Tooth Fairy Antics

The tooth fairy can be so flaky and unpredictable. My 5 yr old lost her 2nd tooth in just 3 days and stuck it under her pillow Monday night. She was so proud and excited that the tooth fairy was going to be visiting her again so soon. She woke up the next morning and discovered her tooth was still under her pillow. We figured the tooth fairy must have been bombarded by teeth the night before and just couldn't quite make it to our house by morning. That happens sometimes, you know. My 5 yr old was pacified and forgot about it.

Fast forward to this morning, when I wake up to my 5 yr old shuffling down the hall, near tears. I ask her what's wrong and she tells me that the tooth fairy forgot her again. Uh-oh. I tell her that maybe the tooth fairy just hasn't had a chance to do it yet because she woke up too early and told her to go watch cartoons. Then I run down the hall and call her to come check with me. I lift up her pillow and we hear something clanking around inside the pillowcase. Aaahhh. She missed the money because somehow it got inside her pillow, not under it. I pull out the quarters and she looks at me in disbelief. "Why did she leave it under Rebecca's pillow?", she asks. "And why did she leave me quarters? I want a green dollar."

"What?" Oh my gosh. "Uh, honey, I bet what happened is that she went to grab your tooth under your pillow and you started waking up, so she grabbed the tooth and ran into your sisters room since she was already downstairs. She must have decided to leave the money in there, knowing that Rebecca would give it to you." "Let's go check if the tooth is gone." It appeared to be, so at least the tooth fairy did something right.

She's been talking about this all morning. We've been coming up with all sorts of ideas as to why the tooth fairy did something so silly. Thankfully, they are all plausible to an imaginative 5 yr old. The latest is that the tooth fairy probably attempted to come last night right after she went to sleep, but couldn't do it because Rebecca was still awake at 10 pm. Then, she had to put Brianne's tooth at the end of her route early this morning and when Brianne woke up while she was in her room, she grabbed the tooth, hid in her closet, then made a run for Rebecca's room, where she quickly deposited the money into Rebecca's pillowcase.

Do you think the tooth fairy suffers from sleep deprivation?

As an aside, when Mommy went into Brianne's room later to check for the tooth, it was still on her bed, but somehow in my pillow flinging to check for said tooth with Brianne, we missed it and thought it was gone. Phew!

In other news, I am officially a piano teacher! I taught my first student (besides my kids) yesterday. Her mom is a friend of mine and she has been trying to convince me to teach her for awhile, and I finally decided I could do it. My 2.5 yr old and 5.5 yr old will go over there and play with her kids while I teach. Another neighbor approached me at the bus stop this morning about teaching her son when his current teacher moves this summer. His teacher also talked to me about taking on her other students when she leaves. She has four. I'm not sure how many I will be able to handle yet, but this is all very exciting and nerve-wracking. Things are going to get interesting around here!