My 6yr old son, Alex, lost a tooth last night before dinner. It was so dramatic - and it's not because it was his first tooth to lose.
I’d called everyone for dinner and as they all tumbled down the stairs, some wild horseplay broke out. Three children and their leader (dad) were running around the kitchen, rolling on the floors, jumping on the furniture, and hiding under the dinner table. One kid was attempting to get on dad's shoulder and another was hanging on to his foot like it were a life-raft, and dad was pretending they were invisible. With so much giggling and screaming it was almost difficult to notice the cry of surprise that escaped Alex when his tooth suddenly flew across the kitchen floor and slid under the dishwasher. The tooth wasn’t even that loose! (Ouch!) It had been hanging awkwardly for weeks - and had just gotten caught on dad’s shirt as Alex went underneath it and hid from his siblings.
Thankfully, no tears were shed (despite all the blood) and the kids were all able to settle down at the dinner table. Chatter of the tooth fairy got going and the tooth was passed around for inspection. “Look mom! It’s so clean!” Alex exclaimed, proudly. “Take care of it,” I responded, making a mental note to look for quarters.
Not 5 minutes later, we had an upstairs bathroom faucet leak through the kitchen ceiling and directly onto our stove; chaos ensued! The kids were out of their seats, squealing and attempting to slide on the kitchen floor, and adults scrambling to switch off the water main, and dry up everything as fast as possible. Chaos I tell you. Hullabaloo!
Naturally, by bedtime, all we could talk about was the house falling apart and thoughts of midnight flooding had taken over my 9yr old's mind. Talk about blowing things out of proportion! We had all forgotten about the tooth…all except for Alex, of course. He took his “precious” and wrapped it up in a small towel and put it under his pillow; his offering to the tooth fairy was secured.
.
.
And that, of course, is how I woke up this morning to the wailing cries of my kid, who couldn’t believe the tooth fairy hadn’t shown up.
Damn it! I shut my eyes again trying to think. Then, taking a deep breath, I pulled back the covers and got out of bed to comfort him.
“Good morning, Alex. What happened? Why are you crying”
”it noooooo it it it. She. waaaah. She didn’t come! Waaaah there’s no money! Waaaaaah waaah. She forgot about me!”
”Of course she didn’t! Don’t be ridiculous! It was President‘s Day yesterday. The tooth fairies don't work on official holidays. They don’t work on Christmas, Thanksgiving, Or President’s Day!”
"Oh"
"Yes, buddy. I'm sure she'll be here tomorrow night." Stupid. stupid. stupid tooth-fairy.
The end.
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