Tooth Fairy

Marin lost her first tooth this week. Lower left side incisor. It had been loose for fourscore and 20 years but finally gave out. As the day of reckoning approached, her older cousins schooled Marin in the ways of the tooth fairy.

So D-Day arrives 11/26 at the kitchen table just before dinner. Blood everywhere. Marin with a look of total panic on her face because she can't figure out where the blood is coming from and why it won't stop. Colleen gets that under control with an ice pack.

Fast forward to bedtime, Marin is freaking out. She is afraid of the tooth fairy.
"Why he come in my room?"
"What if he hurt me?"
" Boy or girl? Tooth fairy boy or girl?"
" Daddy sleep with me."

So we finally get Marin calm enough to fall asleep. She wakes at midnight and hollers for me. She tells me how scared she is of the tooth fairy. I pulled the quarter from under her pillow and said "Look, the tooth fairy is already come and gone". I have never seen such a deeply satisfied expression of relief come across anybody's face as I saw on Marin just then.
"He gone Daddy? Tooth fairy all gone? What he give me?"

The quarter was in a ziplock bag (easier to find) and Marin lay there shaking the quarter in the bag for about 30 mins - this look of total amazement and bewilderment on her face. Like "how the heck did the tooth fairy do that without me knowing it?"

The next morning Marin is telling Emmy all about what happened and tossing the quarter from one hand to the other. Emmy sat motionless with eyes wide as saucers. When Marin was finished talking, Emmy said - in a total deadpan - "You're kidding." I thought I would bust a gut laughing.

Marin went on to tell Emmy that she had actually seen the tooth fairy and he looks like a butterfly. Then she made a face like a butterfly (I guess that's what it was). Marin will feel pretty foolish some day when she reads this story.

Marin went to school and told everyone she got five dollars for her tooth. Right. The people at school obviously don't know me very well if they fall for that.