My children will one day hate me for writing about them but until they can read at a grade 7 level and navigate their way through a computer, I’ll keep using them for content.

Any of who know me in person know that for the last couple of weeks my 7 year-old (the naughty one with elfin ears and a cheeky smile who greets her father with “w’sup pup?”) has had a loose front tooth.  We have been calling her ‘Snaggle Tooth’ because as this thing got looser it pointed almost straight out of her mouth like a narwhal tusk and gave her an uncanny resemblance to a much younger Nanny McPhee (minus the wart).  Anyways, as I was making dinner the other night the girls came running into the kitchen and my eldest announced that she knocked her sister’s tooth out by accidentally kicking her in the face.  Turns out they were wrestling…go figure.  They were both laughing and showed me the blood and wee tooth.  Then to prove the story, they showed me the mark on her foot left by the tooth.  I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t be laughing if someone kicked my tooth out….loose or not.

There are few things that bother me.  But heights and anything to do with teeth are on the very short list of things that turn my stomach and require deep breathing exercises.  So before I got too woozy, I asked them to go upstairs and clean up the mess and put the tooth away (they love chasing me with bloody little baby teeth).  When they came back downstairs, I’m not sure who was prouder – the kid who finally lost her tusk or the kid who kicked it out of her little face.

Then as always, I forgot to tell the Tooth Fairy.   Sometimes it takes a few nights for her to come by or she comes when they are eating breakfast because she  “had too many teeth to pick up in one night”.  One tooth sat for 4 nights under my daughter’s pillow and finally she said “I know why the tooth fairy hasn’t come.  My window was closed.”  She opened it up that night and I awoke the next morning to excited screams coming from her room.  I was confused because I was quite certain that the Tooth Fairy had forgotten to come by again.  That was when my eldest walked into my room and said “Don’t worry. I took care of it”.  That was a pretty low moment for me as a mom.  I’m not sure if it was because I forgot again or because my 10 year-old knew I would forget.  Someone should design a tooth Advent calendar – it would have 20 pockets (one for each baby tooth) and it would come stocked with  token gifts.  Then as the teeth fall out, they can help themselves to their prize so parents like me wouldn’t have to worry about remembering to make the late night swap.  I bet Martha Stewart makes one.

Our Tooth Fairy is pretty cheap too.  She doesn’t leave any denomination that comes in a bill.  And boy do I ever hear about it when little Suzie tells my kid that she got 20 bucks for her tooth.  I told my kid she’d have to lose a lot more than a tooth to get 20 bucks in this house.  She then wanted to know what would it take; a toe, a pinky finger?

In all seriousness, we have a pretty happy house.  There is lots of laughing and poking fun at mom, but we also know when to be caring, love each other and appreciate our lives.  Today, please remember why November 11th is important.  We spend so much time fussing and worrying, complaining and blethering that I think we tend to forget about the big things.  In reality we’re pretty lucky to be able fret about bad hair days, late buses, lost homework and leftovers again.  So take a moment and remember and be thankful.