First visit from the Tooth Fairy

My son had had a loose tooth for almost a month. When we arrived home from daycare on Monday, he said, “Hey mom, watch this.” I watched as he moved it to a 90 degree angle, still attached to his gums. He was delighted by the horrified look on my face, which tells me that is what he intended all along. The little imp.

I told him that if his tooth could withstand being at a 90 degree angle, it would probably come out with little effort. We went to the bathroom and he tried very gently pulling on it. It didn’t budge. Excited by the thought of a visit from the Tooth Fairy, he told me I could pull it. This sort of shocked me because most of the time, he is (how shall I put this nicely?) a wimp. Nevertheless, I grabbed a hold of his tooth and gave a firm tug. And just like that, I had a tiny tooth in my palm. I was almost as excited as the day he got his first tooth.

We had a few tense minutes where he panicked because he saw blood, but when that was over, he grabbed his tooth and ran upstairs to put it in his Tooth Fairy pillow. (I ordered it from THIS Etsy seller, and since they were so reasonably priced, I went ahead and ordered one for the baby too. She’ll need one eventually, right?) He even made sure the pillow was easily accessible to the Tooth Fairy.

When it was time for bed, he was so excited he couldn’t sleep. It was adorable, except that I was trying to stay awake as well so that I could make sure that the, ahem, Tooth Fairy visited. I finally gave up and called my husband who said he would take care of everything. I woke up around 3:00am and heard my husband traipsing around the house, and I knew the Tooth Fairy had been there.

The next morning my son came to see me while I was drying my hair, and he looked worried. I asked, “Did the Tooth Fairy come to see you last night?” He had a hard time looking at me and he said, “Well, he lives a long ways away from my house.” I said, “What? Didn’t he didn’t come to see you?” He said, “Not yet, he lives a long ways away.” I said, “Are you sure? Let me see your pillow.” We went to his room and I showed him that the tooth was gone, and I glanced down and noticed two gold dollar coins that had fallen in between the pillows on his bed. I told him “Your tooth is gone. The Tooth Fairy wouldn’t take your tooth and not leave something for you, so let’s look around and see if maybe something fell out of your tooth pillow, ok?” I moved the pillows on the bed and his eyes grew huge as he yelled, “OOH, MONEEEEEEEY!”

I observed something inspiring from my son that morning. He actually made up an excuse as to why he thought the Tooth Fairy hadn’t come to see him. Even though he was visibly upset, he had used the words “not yet,” which to me meant that he still had hope that the Tooth Fairy would visit. We had told him about the Tooth Fairy before he lost his tooth, but we had no idea if he understood how the process worked. Yet he was ready to give the Tooth Fairy the benefit of the doubt when he thought that s/he didn’t come to get his tooth. We don’t know if this is a learned behavior or if it’s just part of his personality, but we appreciate his optimism. If he can give someone the benefit of the doubt, perhaps we can too.