At first, he was quite upset. He came running into the kitchen in the morning, crying that he'd broken his tooth. I thought he must have fallen and hurt himself so I insisted on prying his mouth open to have a look.
Everything looked fine to me. Confused, I asked him to show me the "broken" tooth. He wiggled one of his bottom teeth and began to cry more.
After a good cuddle, I explained that his baby teeth were getting loose so that his big teeth could come in. (We had gone over this previously but it's still alarming when a piece of your body suddenly comes loose.) After a bit, he stopped worrying that we would be mad at him and got interested again.
We talked about the tooth fairy and I told him a little story:
Far away, just past Neverland, is the beautiful world of the tooth fairies. These tiny little winged people build huge, fantastical cities out of children's teeth. They have elaborate castles, beautiful fountains and shining streets. Everything gleams in the sunlight and the tooth fairies are very happy with their cities.
When children lose their teeth, they put them under their pillows and tooth fairies fly out from their city to collect them and leave presents.
This fantasy soothed and interested him and we went about our day.
That afternoon, the tooth fell out.
I was in the middle of a phone call from work when Nathan came running, shouting for me at the top of his lungs. I apologized to the client and said I would call back in a minute, certain there had been some kind of disaster. (He's usually very good about not disturbing me if I'm working.) He held out his little hand and proudly displayed a tiny chip of ivory.
"My tooth fell out and now the tooth fairy can come!"
We had a little party and I made him a little envelope to put the tooth in under his pillow. (I cut a little strip about an inch wide and two inches long, folded it and taped the sides into a little pouch.) I asked him what he thought the tooth fairy would bring.
"A toy and chocolate money!"
Okay. Food for thought but not going to discourage him right now. With that settled, I called back the client and got on with my day.
The next morning, the tooth fairy had left two small toys, a chocolate coin and a little note written in microscopic script on a 1 inch by 1 inch sheet of paper.
Hi Nathan,
Thank you for the tooth. It's beautiful! I hope you like the toys and chocolate.
Vivi, Tooth Fairy
This is our first visit from a tooth fairy as Alex mostly swallowed or tossed his baby teeth and had no interest in putting them under his pillow or in getting anything. All in all, I'm fairly satisfied with how it went.
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