Eight Teeth - No Payout for the Tooth Fairy

Well, Ethan lost his eighth tooth this week (December 30). Normally, I wouldn’t be so aware of the number of teeth a child had lost, especially by the eighth. Thing is, we have a special problem with teeth in this family. They never make it under the pillow.

Tooth number one – swallowed while eating a chicken nugget, mom was not about to wade through any “stuff” to retrieve said tooth. So, the tooth fairy received a nice note asking for forgiveness and a payout.

Teeth two through five – Ethan’s two bottom teeth started to grow in without forcing the baby teeth out. So, the dentist had to pull the four bottom center teeth to allow the teeth to come in straight. He put the teeth in this cool, little tooth ring and it came home with us. The mom was so excited to finally see a tooth, that she took the ring. She also noticed something wrong in a flower bed and walked across the lawn with the ring to check the bed out. When she came back from that excursion, all four teeth had fallen out somewhere in the lawn. Mom was not above searching through the lawn for three hours, but finally gave up when Ethan said it was okay. Mom wrote a nice note to the tooth fairy explaining her stupidity, and Ethan received a nice payout.

Teeth six and seven – One of Ethan’s buddies at school decided it would be fun to head butt him, knocking out tooth six in the school cafeteria and leaving tooth seven hanging on for dear life. Tooth six was sitting on Ethan’s lunch tray when the lunch lady came and threw it out. When tooth seven finally came out an hour later at home, he wrapped it up in a paper towel and headed out the door for cub scouts. Dad, not knowing what precious cargo was stowed in the wadded paper towel, through this in the trash and took the trash out to the can. Once again, the tooth fairy received a nice note from Ethan, this time blaming the lunch lady and father. He once again got a payout.

Tooth eight was our last hope. It came out cleanly, nicely – no trauma and not embedded in food. Ethan promptly placed the tooth in a Ziploc baggy and was instructed to place the baggy under his pillow. No notes needed this time. However, that night when Mom and Dad reminded Ethan to make sure his tooth was under the pillow, he said he couldn’t remember where he put the tooth. Everyone looked, we still can’t find it.

Well, the tooth fairy quite used to not receiving the payout at this house, felt bad for the poor kid, the first six were not his fault (the seventh, I have to admit was more his fault than neat-freak dad’s), but the kid deserved a break. So a nice dollar bill was left the first night. Mom saw it herself in the morning. She asked Ethan about it, he said he felt he didn’t deserve anything since he lost it. Mom said he should check again. He didn’t find anything. So two nights later, Mom asked him about it again. He checked under his first pillow right in front of her, and said “See, Nothing.” So Mom said, “What about checking under the other pillow?” He did and found his reward. I DON’T KNOW WHY THE TOOTH FAIRY EVEN BOTHERS AT THIS HOUSE.