Night of interrupted sleep thanks to the Tooth Fairy

Matthew's two front teeth have been loose for quite some time. His sweet little smile with perfectly spaced out teeth had been replaced by a smile that resembled Runny Babbit as his two front teeth began moving forward and crossing each other. Finally last night it was time to lose the first one.

My dad had to come over to do the honors. I have given birth to three large babies, one of them without medication, but the thought of pulling out a tooth literally makes me weak in the knees! Bryon (think fainting at the sight of needles) and I both had to leave the room.

Matthew was very excited because I told him that since the top front teeth were pretty important, the Tooth Fairy thinks they are worth more money than the rest of the teeth. He put his tooth in a ziploc bag and placed it under his pillow.

At three o'clock this morning, Matthew comes into our room barely holding back the sobs and explained that Thomas had taken his tooth from under his bed and threw it away.

Side note: Since Matthew was a toddler, he has never liked people seeing him cry. He goes to great length to hide his face or hold back the tears so as not to show his emotion. Nothing makes my heart melt more than when he does this. Now back to the story...

At the sound of Matthew's voice, Bryon darts up and says he will go look for the tooth. I shot him a look (if looks could kill) like, "How could you have forgotton to put money under his pillow? You might as well have told him there is no Santa Claus!" Shortly afterward Bryon came back to bed to tell Matthew that he had found his tooth and if he hurried back to bed, the Tooth Fairy might still come. He scampered off to bed.

Bryon told me that before he went to bed, he attempted to put the money under Matthew's pillow, but when he saw that there was no tooth, he didn't want to leave the money only for Matthew to find the tooth later and to have questions. I erased the earlier thoughts from my mind and gave Bryon a hug!

We both tried to stay awake long enough to put the money under his bed. About 15 minutes later, I got up to do the job. I went into Matthew's room, got close to his pillow, and he shoots his head up and asked me to tuck him in. I then drag myself to bed to wait another 15 minutes to try again. It is now approaching 4 o'clock in the morning. Finally, I was able to make the exchange and keep the peace in the house. By this time I am wide awake and cannot go back to sleep.

It was all worth it this morning, though, when Matthew came into our room beaming and shouting, "The Tooth Fairy came! The Tooth Fairy came!"

I am trying to savour every ounce of Matthew's innocence and belief in the magical events surrounding the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, and the Easter Bunny. He is such a logical thinker, that I know it won't last much longer. I remember a little piece of my childhood slipping away when I was told the truth.