Tooth Fairy

Last night we were talking to Damon about losing his baby teeth and I might have mentioned a tiny little winged woman who would bring him some money when his teeth fall out. I didn't realize that there are children out there who are scared of the tooth fairy, but of course, Damon managed to get himself all worked up about not wanting her to come.

Fast forward a few hours. It's 4 am and I am sleeping peacefully with my many pillows when I hear little feet scurrying across the carpet toward my room. Instantly, Damon is at my side, claiming he heard a noise and he is sure it's the tooth fairy. Oh, and he's scared. For the next hour, Jeff and I take turns putting him back to bed and reassuring him that there's nothing to be afraid of. At one point, Jeff said, "the tooth fairy isn't real, so there's nothing to be scared of." At 5 am I got up to feed Kyla and Damon pokes his head in the room and asks, "Is the tooth fairy just a story?" I didn't know exactly what to say, but I desperately wanted him to go back to bed before he woke Allie up, so I said, "yes, she's not real."

Around 5:30 Allie did wake up (I am blaming this completely on my terror-stricken son, who had yet to fall back asleep). She could hear the whistles of the boats on the river and came running to my bedside to let me know that she wasn't scared. "Great," I said. "Now go get back in bed." They both did, miraculously. A few minutes later a horn blared. This time they were both back in our bedroom, and they were both scared. Jeff took them back to bed and took up sleeping on the couch for the rest of the night/morning. It didn't take long before he had to lock them in, reassuring Damon again that he didn't need a light on to protect him from the tooth fairy. Eventually, everyone fell back to sleep, although no one had a good night's rest (except for Kyla, who was oblivious to the whole fiasco).

This morning, however, we talked about nothing but the tooth fairy. Some of Damon's questions about her were:

• How does she get into our house? (she's magic)
• What does she look like? (I don't know, I've never seen her)
• How big is she? (*I made an approximation with my fingers*)
• If I catch her, do I have to go to timeout? (no, if you catch her, ask her for more money)
• Can she see me when I'm naked? (yes, but she doesn't look)
• Does she sleep during the day time if she's awake at night? (yes)
• Is she real? (she's only real if you believe in her)

At this point we had to ban all further talk of the tooth fairy. Damon claims he is no longer afraid of her and is now trying to wiggle his teeth, hoping one will be loose. I am just praying that none of those teeth will fall out until he has gotten over some of his fears. Particularly those ones that involve tiny magical creatures whose only purpose in life is to buy baby teeth.