Tooth Fairy

Celia lost her first tooth yesterday! At Russo's, to boot. It was very unexpected. (I didn't even know it was wiggly.)

This event did, of course, inspire much discussion about the Tooth Fairy. Celia wanted to know how the Tooth Fairy knew which houses to visit. (I mumbled an incomplete answer, which she ignored anyway.) Then she told me that Ms. Ferland, her teacher, had told her and her classmates that sometimes the Tooth Fairy would come even if you lost your lost tooth--you just had to leave a note explaining what happened. I said that this seemed like a reasonable policy.

I happened also to mention that it was best practice, in my view, if she (Celia) stayed in her own bed for the duration of the night so that the Tooth Fairy didn't find an empty bed upon her arrival. (This was very selfish on my part. Celia's been sneaking down to our bed for a few weeks now, which I don't mind too much, except that I can't really sleep when the bed is full. Oh--Lucia's been sneaking down, too. I figured this "stay in your bed" policy was a crafty way for me to actually get some uninterrupted sleep.)

Celia looked at me and nodded her head like I had made a really, really brilliant point. Then Andres, who had been listening to our conversation, piped up and said that staying in your bed did matter--and recalled one recent incident when he slept over a friend's house the same night he had lost a tooth, and ended up waiting four (!) nights before getting his reward. (In fairness, it was a tough stretch for the Tooth Fairy, who kept falling asleep on the couch very early in the evening.)

Real decisions had to be made at bedtime, though, when it came time for Celia to place her tooth under her pillow. She couldn't figure out which method was best!

First, she tried the standard tooth-under-pillow method. Too plain. Then she tried placing it under a smaller pillow, which was placed in turn under the larger pillow. Too many pillows!

Good thing Andres came up at that moment. A seasoned veteran of tooth placing, he told Celia that the best option was to put her tooth in an envelope and then to put the envelope under her pillow. She liked this idea, and he ran downstairs to grab her an envelope. What a guy.

With the tooth placed and everything seemingly in order, Celia went to sleep. And what do you know? In the morning, she had a nice note from a magical visitor, as well as $1.41 (one dollar, one quarter, one dime, one nickel, and one penny), and a foreign coin. (The Tooth Fairy flies all over the world, naturally, and usually leaves some evidence of her travels.)

Celia was ecstatic. I was too. She had stayed in her bed the whole night!