Nothing But the Tooth

It's been one big-kid thing after another lately with Keira: in the past few months, she's learned how to jump rope and roller skate, is starting to read, is about to register for kindergarten (!!)...and now, on Friday, she lost her first tooth.

My baby is growing up!

It all started on Tuesday night, when we were having brinner (breakfast for dinner). Some families make this a weekly event, but I don't think we'd ever done it before, and the girls were thrilled! Both of them were chowing down on their pancakes, bacon, and strawberries until Keira started complaining that she couldn't bite into her strawberries because her front bottom tooth hurt. I checked it out, and sure enough, it was wiggly!

That night, Keira dictated a note to the Tooth Fairy and added an illustration:


Now, in MY day (ugh, am I really old enough to start saying that now??), the Tooth Fairy didn't get or reply to notes. It never even occurred to me to write to her, but Kiwi insisted, and apparently the Tooth Fairy knew how excited she was and took the time to stop by and reply. She even left a little bit of glitter behind on Keira's pillow, just like my friend's kids found after the Tooth Fairy visited them!

Kiwi loved it! (I hear it was Mr. Tooth Fairy's idea to roll it up with ribbon like that.)




Here's what it said (and a collection of the glitter she left behind):


That night, Kiwi wanted to leave the Tooth Fairy another note:


("Dear Tooth Fairy, I love your letter. You are welcome anytime.") That last part is straight out of Silverlicious, by the way.

At this point, I think the Tooth Fairy was a little worried that she'd never have time to collect teeth and deliver rewards if she was having nightly correspondence with Kiwi. Still, she managed to sneak in and reply:


Luckily, Keira ceased and desisted with the notes for the rest of the week! We got lots of books about loose teeth and the Tooth Fairy from the public library, and Keira loved sharing her big news with everyone we came across. When she stopped by her old classroom at preschool on Wednesday to show last year's teacher (who is, by the way, a total doll and even called Kiwi at home on her birthday in October), Mrs. B. gave her a cute little tooth holder so she'd be ready when it came out...which it did, on Friday!


Bear and I were at work and Kiwi was at Grandma's house when the big moment happened, so I totally felt like Rachel when she found out Ross made Emma laugh for the first time: "And I missed it?! Because I was giving a makeover to that stupid hippie?!" Except I was teaching second graders how to count coins...but still. Oh, well.

When I came to pick her up, she modeled the hole in her smile (and the cowgirl vest she made out of a paper bag):


When we got home that night, she said, "I think we should conceal it in the kitchen cabinet so the Tooth Fairy won't take it tonight."

Yes, she said conceal. See? I told you. Fancy Nancy.

She wanted to keep it for another day and show it to everyone we saw yesterday...but when last night came, she still wanted to keep it another night so she could show cousin Brandon when he came over today. In the end, she decided she just plain wanted to keep it, so last night, she left her tooth in a glass of water with this note that she dictated to me (I guess when you're five, sometimes you feel like writing a note, and sometimes you don't!):


All week, she had been speculating about what the Tooth Fairy would bring. The first thing she mentioned, right after we discovered her tooth was loose on Tuesday, was a tooth keychain, and I bet that Tooth Fairy went on amazon.com that night and started looking for one! Apparently, they didn't have any, but what she did get was a charm bracelet with a tooth charm (it says "I lost a tooth!" on the back). Amazon The Tooth Fairy delivered it just in the nick of time! She also got two gold dollars--not a $100 bill as Kiwi had predicted, but not bad in this economy:


The Tooth Fairy saga hasn't ended yet, though--there's another wobbly tooth right next to that gap in her smile, and I think we'll be having regular dealings with the Tooth Fairy for quite a while now. I bet that fairy has a stack of gold coins ready and waiting for our growing girl!