Losing the Lost Tooth

There is no parenting manual, as much as we wish there was. This means that there are some less than ideal parenting moments. My latest? My daughter losing her top front tooth.

Graydon has been losing her teeth earlier than most, so by 4 years of age, she had shed her baby teeth and was sporting two too-large-for-her-mouth adult teeth on the bottom. Well, this week, after much wiggling and some help with a bucket of rocks (to understand watch this clip), Graydon now has a MASSIVE gap in the front of her bouche.

With baby tooth in hand, Gray asked me if she hid the tooth, would she be able to keep it for a few days. Wanting to get the tooth for cash swap taken care of, I educated her on the wise ways of the tooth fairy – she will always find the tooth! That night, Graydon and I tucked her little cotton tooth fairy doll under her pillow with (I believed) the tooth inside. As we had just arrived back from Vancouver, Graydon was on Pacific standard time and was singing to herself still at 11:30pm, hours after going to bed. By 1 a.m. I was exhausted, the singing had stopped and I headed into Graydon’s room to make the swap. As I fumbled in the dark for the tooth in the doll, I came up empty handed. I went back into my bedroom to find my cell phone to use as a flashlight and I searched around the bedding for the stray tooth. In doing so, I woke Graydon and I had to tuck her back in and sooth her back to sleep. Once asleep, I went back to my search. The floor, under her pillows, in the sheets, behind the bed, and in the cases. Now, Graydon’s queen-sized bed has all white bedding and loads of big down pillows, so the hunt was a challenge at best!

Then it hit me. Graydon hid the tooth somewhere else and now my search radius has spread to her whole bedroom (and possibly the entire house). With my cell phone as a guide, I went through her favourite bedroom squirreling places and again, found nothing. I was trying to think like a 5 year old. How would I trick the tooth fairy? I was coming up with nada.

It was now 3 a.m. I had accidentally woken up Gray at least 6 times, and was panicked how the morning was going to look. Graydon now had a pile of change under her pillow and I had no tooth. Did she hide it? Did I drop it and she would find it and be confused why the tooth was still there and yet she got money? Would I ruin the magic (and authority figure) of the Tooth Fairy? I called my friend in a panic (yes, in the night). She advised me, in the most matter of fact way, how I would fix this – lie! I had not even thought about this in my exhaustion and distress. Of course, I could make up anything and she would believe it. So, I wrote a note from the Tooth Fairy advising Gray that she (the Tooth Fairy) had dropped the tooth upon her departure and would Graydon help her find it. This covered all my bases, and added a nice humanistic touch to the flawless magical beings that do such wonderful tasks in the night and provide such glorious gifts for which we parents do not get credit for at least a decade or two.

So morning came, and Graydon happily bounded into my room with her 3 dollars in change, and all was well (except for the tired Mommy).

Where are we now? Graydon and I still have not solved the mystery of the missing tooth, even after stripping her bedding. However, the magic of the Tooth Fairy lives on!