We Forgot the Tooth Fairy
Santa. The Easter Bunny. The Tooth Fairy. All magical creatures that parents love keeping alive for their children. However, what happens when the parents slip up?
“Mommy!! Look!!,” enthused Llama. I could see that Llama was holding up a clear, ziploc sandwich bag.
“It’s your tooth!,” I replied! Finally, this tooth fell out. For the past month, Llama wiggled it back and forth. She complained that it hurt her too much to eat when I desperately pleaded with her to try new food. We tried each night to give it a gentle little tug to see if it would fall out on its own. Finally, it came out!
The next morning, I trudged into Llama’s room to wake her up. One-year-old Dude climbed up into her bed and started his morning routine of climbing on her and hitting her in the face. I couldn’t help rubbing my eyes as I gently tried to rouse her for school. Her eyes shot open and her hand immediately darted under her pillow.
“My tooth is still here.”
Well, crap.
“Uhhhh…” I stalled, “That tooth fairy!” I had to pretend rage a little. “How could she! She must have gone on vacation and forgot to tell another fairy to take her place.” I excused myself quickly, backed out of the room and walked down the hall to wake up my husband.
“Josh,” I hiss, “JOSH! We forgot the tooth fairy.” My hubby wakes up with a jolt.
“Ugh,” he replies, “Is she already awake?”
“Ya, I told her the tooth fairy must be on vacation.”
You see, we have had our close calls with the tooth fairy before. Usually, we remember as soon as we wake up, bolt out of bed, rummage through one of our wallets for a dollar and stealthily sneak into Llama’s room to make an exchange. There have even been times she has woken up and one of us distracted her while the other reached under her pillow.
This was our first complete tooth fairy screw up. Oh well, everyone makes mistakes, even the tooth fairy. Josh and Llama discussed some theories about what may have happened to her. We knew that tomorrow was another day.
Fast forward to the next morning: a Saturday. Dude had again woken me up so I stumbled over to Llama’s room to cuddle with her for a bit. She blinked open her eyes. Her hand once again shot under the pillow.
“Mama, my tooth is still here.”
“Uhhh…”, I say dumbfoundedly. This is bad. Really bad. Parenting failure. “She probably doesn’t know you moved. Like, she knew you lost a tooth but doesn’t know how to find you. I’m sure the people in our old house will tell her that you moved when they see her and…. let me go check on something.”
I dash out of the room. “JOSH,” I shake my husband out of sleep, “JOSHHHHH… we are the worst. parents. ever.”
There was no waiting for another day, I knew I needed to take action.
I rushed downstairs and hurriedly wrote a note in my best cursive, loopy fairy writing. I dug through my wallet for a dollar and ran back upstairs. Llama had already made her way into our bedroom and was busy complaining about the tooth fairy to her daddy. I tip-toed down to her room, retrieved the tooth and replaced it with the note and dollar. I then strolled nonchalantly into my bedroom and sat down on the floor with my son all the while keeping an eye on the hallway.
“WHAT!!!” I exclaim, “What was that?”
“What?” Llama asks.
“There was a big blue flash in your room, Llama. Did you leave something on in there?”
“No,” she replies,”I don’t think so.”
We go back to her room and look around, trying to think of what it might be.
“Is your tooth still there?” I ask.
She checks and finds the dollar and note in its place.
I put my hands to my mouth in excited surprise. “You mean, I saw the tooth fairy!?! That is so cool!” I really didn’t know if I was going to get away with this one. But I went all in…
She bought it.
She ran down the hall to tell my husband that mommy saw the tooth fairy and showed off the note and dollar bill. I asked her what she was going to do with the dollar. She said, “Do with it what I do with the rest of my money.”
“Spend it at Target?”, my husband asked.
“Noooo… put it in my piggy bank,” she replied.
Which, let’s just be honest, is probably going to be spent at Target.
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Oh my gosh…great cover! We were the WORST tooth fairys…seriously, we were awful. I’m pretty sure we never once remembered. She finally lost her last tooth a couple months ago at 14, from 10-14 she would just bring us the tooth and we’d give her cash…we figured she deserved it since she got our horrible late losing teeth genes! hahaha
Haha! Bring the tooth and you give her cash! That is fantastic. I’m glad to hear I’m not alone in this tooth fairy stuff!
That’s too funny!! Glad you got away with it this time 🙂 hehe!
I think my daughter is catching on and it is only a matter of time Jen 🙂
I can so relate! Last year my son finally told us, “If the Tooth Fairy doesn’t come tonight (we forgot for three days) then I’m just going to take my tooth and show my friends at school!” There was also the time when I accidentally dropped his tooth down the sink. Tears (on his part and mine) and a handy daddy with a pair of pliers saved that day!
Glad to know I’m not alone Heather 🙂
You are awesome! I admit to forgetting the tooth fairy more than once. It was mission, distract, retrieve, and deposit on many occasions. But your method is amazing!
Haha! Such a mission!! I love your method! Often times, we do that!
I love the ‘spend at Target’ comment 🙂 haha Start them young! 😉 I’m sure this will be me in a few years….I never remember anything!
Thanks for the laugh and for sharing on Tuesday Talk!
Ha! Yep, we’ve been there too. My favorite line to use is “She must be so busy picking up other kids teeth, that she didn’t get to yours yet!” However, yours is the best yet. I love the blue light – nice touch! Geesh, the things we do for our kids!
Love that line Kim!!
Oops! I’m sure I’ll forget at some point too.
Great excuse! And yes, most of my money goes to Target..
My money as well Amber! That store is awesome 🙂
That tooth fairy has the hardest time over the years (and kids) making it to our house in a timely manner, too! She has run into bad weather, been overworked dealing with tooth loss in China (or name some other place!), refused to come because the kids were still awake when she stopped by, or half a dozen other reasons for not picking up a tooth the first night. A few teeth have taken three nights! She tends to be more generous when she’s made them wait, though. And though usually she only takes teeth at night, from under a pillow, last weekend she took my son’s tooth from the fridge door, where he’d stuck it up to the fridge the night before with a magnet, in a ziplock, so he wouldn’t lose it and then forgot to put it under his pillow. She took it while we were at church. I guess she didn’t want to forget or “get busy” the following night!
LOL! Dealing with tooth loss in China!!! That is fantastic 🙂 My daughter regularly writes letters to our “Elf on the Shelf” during the year. Once he didn’t write back for a while. Turns out he was vacationing in Hawaii. Lucky elf.
Cute! This caught my eye b/c I just posted a tooth fairy post as well. I’m going to link to this in my post if thats OK 🙂
Yes, of course!