I was so glad I happened to be with Isaac when he lost his first front tooth. I had volunteered to chaperone a school field trip and during lunch one of his classmates pointed out that his tooth was bleeding. As I soothed him and quickly yanked it out, many of the kids gathered around, asking to see the tooth, peer into the new hole in his mouth, and to gush their own tooth stories about this shared rite of passage. Back at school he got to add a sticker to his tooth ornament on the tooth tree. A very generous (daddy) tooth fairy brought him $5! (The stingy mommy tooth fairy had no such plans of repeating that amount.)
A few days later, the other front tooth succumbed, and this time dad was out of town and the mommy tooth faith accidentally--ahem--forgot. The following morning I went to say good morning and he announced, gleam in eye, "I'm going to check under my pillow now!" A stab of shame hit me as I realized that I was about to witness my child's keen disappointment--due to my neglect. On a whim I declared, "Isaac, close your eyes for just a minute!" He did, and I grabbed the $5 still sitting on his dresser from the previous visit, slipped it under his pillow while slipping out the tooth, and announced he could open his eyes. Miraculously, it worked! He never saw the switcheroo! But man, this tooth fairy was broke.
Later that day, with a slight new lisp, Isaac asked, "Mom, are you the tooth fairy?"
"What do you think?" I replied.
"I think you are. You're aren't? You are."
"It's whatever you believe, Isaac."
A pause. "I just don't believe fairies are real. I think you are."
"You're right. It's just something moms and dads like to do for their kids, for fun."
A wide, toothless grin spread across his face, so proud of himself for figuring it out!
