The Missing Tooth

The other day I took all of the kids to the dentist. A couple of years ago when it was just Samantha and Jacob going to the dentist I started to get worried because we were walking away with a couple of hundred dollars worth of dental work for just Samantha. After that I figured out that when I skipped out on the brushing teeth routine at bedtime it was costing us an average of $2 a day. So anytime I wanted to just rush kids off to bed I would just multiply that by four kids, now five and I would consent to an extra 5 minute bedtime delay. Fast-forward to the present and we have been cavity free now for over two years. I will admit that these last six months I have left more of the responsibility up to the kids so I was a little worried for this trip. Jacob was worried because he finally had his first loose tooth and Samantha told him that it hurt when they cleaned a loose tooth, but he said that it wasn’t too bad.

That night we were all brushing and I looked at Jacobs tooth and gave it a good jiggle, but it still seemed like it was going to be awhile. Samantha noticed that Jacob had some tooth paste left on his face and grabbed a towel to help him wipe it. Apparently a loose string wrapped around that little tooth and she unknowingly yanked it out for him. At first he screamed but then the realization that the tooth was gone turned his scream of pain to excitement. We tucked the tooth in our little tooth pillow and sent the kids to bed.

Not too long after they kids had been tucked in they were still noisy, no big surprise around here. We have had bedtime issues for the last few years, it is a chronic problem. I went up to investigate and found that Jacob had literally lost the tooth. We looked everywhere. I pulled the sheets off both bunk beds, and looked under the bed with a flashlight and even pulled up mattresses. Jacob was distraught because he wanted to see his tooth again be fore the tooth fairy took it. We tried but sent kids back to bed.

An hour later, no kidding, I went to check on noises and they were all gathered in Jacob’s room and had set up a resting place for the tooth fairy. It was raining that night and they felt bad that the fairy had to fly through the rain. They had a little cup of water, little pieces of material for blankets and towels, and notes explaining what had happened and requesting the tooth fairy to help find the tooth and then leave it for one more night.

Apparently the tooth fairy couldn’t find the tooth either. She took the notes, dried herself off with the towels, had a sip of water and left an advancement of half price until the tooth is found. Jacob was very excited in the morning when he found the money. Having never lost a tooth, he doesn’t know the going rate, so he was just fine with half price for his missing tooth.