In this pocket you will find
A teensy, tiny tooth of mine.
So while I sleep where dreams are made,
Let's see if you can make a trade.
Tiny Dancer lost a tooth yesterday.
And this morning in the car, I hear this little voice in the back seat saying, "The Tooth Fairy didn't come last night."
Aw, crap.
The Tooth Fairy schmucked it up.
It has been quite a long time since her last one fell out. So the Tooth Fairy has been a bit rusty.
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| {These make great baby gifts, personalized with fabric, name embroidered and details of the fairy, like hair color} |
When the Tooth Fairy started coming to our house, I anticipated this momentous occasion with a custom made tooth pillow. She used Pottery Barn fabrics to match the bedding. Clever.
And I found another seller who wrote diminutive first tooth notes {complete with glitter to sprinkle where the Fairy trod} from the Tooth Fairy in swirly purple ink about the little boy or girl baby who was waiting for that first tooth to appear and how this tooth would be whisked away and show up the next morning to cries of rejoicing from the parents ready to snap that first tooth picture. {Rocket's went to a little boy named Peter in Madison, home of the Badgers and Tiny Dancer's showed up in baby Charlotte in Orlando, home of all things princess}. These are memories that they still share as special, knowing that the loss of their tooth is living on with another child.
Mr. Tooth Fairy even mentioned last night that he was plum out of gold coins, so it is not as if it was a surprise that this was happening.
The Rocket, who will turn officially teenaged next week, lost his last one within the last year. And the same thing happened. The Tooth Fairy was up way too late in her studio and then crawled up into bed. In the morning, no gold coins {incidentally, Rocket was not that concerned, said he knew "The Truth," and didn't know what to do about these gold coins anyway! He didn't know they were actual dollars!}
You wouldn't even know that she was missing one. We have always called her our shark-tooth baby. Her next tooth has been waiting in the wings for weeks, peeking halfway out of the pink blanket of her gums, jutting into her mouth at weird angles like mountainous peaks. When the old one falls out the new one wastes no time filling that space, so that within an hour she has a full set of teeth again. This happened for nearly every tooth in her head. So we have rarely, if ever, had that jack-o-lantern grin in pictures with her.
But that small voice this morning broke my heart.
When this sort of thing happened when the Rocket was a wee one, the Tooth Fairy left a nice note in the pillow about having so many homes to visit and she knew that he would understand. I am not so sure that a note from the Tooth Fairy would work this time.
It is not so much that she lost a tooth and the Tooth Fairy missed it. It is more heartbreaking to know that this is the last shred of innocence that is now washed away. Even if the Tooth Fairy comes tonight bearing two gold coins and a heartfelt note about how sorry she is, there is an irreprable crack in the vessel of belief that this child carries.
So I am a bit sad today. My little girl is growing up {she is, after all, 10 years old - quite a long time for the belief to hold true} and my days as the bearer of all things magical and good is vanishing, too.
Do you remember the moment that you stopped believing in the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus? Or when your own kids found out?
How would you handle this... try to restore her faith with a note and a coin tonight? Or discuss what happened and dispel the myth?
Do tell! (Seriously, I am kicking myself and I could use the advice!)
Enjoy the day!
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