I believe the job of the tooth fairy is getting a little complicated. I might be wrong; perhaps the tooth fairy is just not as focused on her job as she once was.

B6 recently lost his first tooth. He had been hoping for a loose tooth for 1½ years. When his tooth came out he put it in an orange plastic cup. The tooth fairy is accustomed to finding the tooth in a glass. He is sure he told the tooth fairy he wanted to keep the tooth; he wanted the money, but he wanted the tooth too, he said that. The tooth fairy has no recollection of that request.

Sadly, when he got up the morning after the first tooth came out, the tooth fairy had not dropped by. The tooth fairy felt dreadful, as you can imagine, missing a boy’s first lost tooth. So, she came in the the daytime, something she wouldn’t normally do. She took that tooth and replaced it with shiny coins. When the boy returned instead of being thrilled he was very unhappy. “Where is my tooth?” he demanded. “I wanted to keep it!” I explained that the tooth fairy was probably unaware of his wish, but this had no effect, he was inconsolable. He actually tossed the coins at me exclaiming that he just wanted his tooth back. (It was high drama for a minute there) We finally came to a compromise when I reminded him that the tooth next to the lost one was also loose, perhaps he could keep that one. Sigh.

On Saturday the next tooth came out. We were at a violin retreat all day so he wrapped it in a tissue and gave it to me for safe keeping. Yep, you guessed it, I forgot that tissue was holding the precious tooth and when I returned home I tossed it in the garbage. As Andrew said, I did what only a mother would do, I searched for the tooth and found it.  Enough said.

B6 left a note for the fairy this time. He doesn’t write his notes in words, he uses symbols. This note was stuck next to the cup holding the tooth and had his name, a picture of a cup with a tooth in it, a picture of a mouth with a gap, and a picture of a garbage bin with a cross through it. The tooth fairy may be lacking focus but I believe she got it right this time.