Saturday, July 24, 2010

Kael's Experiment

Way back in March, when Kael first lost his tooth, we introduced the Tooth Fairy (TF). She collects teeth (kind of gross if you ask me) and leaves a present behind. Our TF also leaves behind a note, expounding on the importance of good brushing and flossing habits. For gifts, she leaves the gold Sacajawea coins.

The first time TF wasn't ready for the exchange because what kid in their right mind would purposefully yank out their own teeth? I remember as a kid I wouldn't let my parents come near my loose one until the adult tooth was well in place (hence the need for orthodontia work). I figured my kids would be the same way.

But no, Kael yanked out his first one at 9:30pm. I had no money, no note, no toys... nothing. On top of that, Kael went to Dad and Dad didn't tell me until past 10:00pm. A "Oh, and by the way..." kind of thing.

I scrambled around and after digging through the ashtray in my car where loose change is usually kept, I found 3 gold coins. Zipped out a note and the TF was saved.

A couple of days later, I found Kael at my desk writing a note, right before bedtime. I happened to ask him what he was writing, and thank goodness I did. He revealed to me that he was writing a note to the Tooth Fairy, to say thank you for the gifts. He had a couple of other things there as well, gifts for the TF:

10-03-25 K+ToothFry Note

The note reads: "Thanks for the money Tooth Fairy. Look I left something." He gave her a sticky frog and a bug card. Very sweet I thought. I was a little concerned that Kael was starting to see TF as a potential pen pal though.

Fast forward to July and he pulled out another tooth. While at the water park. What the heck am I supposed to do with it?! So I put it in my wallet for safe keeping. And there it sat for a few days because I (I mean -- the Tooth Fairy) couldn't find the time to get to the bank (alone) to get some Sacajawea coins.

We finally found a little mountain of those coins when Truong decided to cash in our 10 gallon jug of coins. In fact, we have enough for all of my kids' teeth!

Anyway, TF did the exchange and all was well. Or at least I thought it was.

This morning Truong mentioned something about Kael waiting to hear from the Tooth Fairy. I thought he meant Kael was missing his note from the TF, the one I saw Taede playing with. Truong said no, that's not the one. It's something else. Kael's waiting for a response to something. I was still in a morning stupor and didn't know what he was talking about so we dropped it.

Later, I got a tickle in my brain and decided to investigate. This is what I found under Kael's pillow:

10-07-24 KKM ToothF Note

He had written a note and stuck it under his pillow without telling me. Further, he even told Dad to NOT tell me! Like it was some kind of Tooth Fairy test!!!

Can you believe that?! So of course the Tooth Fairy failed. But I covered her ass by pretending ignorance: "Daddy didn't tell me anything. What are you talking about? I got a weird email from the TF this morning about how sorry she was she couldn't come over last night because a lot of children lost their teeth yesterday. Why was she coming over? Did you lose another tooth?"

I could tell he wasn't as sure of himself. I played dumb really well. I could see the wheels churning around, tossing about this new bit of information.

So my next step is to set up a Tooth Fairy email account, send myself an email from her and let Kael check it out. Maybe this way he can start emailing her instead of hiding messages under his pillow.

Jeez.

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