Confessions of a Rookie Toothfairy!!

It's been a big week at the Sachs' house! Jeremiah lost his first tooth!!!!! Woooo whoooo!! This was cause for much celebration because the poor child has been fretting for the last two years as to when he would actually lose a tooth! He even prayed on the night before he turned 7 that for his birthday, God would let him lose his tooth. Sweet boy! Well, he finally did....he might be the last one in his class to have a vacancy in his mouth, but not anymore! AND, I didn't even know what was going on. In the midst of me helping Ellie with homework, he walks out with the prize in his hands! "Mom! MOm! MOOMM! You'll never believe this. Look.!!!!" (I think he was as shocked as I was.)
Homework was paused for a moment as we jumped up and down and called everyone we thought might remotely care to know a tooth was gone and then it hit me.... That was the same little tooth that I saw poking through his swollen gums just before his 1st birthday. That tiny pearl colored nub-the one that came in as crooked as you could imagine-was now in my hands. I was surprised that I was sad! Well, sentimental. It just marked the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. Until this week, all my little chicks had mouths full of baby teeth...even Judson is proudly sporting some of his own! Now, its different. My man is growing up and proud to finally have an empty spot in his mouth to prove it! (Nobody warned me about these funny emotions!)

Anyway, Cord and I discussed what we were gonna do - you know, for the "tooth fairy"! (You'd think we'd be more prepared than this, I mean, Gosh! Jeremiah's only lamented it for the last 24 months!) But, of course, no plan was in place. Can I just say that I love the fact that when Cord does something, he really goes all out! No detail left overlooked! :) It's always really special. I tried to keep that wonderful trait in mind when he began suggesting things we should do. (Let me give you a clear picture here, it's like 7:00, no one's eaten diner, homework and baths are still awaiting and I've just left for the grocery store.) Our dialogue went something like this:

Me: "How much do you want to do? How much money should we give him? (we both used to get the occasional silver dollar..."occasional" referring to my childhood-I'll explain in a minute)
Cord: "Oh, I don't know, a dollar maybe?
Me: "A dollar? Noooo, he's waited forever. It's his first, our first - we gotta do a little more."
Cord: "OK. Like 5 or 10?"
Me: "Well, just remember he's got lots more to come! Lets not do something we can't keep up! How about like $3?"
Cord: "Sounds good. But I want to do something special like get him a shiny pebble to trade in for a big prize or put something really different under his pillow, you know. Something special not just boring money."
Me: (God love him.) "Well, at this point, lets just not get complicated! Where on earth will I find a shiny pebble at this time of night and a "prize"???!!
Cord: "That's true. Ok. (sigh) I guess we'll just do money."

As usual, the nightly routine got into a frenzy! Amongst the chaos, there is lots of talk about the nebulous tooth fairy. Uh oh. Here comes the questions!
"What does the tooth fairy look like? Is it a boy or a girl? What do they do with all the teeth they collect in the world? Is she big like Mrs. Claus or little like tinkerbell? What do you think I'll get? Once, Nate got $5 and Carter got money and candy!!"

Uhhh, my brain was just too tired to think on my feet. I decided to comment on his last statement and avoid the questions. I think I went on and on saying how interesting it is to have the tooth fairy give you candy since candy rots your teeth out. A feeble attempt to distract his mind. Long story short, we finally got him to sleep...little tooth in a ziploc tucked safely under his pillow. Ahhh, all was f-i-n-a-l-l-y quiet in the house.
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4:00 a.m.
Thankfully, my eyes opened out of a dead sleep. By the grace of God, I remembered the tooth fairy hadn't come yet!
"CORD! Hurry! You gotta go do the tooth fairy! Oh my Gosh! It would be so sad if we would have forgotten!" I mean, can you imagine?!!

My really groggy husband pulled himself up and sat on the edge of the bed to get his bearings."Do you have some money for him?"

Money. SHOOT! What in the world was I thinking? I forgot to get cash back at Publix! AGHH!
"I think there's some one dollar bills in the fruit basket." (thank you, papa! you left those on your last visit! Maybe they won't notice they're gone :) !)

Cord stumbles out to the kitchen...he's so loud! I hear his feet shuffling on the hard woods back to our room. He's rambling around in the change tray. What in the world??
"I can't just give him dollars. I gotta give him something more. Three dollars is just not special enough...I'll give him some change too."

"Thanks, babe!" I say as I roll back over -thanking the Lord for waking us up! I couldn't wait to hear how it went! I waited and waited and waited. Then I started to worry. What could be taking so long??? Finally, I hear his feet shuffling back down the stairs and into our room.

"What took you so long? Did it go OK?"" I was dying to know. I should have known by his response as he crawled in bed!
"Whoever invented the d@*% tooth fairy ought to be shot!" he said throwing himself back into bed and yanking up the covers.
"AND no. It didn't go OK!!!"

I gasped and sat straight up in bed. "What happened?"

"Let's just say I fumbled on the delivery. The switch didn't go so well. My gosh, he sleeps with his arm under his pillow! I retrieved the tooth, but then I dropped the money and he woke up. The last minute decision to use change gave me away. Stupid tooth fairy!"

"NOOOOO! Unbelievable. Did he go on back to sleep or did he talk to you?"

"Oh he really woke up!" He said, "what are you doing dad?" I told him I thought I heard a noise and was just checking on him. He felt around under his pillow and got really sad. "Dad, she didn't come! My tooth is gone but she didn't leave me anything!" I just told him to go back to sleep and we'd look in the morning, so he did! The bag of money fell somewhere by the bed and I couldn't get it cause my cover would be blown. Somebody should have told us how complicated this tooth fairy thing was.!"

"All we have to do is put money -or a shiny pebble- under a pillow! How complicated is that? Oh. No. Poor kid! He probably thinks he got the ghetto tooth fairy...stealing his tooth and leaving him with nothing! Pitiful. Once, my tooth fairy left me an I.O.U.! (thanks mom!) Remember that Christmas we got envelopes with our presents written on fluorescent sticky notes tucked inside?! In case you ever wondered, it's a little trick she learned from the tooth fairy!"(love you mom!:))

Cord was laughing so hard, I almost couldn't understand him, but I managed to hear him say what a stupid thing the tooth fairy was. Again! "I mean, think about it! You either picture some grown up old lady in fairy wings sneaking in your room and collecting your teeth or a little fly buzzing around carrying money! What the heck?! It's crazy! AND- we have 4 freakin' kids with at least 30 teeth in each mouth....! Plus, we're supposed to remember to give them money every time someone loses one!? That's crazy! This dumb tooth fairy is gonna get real expensive!" Stupid tooth fairy. This is the dumbest thing ever invented. I'm going to bed. I can't believe I fumbled the delivery."

The next morning, the tooth fairy was grumpy from his first time run, so I let him sleep. I went upstairs to wake up a sad little boy who thought he'd gotten jipped! I suggested he look around in case it fell off the bed in his sleep. Low and behold, the prize was found hidden by the pillows on the floor. I couldn't help but laugh as he proudly took inventory of his loot! "I got 3 whole dollars, 4 quarters and a dime and 2 really dark coins I'm thinking are pennies!! Wow! And there's even some little pieces of tissue and some plastic things in here too! Neat! Ellie, Saddler! Hurry! Come look what the tooth fairy left me!" *************

Bless his heart. A total of $4.12, some tissue scraps and the remnants of an old price tag all dug out of the change tray, no doubt. And he couldn't have been happier. To borrow the MasterCard commercial slogan: 2 tired forgetful parents. 1 rookie tooth fairy. A less than smooth delivery. Some random change and an exuberant little boy believing it all.........PRICELESS!

Oh I love that we are making memories every single day!!! I love that I have these moments to laugh about! And I love that Cord and I both have such loving parents who made our childhood magical and we have the opportunity to pass it on.!! I Love you all!
Now that our tooth fairy has been around the block once, maybe it will go better next time. Would love to hear stories from how your family does it or funny memories from your childhood!
Blessed!
Heather