Much to her delight, my six-year-old daughter’s tooth has just come out. It is one of the large front teeth so she has been left with a broad ‘gappy’ smile and a distinctive lisp.
Thankfully, we were spared too much wobbling and only endured a day where the tooth in question hung on a single thread being pushed backwards and forwards, much to the delight of her two younger brothers. After a school day full of wobbling, she arrived home and tried to persuade me to pull it out. Generally, I am able to do most things for my small twittering starlings but this was a giant step too far. Finally, I was rescued by the small thread, which finally gave way resulting in the tooth landing in a bowl of pasta and pesto. We all cheered, clapped and threw a few high fives. Excitedly she turned her attention to the tooth fairy and carefully wrapped her precious tooth in a piece of cotton wool.
That night, with the tooth safely under her pillow, she was more eager than ever to go to bed. She lay peering up at me with a slightly puzzled expression on her face and asked, “How does the tooth fairy know my tooth has come out? Did you ring her?” “No,” I replied. “It’s just magic. The tooth fairy is very clever,” I quickly added. She remarked how clever she was and how busy she must be visiting all the toothless children in the world. I quickly wrapped the whole discussion up and suggested she went to sleep as quickly as she could.
As I came downstairs I too hoped that the tooth fairy would be alerted and would not forget to visit the small pink bedroom at the top of the stairs. I made a quick phone call to the committee of mothers who I gathered gave valuable advice to the tooth fairy on the current monetary value of a top front tooth. The rest of the evening was the usual whirlwind of activity, washing swimming kits for the following day, preparing packed lunches and rummaging in the school book bags for the day’s numerous notices.
The following morning, I was woken by a loud yell coming from my daughter’s bedroom. “Mummy, the tooth fairy hasn’t come. She hasn’t taken my tooth,” she cried. My heart stopped and I felt instantly sick. How could she forget? What on earth possessed her? I ran in and calmed her down telling her that the tooth fairy obviously did not see the little tooth and she was probably so busy last night that she was postponing it for the next night. Gradually she calmed down accepting the excuses and sympathising with the tooth fairy’s busy schedule.
Thankfully, the next morning the tooth fairy did not forget. In fact, she left a generous gold rather than silver coin, to compensate for her neglect the night before.
