My biggest mister has fifteen teeth to lose. After second grade his tooth losing came to a screeching halt. The reason? He is a slow tooth loser. That's it.
Recently he lost a tooth. It was quite an affair after four years. He wiggled, pressed, and pulled until his tooth finally popped into his fingers. He was thrilled to be back in the tooth losing game.
After his tooth came out he handed it to me. I was quizzical and asked, "Aren't you going to to put it under your pillow?" He smirked and gave me a "sheesh" noise with his mouth as if I had just asked him, a twelve year old, to write out a Christmas list and send it to Santa Claus.
"Mom, really? I'm not putting it under my pillow." he said matter of fact.
"Don't you want any money?" I asked.
[another breathy noise followed by an eye roll]
My big boy no longer cared about the infamous tooth fairy and the money that she leaves in exchange for teeth. He has missed his window of opportunity that was mixed with fantasy and imagination, somewhere between the second and sixth grade. Sad.
They are all growing up. Eventually I won't have to leave the window open anymore for the tooth fairy to arrive and exit, however, for now, I still have a seven and five year old, with mouths filled with teeth just waiting to wiggle and escape. For them, this aging tooth fairy will keep a steady flow of one dollar bills on hand - just in case someone, who still believes in leaving teeth under pillow and waking to a one green dollar, loses a tooth.
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