Friday, March 24, 2006

Fairy tale


Sarah lost her first tooth yesterday.

It had been loose for about a week, but I didn't really expect it to come out this soon. However, yesterday morning she showed me that it was extremely loose (she could move it almost perpendicular to the other teeth with her finger).

When I picked her up for the Young Rembrandts art class, she eagerly showed me that it was out of her mouth. Unfortunately, she was a bit saddened that she had lost the freed tooth while playing on the school playground. After her art class, she wanted the two of us to go back to the playground behind the school and look around for it. (I was non-committal at the time.)

After class, it was about 4:35 and we had to go get Grace from daycare. Sarah had forgotten about the tooth and I thought she had made her peace with the loss. When she prepared to show Grace that her tooth was out of her mouth, she remembered her desire to go and search the playground. She proceeded to plead with me as we were driving through our neighborhood heading to the house. At the corner of Nicole and Spring, I acquiesced and kept on driving back to the school.

We parked the car and Sarah, Grace, and I began our (fruitless) search for the missing masticator. It turns out that searching for a tooth on a playground is like looking for a needle in a haystack. The results were predictable and upsetting. Sarah got very weepy and was mostly concerned that without a tooth under her bed, she wouldn't get a visit from the tooth fairy. No matter how much I tried to reassure her that the tooth fairy was aware of her freed tooth and would surely visit to reward her milestone, Sarah was concerned.

In the end, it took Mom's arrival home (and a few minutes distance from the reality of not finding the tooth) to calm her down. Lynda and Sarah wrote a note explaining to the tooth fairy that tooth was accidentally lost. True to our assurances, the fairy did visit, left evidence of her presence by opening the note and leaving it on her Little Mermaid chair beside the bed, and (of course) leaving a monetary reward.

My girl is growing up fast!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK Dave, come clean....what's the going rate for the Tooth Fairy in Ohio?

MM

David said...

Sorry . . . that't the second person who's called me on leaving out that crutial bit of information.

Lynda and I initially discussed 25 cents (we strenuously object to the practice of some Ohio Tooth Fairies that give $1) (!!).

I thought we had left it at a quarter, but the next morning Sarah happily showed me the TWO quarters that the tooth fairy had left behind.

So, the shocking answer is . . . 50 cents!!