A new smile

My baby lost her first tooth on Sunday. She's been itching for a loose tooth for months now.
"When, when, when???" has been her constant mantra.
Apparently she's the very last kid in her 1st grade class to actually lose a tooth. Important stuff, losing teeth. At least when you are 6-years old.

I think she thought that as soon as the tooth became loose it would only be a matter of hours before the thing came out.
Weeks.
That's how long it took.
I had to talk her out of tying a piece of string around the tooth and attaching it to a pot that she'd then throw over the stair railing...something her older sister Rebekah suggested as something she had done when she was her age. But only because it was nowhere near that ready.

But then she started chickening out when the time came to actually yank it. Probably because she was getting conflicting advice from her parents...her dad telling her to leave it alone till it fell out on its own and her mom assuring her that just a quick yank would be all it took to get that wiggly thing out of there once and for all.

She finally agreed to the yank and out it came, easy peasy.
She ran down the street to show her new smile to friend Sophie. Sophie had just lost her first tooth five days earlier.
"Mom! It's the exact same tooth! We are TWINS!"
Later as I put her to bed with the tooth tucked securely under her pillow she said, "You know...Sophie got two dollars for her tooth. Are you going to give me that much too so we can still be twins?"

Yes, my child does not believe in the Tooth Fairy. She asked for truth and I answered. But like her siblings before her, she still wanted the tradition of it all. So under the pillow in a special tooth shaped box it went.

Funny back story: When Rebekah was in 1st grade and still had a mouthful of baby teeth, she asked if the Tooth Fairy was real or if it was just me. I hemmed and hawed and tried to side-step the question. She was having none of it and wanted the truth of it all. I told her the Tooth Fairy was me. She accepted it gracefully and went on with her day.
A couple of weeks later she came home in a tizzy. "Mom!" she said. "You were wrong...the Tooth Fairy IS real!" When I questioned her further she told me that a friend at school had lost his first tooth. The Tooth Fairy had come and left him some coins. She assumed that since she was the oldest and we hadn't ever had the experience yet, clearly I just didn't realize that the Tooth Fairy was indeed real...and out collecting baby teeth and leaving money in their place. Ignorance on my part.
I figured if she wanted to believe that much, who was I to argue?
But she's a smart kid and after losing a tooth or two, she asked again. And this time took my word for it. None of my kids have really believed since then.

Funny, isn't it...that the Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny seem completely out of the realms of believability for my children but Santa Claus is totally realistic? Granted, I've never pushed the fairy and the bunny like I do the big, jolly elf...so maybe it's on me.
With 3 teenaged siblings, I often wonder how long she'll accept Santa as real...especially if she's the only one in the household who still believes. I figure we only have a couple more years at most. She's an inquisitive child and like her sister Julianne before her, very perceptive.

And yes. I did leave her two dollars in exchange for the tooth so she could be "twins" with Sophie.
And also had a conversation with her about not ruining the Tooth Fairy magic for her friends who still believe....