A Tale of Two-th Fairies

Squirt has a tendency to get a little crazy when she's got loose teeth. Her hands are always in her mouth playing with them (which drives us all a little nuts), she doesn't want to eat anything or brush her teeth, and she talks about it constantly. Her gums are often sore and purple so she doesn't want anybody to look at it, let alone help the thing come out.

Three days ago, she lost a tooth. 

It wasn't unexpected because she'd been bugging the thing for a couple weeks. I was even on top of it enough to make sure I had cash on hand so I wouldn't be running around town at 3am trying to find an open store to buy a pack of gum and get cash back. You laugh, but I have done that more than once. FYI: the only stores open here at that time are Walmart and 7-11. 

We had a great night; We got a Redbox, ate pizza, and just had a drama-free evening. It was delightful.  Then, as fate would have it, the tooth fairy forgot to come. 

Again, this is not the first time it has happened in our home. What happened to the days when she was little and I never forgot to do any of this stuff? It's so much easier when they go to bed by 8... Fortunately, the movie we'd rented was Rise of the Guardians and Aeryn just assumed that Santa was helping collect the teeth so the tooth fairy didn't get too far behind. The next night, you had better believe that I was on top of that one right away! 

The tooth fairy was redeemed. 

Imagine my surprise when two days later she lost ANOTHER tooth, one that I didn't even know had been loose. Fortunately, I still had some moolah on hand from my previous preparedness and figured I was going to get it done right this time. An hour or two after she fell asleep I crept into her room to get the deed done, only to discover that once again she'd rearranged her bed and switched where her pillow was. 

Dang. 

I stood on a chair, because I am a shorty, and dug around under the two pillows and three pillow-pets to no avail. Even on a chair I couldn't reach to the opposite side of her twin bed (man, I sound pathetic) so I sat on the bottom bunk and reached around from every side trying desperately to not lose my balance and smash my face into the wall. I was a sight, I tell ya. 

It didn't work. I didn't find the tooth, nor could I get the money situated. I was functioning on only 3 hours of sleep (I never sleep when the hubs is out of town) and so the only rational option was to go to bed and set a timer to get up at 5 and take care of it then. It was flawless! I woke up, went into her room, and woke her up - on accident of course. 

The tooth fairy was busted. 

Or not. 

She asked what I was doing and I just said I was checking on her to make sure she was sleeping ok. I STILL didn't find the tooth, so in a last-ditch-effort I tucked the money under a pillow at the foot of her bed (man, that girl has a lot of pillows) - which happened to be where her head had been a couple nights before when the first tooth fairy redeemed herself. It wasn't perfect, but it was something, except for the detail that she didn't find it and still thinks the tooth fairy forgot about her. 

Bummer. 

I suppose now I get another shot at it but I feel confident saying that I don't feel confident at all about how it's going to go down. 

{I asked her to smile and show me her missing teeth, which would have been effective if they hadn't been hidden in the back. This missing teeth stuff is much easier when they are little!}