As the Tooth Fairy, I totally suck. There's no sugar coating it. You would think that after at least 8 years and 2 kids' worth of tooth loss, I would have gotten it down by now. Really, how hard is it? The kid puts her tooth under her pillow, I wait until she falls asleep, and then exchange said tooth for some cold hard cash.
And yet I have failed miserably.
What I have excelled at over the years are the creative ways I've come up with to deal with the morning-after meltdowns, when one of my poor daughters has woken up to find the same tooth and no money. One time, I crafted a note to Princess from the Tooth Fairy, complete with glitter gel pen and curly cue penmanship, explaining that the European children had lost so many teeth that night that by the time she reached America, she had run out of money. Other times, I've snuck up to my daughter's room, crumpled up a couple of singles and put them on the side of the bed between the headboard and the wall, and then called her upstairs: "She didn't forget! Look what I just found!"
My girls have grown fairly patient with my whole ruse, and Princess no longer believes. But Sweet Pea is hanging on, believing with all her heart, even when the Tooth Fairy disappoints again and again. Yesterday was no different ...
Sweet Pea lost a tooth at breakfast. I took the tooth, wrapped it in tissue and put it in the basket next to the sink, and told her that we would put it upstairs that night for the Tooth Fairy. Happy, she bounded down the driveway to the bus, I cheerily waved good bye, and promptly forgot all about the tooth. Completely forgot. Never even entered my mind for the rest of the day. Not even a slight nagging in the back of my mind that I might be forgetting something. Nothing.
The next day, Sweet Pea gets up and goes to school, comes home and has her snack, does her homework. No mention of the Tooth Fairy until we sit down for our taco dinner, when she casually remarks that the Tooth Fairy didn't visit last night. I'm thinking, oh crap, not again, and I shot a quick look to the basket. The tissue was gone.
Think fast, think fast .... "What happened to the tissue that was in the basket?"
Sweet Pea: "I took it upstairs last night and put it under my pillow, but she didn't come." Disappointed pout, large brown puppy dog eyes brimming with tears.
Me (smacking the side of my head like the genius that I am): "Oh, I didn't know you did that last night! Of course, so that's why she didn't come. I didn't know, so I wasn't able to let the Tooth Fairy know, so she got all confused and didn't know where the tooth was."
Sweet Pea (brightening): "Really??" She then concocts the idea to put this tooth and the last one that the Tooth Fairy didn't take the last time (reason: the Tooth Fairy had an especially busy night so didn't have room to take any more teeth - I know, I know ...) in the same tooth holder, so that the Tooth Fairy can take both.
Later that night, CT Dad goes upstairs to do the trade. Sweet Pea was so determined to actually meet the Tooth Fairy, that she put the tooth holder in her fist. Luckily she was deeply asleep, so he could pry the teeth from her hand and place the money under her pillow.
This morning when I woke her up, she slipped her hand under her pillow and smiled. When she came home, she happily told me that she bought ice cream for lunch.
Whew. Disaster averted. She still has at least 8 more baby teeth to go.
2 comments:
I feel your p a i n....
Oh my gosh, I have done the same thing so many times!
With my older two daughters, I was a star, with the younger ones? Not so much.
I wish I was as quick with a comeback as you were though, it would have saved a lot of dissapointment..
There was one time when I pathetically forgot about my daughter's tooth being under the pillow, and at the time I didn't know what to say. She was clearly disappointed, and it made me feel awful. But later in the day, while she was at school, I quickly put money under her pillow and opened the window in her room. When my daughter came home from school, I "reprimanded" her for leaving the window open...Then when she denied leaving the window open, I opened my eyes wide, and rushed to her room....(she quickly followed, wondering what was going on!) and then I snatched her pillow up and she saw $$$ under her pillow..."WOW! The toothfairy came and forgot to close the window!" She fell for it, and looked at her window very closely from then on...
This only worked once....but it was a good one!
Thank God all of my children are now nonbelievers....
Whew, thank goodness it worked out OK!
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