Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Out of the toothy mouth of one particular babe

Another interesting day in the life of an eight-year-old girl.

Young lady lost a tooth today after what must have been the longest loose-tooth experience in recent family history. It finally decided to permanently leave her mouth during school, and when I came to pick her up in the afternoon, she proudly presented me with the prize, carefully wrapped in a double layer of wadded paper towel. I gingerly deposited the precious cargo in my pants pocket and off we went.

Since my wife was working late tonight, I did the lazy-Dad's thing and took the munchkins to an unmentionable purveyor of really unhealthy fast food. I figured I don't often get to hang with them immediately after school, so letting them cut loose in the play place seemed like a nice way to spend some time together - and get them tired for an early bedtime. I'm nothing if not pragmatic.

On the way home, she rubbed her gums and complained that they hurt because the tooth was gone. Far be it for me to challenge the physiological issues related to post-baby-tooth-loss pain. I'm a journalist, after all. So I did the next best thing: I proposed some milkshake therapy.

All three of them cheered the suggestion, so we stopped off at the supermarket on the way home and picked up some neopolitan - because that way no one is disappointed by the flavor - and headed home.

While the boys stood patiently in front of the cupboard waiting for me to pull out the blender and get the shake fixins together, our little lady quietly headed upstairs and disappeared into her room.

I made shakes for the boys, then went upstairs to see what she was up to. I found her in the middle of a suddenly-immaculate bedroom.

"I'm cleaning my room to show the tooth fairy that I'm responsible."

I suspect the tooth fairy's going to be a very happy visitor tonight.

Your turn: How does the tooth fairy make her visits special in your home?

11 comments:

kenju said...

Our tooth fairy has had to make several visits recently! My granddaughters have both lost teeth in recent weeks, and it is an automatic $1 from us when they do. Their parents make sure that the tooth fairy has access to their rooms, and a sum of money is left when the tooth is removed. Sometimes the fairy even forgets to take the tooth. My granddaughter wanted to know if she could extract another $1 for the same tooth....LOL

Anonymous said...

The tooth fairy used to fold the highly coveted dollar into a cool origami shape.

Hadn't thought of that in years... man, I gotta call go call my dad!

Malinda777 said...

Our tooth fairy was pretty standard. I look back now though and remember the fun and "scary moments" I had trying to sneek the ziploc bag out from under their pillows and replace it with a prize without getting caught.

Ah, the memories of small children.

OldLady Of The Hills said...

What a very dear story Carmi. I love your daughters thinking! (lol) And Good For Her! Did she ever get her Milkshake???

carmilevy said...

I brought it to her while she was cleaning. I didn't have the heart to make her stop.

Nothing tastes as good as a well-earned milkshake.

The tooth fairy visited her overnight. She woke up around 3 and came downstairs to find me working on my laptop. I tucked her back into bed and convinced her to wait until daybreak before opening up the envelope from the Magical One.

Sigh. Life is good.

Unknown said...

I was going to comment here but I have too much to say. I think I'll do a post on it later. Thanks for the post fodder! (must go out and see real live people who are not related to me today - UGH!)

Moon said...

My daughter is now 15 but when she was small..I had this little 3 inch by 2 inch toothfairy pillow...it had a tiny pocket sewed onto it to put the tooth in (made it alot easier to find that under the pillow when she was sleeping) It was always a special moment when we tucked that tiny tooth in the tiny pocket...and the next morning was so sweet when she would find a dollar tucked into that little pocket in place of the tooth)....
They really do grow up so fast...

~A~ said...

The tooth faery is an odd sort here. She doesn't visit messy rooms, so your daughter was smart to pick up, because she doesn't want to break a wing.

She also leaves behind odd foreign coins. Probably because she travels the world. But the kids seem to think that is pretty cool.

I also make special tooth pillows for each child when they lose their first tooth, that way there's nothing to sneak from under their heads.

Jennifer said...

I don't know yet... I may need some tooth fairy advice from you. My oldest is turning 5 in May!!!

Anonymous said...

i haven't had the toothfairy visit for quite a few years now. each of my kids had a special toothfairy pillow, i also had a toothfairy book that we would read each night of the "big event". my kids all believed that the toothfairy took the teeth and they were then given to other babies who were trying to grow teeth. one night after the toothfairy took one of my kids tooth, the very next day the neighbors kid had a baby tooth break through, they were convinced that the baby got their tooth, it was the sweetest thing.

vanx said...

She leaves a card with a strange drawing of herself on the front. It usually says something wacky inside. There is also a cash transaction.