translate:
Dear Tooth Fairy,
Why do you always give me a quarter? Please write back. PS How big are you? If you don't know, try my poster.

Awww, right? Except that he expected an answer. And our Tooth Fairy does only give a quarter because forty teeth and a child who needs for nothing who already doesn't have a strong respect for the value of a dollar. But how do you explain that to a child? And I do my best not to lie to him... so he received this response in tiny gold bring.

Dear Mister Man,
I give you a quarter as a way to say thank you for the gift of your tooth. Every household has a different amount that they receive. You get a smaller amount because you have lots, need little, and are well loved. Time to move one!

So when Little Miss arrived home Sunday morning, proudly sporting her tooth in a plastic bag because she didn't want to have her tooth taken when she was at Grandma's house, she had a note that she'd written, as well. Her note was of course folded up like a card and had a front and an inside. And yes, her spelling was atrocious, but hey - she's in first grade. Spanish first grade.

Dear Tooth Fairy,
If you don't know, try my growth chart of Hancock Tower. Do you have any fellow tooth fairies? And please don't write mess up my room. And please don't write back in small letters. Thank you. Love, Little Miss

Yeah, I've got precious kids. Who knew the Tooth Fairy was into messing up kids' rooms? (Little Miss claimed that the Tooth Fairy had never done so when questioned, by the way.) There is great fascination about the size of the Tooth Fairy but no answer yet. The response to this note came in tiny letters, too, although in purple ink instead of gold. Little Miss was irritated that the Tooth Fairy didn't follow the instructions of such a great personage as herself. Go fig.

All I have to say is that I really hope no one loses any teeth for a long, long time.

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Smile For The Camera!

You know how people joke that the younger children always gets "less" than the firstborn. There aren't as many photos, the baby books aren't as filled, they get the hand me down clothes and toys. Not in our house. Little Miss is in fully as many photos as Mister Man. And since I haven't started with his baby book, I feel no (additional) guilt that she's behind on that one, either. Since she's a girl and he's a boy, the only hand me downs are - shhhhh - a few pjs and t-shirts. I'll completely cop to the books and toys though, since how many Legos can one person have in a house anyway?

That doesn't mean she gets fully equal treatment, unfortunately. I've posted about him on my blog ten percent more often than I've posted about her. And more to the point, when Mister Man lost his first tooth, I posted about the event with photos pretty quickly. Little Miss? Not so much.

I did post about her loose tooth awhile ago - though mostly because it was a pretty funny story. That was almost a month ago. Her tooth grew progressively looser, and she was determined to pull it out herself. The thing was holding on barely by a thread. When we went to Florida, I was paranoid that her tooth would fall out when I wasn't there as my parents went down with them two days before I arrived. Silly me. A week later, the tooth was still in her mouth, and she was going to pull it out when she got to school. She came home, and the tooth was still there. As it was the next day. And the next. I wasn't too worried, though, since she didn't have the new tooth growing in behind the loose one the way Mister Man did.

She finally came home from school a week ago Monday with her tooth in a treasure box. Or she would have except that she took her tooth out on the bus and promptly lost the box. Amazingly, she didn't lose the actual tooth. And yes, the Tooth Fairy came that night and left her a quarter in the little pink bag under her pillow.

Ummm yeah. It only took me nine days to post about her losing her tooth. (Note to self: For the baby book, Little Miss lost her first tooth on October 24, 2011.) Sorry, Peanut! Worse? I still don't have a photo of her showing that missing tooth. That's not to say I haven't tried. "Smile, Peanut!" I cried at her. "Where are those teeth, my dear?" "C'mon, show me that beautiful smile!" I kept at it. And failed.

This was as close as I got.

We'll keep working on it. After all, I don't want to have to pay for her therapy in another fifteen years for having heaped all the attention on Mister Man!

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It's All About The Inducements

So Mister Man "lost" his first tooth several weeks ago. He had another tooth that was loose, and he was working on it. I'd explained to him clearly that the needed to get a move on the wiggling of said tooth to ensure we didn't have another incidence of a permanent tooth growing behind the baby tooth. I'm really not into braces (all assurances from Karen, aside, I'm paranoid).

I noticed a week or so ago that I could feel the bump of a tooth starting to form behind it. I gave Mister Man a deadline of this Friday to get the tooth out, or Daddy would have to pull it again. He understood and continued to wiggle.

This afternoon he informed me on the way home from school that the art teacher had good eyes and had spotted a tooth growing behind his baby tooth. He was proud of her eyesight; I simply sighed.

I explained that we needed to hurry up the tooth losing. I tried to cajole him into having Daddy pull it tonight. He was pretty well convinced.

Until, of course, Daddy started feeding his mind with what needed to happen. Then he started freaking out about how he could almost taste the blood in his mouth already. *sigh*

My husband continued to try to talk him into pulling it tonight, but Mister Man was convinced that it would be better tomorrow.

After his shower, I pointed out that he has no school all next week, so if he pulls it tomorrow he won't get his name on the board or tell his friends at school. He wasn't swayed.

Then I brought up Mommy's Special Ice Cream. This would be the ice cream a friend of mine brought back for me from Columbus for my birthday. Of the ice cream from there that I've tried to date, I haven't been willing to share.

I put a deal on the table (literally). One bowl of Mommy's Special Ice Cream from Jeni's in Columbus OH (Wildberry Lavender, which is heavenly btw) if he had Daddy pull his tooth tonight. If not, that offer was off the table, and he wouldn't get Mommy's Special Ice Cream.

He dithered. He couldn't decide. He told me his brain hadn't made its decision yet. He whined a bit, trying to figure out what to do.

In the end though, Mommy knows her boy well. He chose the ice cream.

Daddy pulled the tooth, and he was happy it was done. It wasn't nearly so big a deal as he was making it out to be, he informed me. He literally couldn't sit down to eat his ice cream because he was so excited and happy that he was bouncing up and down.

He called my parents (individually, much to my amusement) and my husband's parents to inform them of the good news. And he also announced that he wasn't going to have the Tooth Fairy visit tonight because he insists on showing his tooth to his grandma and grandpa tomorrow.





But first, he finished every bit of ice cream in that bowl.

And here I thought I was the only one (in the family) where ice cream made it all better.

I Don't Remember It Being This Hard

On June 24, Mister Man went to the dentist (I know this because it was only last week that my insurance finally paid our claim and I got the updated bill from the dentist). The dentist informed my husband that Mister Man had two loose teeth. He was to wiggle them daily.

The loose teeth were news to us, but not too shocking. In fact, when I tried to wiggle then, I could sorta feel one wiggle but not even really the other one.

We encouraged him to wiggle.

He then informed us that he had seven loose teeth.

He didn't. He had two. We reminded him to wiggle.

The tooth got looser, but it still wasn't super loose. I kept up with the wiggle reminders. This week, he informed the receptionist at our chiropractor that he had a loose tooth and showed her.

Oh, look, Mister Man! It even has the new tooth growing in behind it. Cool!

Wait, what? Tooth growing behind it? NOT cool. Visions of hundred dollar bills being funneled to an orthodontist's villa in France flashed through my head. Oh, no. No, we aren't going to need braces because the child didn't wiggle his tooth. If we need braces, we're at least going to have a good reason.

On Thursday, I called the dentist to pay the aforementioned bill and asked how concerned I should be about this latest development. If the tooth isn't out by Monday, I was informed, I should make an appointment for the dentist to pull the tooth.

I didn't want to pay for a goofy dentist appointment to pull a baby tooth either, so the pressure was on Mister Man.

I tried helping him wiggle it, but my fingers are really too big.

I informed him that the tooth fairy doesn't come if the dentist has to pull a tooth. She only comes if the tooth falls out on its own. Something about how the tooth falling out sends a magical call to the tooth fairy to come that night. It's true, you know.

The tooth had to come out. Unfortunately, I had to explain this over the phone to him, as he was at Grandma's all day (long story, don't ask). And of course, Grandma and Grandpa did nothing to further the tooth loosening.

On Friday, he kept wiggling. And unfortunately, I had a lot to do on Friday, so I couldn't help him much (explain why schools schedule institute days for the days when you have the most to do). I could tell that it was getting looser, but it wasn't there.

I had a Girls Night Out Friday night, so at 4:50, I left the house and the wee ones in the care of my husband. I opened my book and promptly forgot about the tooth. Until I got a call from Mister Man about ten minutes later saying he'd lost his tooth!

I was surprised, but happy. Until I heard the story. Daddy took a whack at it. Actually, Daddy took two whacks at it and forced the tooth out. Then he had Mister Man rinse and spit in the sink, which freaked the poor boy out when he spit bright red.

But a lost tooth is a lost tooth, I suppose. If my husband was going to do that, it would have been nice to at least have been home to witness the miracle, but I'm not going to complain.

And yes, the Tooth Fairy did pay a visit that night. She brought her quarter in a fancy black velvet little bag and left it under Mister Man's pillow. You have no idea how excited he was to open it and get a whole quarter.



We still have one loose tooth though. Fortunately, I can't see or feel another tooth erupting behind it or anywhere near it, but that tooth is coming out this week. One way or the other.