Thank You to MY Fairy Godmother

My Fairy Godmother was looking after me last night and boy, am I thankful. Grace lost her fourth tooth yesterday while we were at a birthday party. Her first three teeth came out with no help from David or me but yesterday I had to intervene and give it that one, two, three gentle pull to just get that sucker out! I wrapped the tooth in a paper towel and put it in my pocket as we enjoyed the rest of the party. Grace reminded me at bedtime that we needed to put the tooth in a plastic baggie and put the baggie under her pillow. We did it and at tuck-in time wondered what the Tooth Fairy might leave in terms of cold hard cash. So far in our house, the Tooth Fairy has left one shiny quarter for each tooth lost. So, when Grace lost her first tooth, she got one quarter, when she lost her second tooth, two quarters, etc. This was her fourth tooth, so we did the math and thought it highly likely that she would get four quarters (a dollar!!) for her fourth tooth.

After Grace and Johnny both fell asleep, I stayed up a couple more hours doing schoolwork. Drunk with fatigue, I stumbled to my bed at around 10:45 PM and was deep into my own dreams in a matter of minutes. I awakened at around 3:00 AM as Grace's bare long legs wrapped around mine. She had come into our bed with her "sleep toys" and her plastic baggie with her tooth still in it; she'd put her tooth under one of our pillows and had fallen fast asleep. I'm glad I had the middle-of-the-night sense to tell the Tooth Fairy to get with the program! She (the Tooth Fairy, not me) stumbled into the kitchen and retrieved four quarters to place under Grace's pillow in exchange for her fourth tooth. As luck would have it, three quarters were readily available hanging out on top of our microwave since Grace lost her third tooth just about a week ago. The Tooth Fairy fished out another quarter from the change jar and finished her secret transaction in time for the both of us to get a few more hours of sleep.

You should have seen the smile on Grace's face...a smile that reminds me of a Jack-O-Lantern with staggered missing teeth on the top and the bottom...when she jangled her baggie full of quarters. Four quarters to be exact. Just like we had predicted.