My 8 year old seems to be losing a lot of teeth these days. And like I said before, she's getting smarter and smarter, too. So for months now, she's been proclaiming.... LOUDLY.... in front of her 4 year old little brother..... "There really isn't a Tooth Fairy, you know. It's really just your parents who sneak into your room at night." She wanted to so badly to get to the bottom of this age-old mystery, that a few weeks ago when she lost her last tooth, she even told me that she almost tried to trick me. She had decided that she wasn't going to tell me she lost the tooth, and then she was going to stay up (while pretending that she was asleep) and catch me in the act! That sneaky little..... Luckily, though, she told me about her little plan and said she just couldn't do it. Whew, got out of that one.
However, the other day, that curiosity must have gotten the best of her because at 11:00 pm, my 10 year old daughter comes in my room to wake me up. I had been up since 4:00am that day, Jonathan was out of town, and I was exhausted and not so happy to be woken up. She says, "Mom! You've got to help me. Macy lost a tooth today, and she's waiting up to see if the tooth fairy is going to come." She went on to explain that she had been waiting for her little sister to fall asleep so that she could step in and "keep the dream alive." I think I thought that was the sweetest thing I'd ever heard. They usually fight like cats and dogs, but here she was, on a school night, after a long, hard softball practice and lots of homework, trying her best to stay up to step in for that little fairy.
But tired as I was, I gave her a big hug, told her how wonderful she was, and then promptly sent her to bed so I could get some sleep. I told her I'd get up early and do it, but secretly, as tired as I was, I was thinking to myself..... "Well, third grade isn't so bad to find out..... if she finds out she just finds out."
The next thing I knew, a little voice is once again waking me up.... "Mom, Mom! You've got to help. I'm trying to sign this note from the Tooth Fairy and I can't make it look like different handwriting."
You see, my smart little 8 year old decided she would set another trap for that little flying fairy and get her to SIGN the note. She's been convinced for a while now that the tags on the gifts from Santa are her daddy's handwriting, and I always tell her (truthfully, I might add) that it isn't her daddy signing those tags. It worried Madison so much that her little sister had requested a signature that she got up early and had been sitting at my desk, practicing her best "Tooth Fairy" handwriting on little scraps of paper. She had even written wonderful words of encouragement like "keep brushing" and "take care of those teeth." Now this time I KNEW she was the sweetest child in the world. So I helped her, but not before looking at the clock..... it was 5:15am! She had set her alarm early to MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE I wasn't going to mess this up..... she was taking over. (Imagine that). So I scratched out my best Tooth Fairy scrawl..... in the dark with sleep caked in my eyes and then sent her back up the stairs to sneak the note under her little sister's pillow.
So here's the note......
I think I had a permanent smile on my face all day. And it was the cutest thing when Macy came down the stairs that morning, proudly holding her $5 bill (I told you that Tooth Fairy was about to do me in!). She slyly told me about her plan and how...... well, how she must have been wrong about the Tooth Fairy. "It really is real, Mom!"
Maddie, I couldn't be more proud of you........ you DO love your sister! Thanks, big girl.
