... from A.

This one's number 7, and DH says she's lopsided - she's got all these teeth on one side of her mouth, and all of these holes on the other side. I really need to get her to an orthodontist too, but that's not the point of this.

Yesterday when she finally pulled that tooth out, which she's been fussing at for days, she was beyond thrilled that she would get to leave it for the tooth faerie. Yes, at the age of 8 she still doesn't know that it's me pulling that duty - she still believes in Santa and the Easter Bunny as well, and I like it that way since her 6 year old sister still has a concrete belief set. And yes, B is very jealous that her sister has lost so many teeth and she's not lost one herself. She does wiggle at a couple of teeth that are just a slight bit wiggly, but nothing to have any concern over. I suspect she'll lose multiple teeth at a time - and the faerie may have to rob a bank for a multi-tooth payout.

I remember the tooth faerie from when I was a child - she was in place for one tooth. I got a dime. With the second tooth my parents told me that the tooth faerie didn't exist and that they paid better than she did anyway - and I got quarters for each of my teeth thereafter. My parents ruined my belief of Santa and the Easter Bunny as well, and I promised myself that I would never reveal to my kids like that, and that I'd keep the mystique going for as long as I possibly could. It's just as much fun being an imaginary creature as it is believing in it when you're a small wide-eyed child filled with curiosity and wonderment.

Anyway, in order to put A's tooth under the pillow it has to be in something. We don't want a repeat of another lost tooth that just got put under the pillow without anything only to be lost for months. When that happened, A was so sad, and DH suggested that she write a note to the tooth faerie about it, and maybe she'd still get something. That turned out to be the beginning of a new legacy... the tooth faerie wrote a note back, and it became A's most treasured item.

I don't blame her - after all, how often do you get a note from a faerie? Especially one that's as elusive as the tooth faerie?

We found that tooth later in the carpet, but are still trying to figure out how that tooth managed to not get vacuumed up in the times that we paid attention to the carpet in their room. I searched that room several times for that tooth, too. Anyway, when A found it she wrote another note to the tooth faerie, and received a thank you note in return. That, too, became a treasure. Every time the faerie has visited since, a note with a dollar has been left. I just wish she would lose these teeth on Fridays or Saturdays so that I could be there in the morning when she finds the note and hear her excitement about it all.

For this new lost tooth, A went off and acquired an air mail envelope from DH, and sealed it in my presence. I told her that the smart thing to do would be to go put that under her pillow right away, and so she did. What I didn't know was that she managed to find a pen and write the faerie a note back.

As I quietly slipped under her pillow to steal the tooth and leave a note with another gold dollar coin, she stirred slightly but stayed asleep. I pulled out the envelope to find that she'd written a note on the outside of it with arrows pointing to where the tooth was. I ran downstairs to show DH - who was putting Sasha's bedding back in her kennel - and he wanted to read it twice. 'That's a keeper' he told me. Oh yes, after all, how often does the tooth faerie get a note?

It was so cute, written in that uneven 8 year old printing of hers. I almost cried at the sweet innocence of the words and the ever-so-thoughtful arrows pointing to the telltale bump in the envelope. I probably should have run downstairs and written a different note thanking her for her note now that I think about it, but I'll remember it next time. Every time she loses a tooth, the faerie visits her stash that contains a couple of notes about a lost tooth and an apology and those lost teeth of A's. The newest addition to the collection is right on top where I can see it easily. Oh, what's that? You want to know what the note said? Oh, I think we might want to leave that between the faerie and the child...

... after all, it was simply magical correspondence.