On Monday, this happened:
It changed the whole mood of the day. We went from a cranky, complaining household, getting ready to get the boys to school, to instant excitement and awe! It was bittersweet for me. The first tooth he lost, was the very first one he ever got. Maybe it always works like that, but it struck me as a special thought. It's true what everyone says. They DO grow up too fast.
From the moment Christian held that tiny little tooth in his palm, he began to imagine the tooth fairy coming to visit. I was a little concerned about my role as tooth fairy, because of his initial skepticism surrounding the Elf on the Shelf at Christmas time. However, this time he just seemed happy and excited that a fairy was coming to visit him (and "would she leave a note?"). Perhaps it was the attempt during Christmastime to try to imbue a plastic toy with magical qualities that was the real fail. Perhaps those things that are just "magic" need to live inside their heads, where their imagination paints the full picture of the character. I sent Christian off to school to show off his brand new hole and share his exciting news.
Later that night, Christian insisted on writing a note to the tooth fairy:
Then off he went to bed with visions of tooth fairies dancing in his head, while I in my slipper socks, had just logged on to Facebook to get the low down on the going rate for teeth these days. After polling my friends, I decided on $1.25- the rate my sister uses. I liked the idea of it, because he gets a bill and a coin and I knew he would be excited about that. I pulled out the tooth fairy notes that I bummed off a friend and tucked the money and note into a new envelope and slipped it under his pillow, without so much as a slight stir from him.
When he woke in the morning, he had a glint in his eye. "Look what I found, Mom." He pulled the envelope out from under his pillow. He opened it carefully and took out the note and money. He turned the note over to me to read:
Greetings! How delighted I am that you have lost your first tooth! I have been watching and waiting for this very special time to come to you and introduce myself. As the fairy who greets all children losing a tooth for the first time, I would like to say from all of the fairies how proud and happy we are!
Each time you lose another tooth, a fairy will visit you while you are sleeping. Because you have trusted us with your tooth, we will always leave you a little something in return. Be sure to check under your pillow for your gift and by your window...maybe you will even find a little bit of fairy dust that fell from my wings!
We will be looking over you until the next time a tooth starts to wiggle! Until then, sweetest dreams my new friend.
With love from,
Your Tooth Fairy
He smiled from ear to ear, and when we looked over at the window near his bed, there it was...just a small trail of sparkly fairy dust! We talked about keeping his money in a special place, and since we don't yet have any kind of piggy bank for him, I found a cute mason jar for him to hold his treasures. Unbeknownst to me, he took the dollar to school. And spent it in the drink vending machine. Sigh.
The next day, it was back to reality, and my car decided to remind me of that by overheating. Again. I drove straight to my mechanic, who refilled my fluids and told me they would need a day with it to replace the radiator. While we were waiting for my fluids to be filled, my mechanic asked how my boys are. I replied saying, "Great! Actually Christian lost his first tooth yesterday." He said, "No way! My son lost his first tooth last week!...Hey, Can I ask you? How much did your tooth fairy leave?" I laughed and told him we had decided on $1.25, since then he could have a bill and a coin. His face fell. "Oh man, I am such an idiot!" I said, "Why? How much did you leave him?" He said, "I can't even tell you now. I'm so embarrassed." I finally managed to get him to admit it. He sighed and said, "Twenty Five." I answered, "Cents?" He looked down. "Dollars??!" I said, incredulously. He said again, "I'm such an idiot. I never had a tooth fairy, so I didn't know what to do. I panicked and gave him $25. My wife freaked. She was like, 'You're supposed to leave like a QUARTER. 50 cents TOPS!!'" I just had to laugh. I told him that maybe they could work in some sort of note on the second tooth explaining that the first tooth always goes for a higher premium. Either that or be prepared to shell out some serious cash.
Yes, my friends. We had news of the tooth fairy this week. It was exciting stuff. But the real news is: The going rate for a tooth is NOT TWENTY FIVE BUCKS.
3 comments:
ahhhhh... this was a good one Jen!!!
LMAO!! Love that the poor guy left $25!! Actually, I've heard that many fairies give a little extra for the first tooth...so that dad hasn't ruined his financial future yet.
-Marisa
No, we left $20 for first tooth and uhm sometimes you DONT have change handy. You will see. But you can (if you add to the jar) BORROW from that in a big huge pinch (say waking up imminently dozing angel that needs a note too & skip the dust here & there, really!) & repay fast as lighting if he's counting it a lot.
Our note is highlighter yellow & badly script-like but not cursive they can read hand font. We write notes to ask if we can KEEP tooth (girl thing) and really dad doesn't have to leave note but just help speculate about hmmm why only $1 now.
Sweet he was as excited to leave $25. I like it!
Congrats & get pics. It's funny how each tooth grows in faster or slower & siblings teeth losing & getting teeth & timing is WIDeLY varied -- DS make it even wider , another quirk! Small, missing, late fall out early--bigger range on the unusual side for a healthy percent of DS☺
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