Audrey and the Tooth Fairy

In addition to the power outage last week while Billy was gone, there were several other mishaps and frustrations.  Topping the list was when Thursday morning, after the kids and I were all dressed and ready to go, Audrey tripped walking down the stairs to the garage on her way to the car.  I was putting Barrett in the car, and just heard her start wailing.  I ran to her where she lay stomach down on the concrete floor.  Her mouth was full of blood.  While I talked to her to calm her down, I also ran into the house to get some paper towels.  After a couple of minutes, it was clear that the blood was from a tooth, not a lip.  Ugh.

Fortunately, our dentist opens at 7.  I had the number in my cell phone, and called at 6:55 right as we got on the Interstate.  They were open and told me to bring her straight there.  Score!  I was just approaching that exit, and I was there in less than 10 minutes.  After the dentist took some x-rays, the prognosis was that the tooth needed to come out.  I needed to get to work, and the dentist recommended we wait a couple of days to extract it to give Audrey some time to prepare herself.  I think he was also looking at me a little bit when he made that statement, and I readily admit I was not expecting my daughter to lose a tooth before lunch when I woke up that morning.  Honestly, I think Audrey handled it better than I did.  I was dreading trying to explain to her why that had to be done.  But, by the time we left school that day, she was telling me how cool it was that she was going to lose a tooth before she was even 5 and the tooth fairy was going to come to her house. 

So, today was the day.  Audrey went with her daddy to the dentist this morning.  15 minutes later they called me to assure me that Audrey had been brave and didn't cry. The dentist even gave her a little pink "treasure chest" to store the tooth in.   She was so excited, she had her teachers take a picture of her and send it to me at work.

Before

After

Billy and I never intended to keep up the rouse of the tooth fairy, just like we don't for Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.  However, given the trauma of the week and the fact that this myth played a part in her willingness to be brave and go through with the procedure, we are going to let it slide this one time.  When Audrey showed me her tooth in its chest tonight, I asked about putting it under her pillow.  She seemed reluctant, so I recommended she write the tooth fairy a note and ask if she could leave this one tooth after she looks at it, since it is the first one Audrey has lost.  She immediately ran downstairs and asked her dad to tell her which letters to write.  She was even more excited about that idea than I had anticipated.  So, tonight before she went to bed, Audrey tucked the note and the pink chest holding her tooth under her pillow, and I am sure she'll dream of tooth fairies all night.



Dear Tooth Fairy.  Please don't take my tooth.  Love Audrey AN