The Tooth Fairy Fiasco

The most important part of this post is that Mikaela lost her first baby tooth on Monday morning. I say that both to keep the focus on Mikaela and also in an attempt to minimize the way in which I totally botched the whole Tooth Fairy thing.

To set the stage, I remind you all that Mikaela lost her tooth on Monday morning. I spent nearly eight hours on a train on Monday, after a late night at the show in the post below. Mikaela was very excited about the whole Tooth Fairy thing. So we talked about how to handle this while I was on the train. The plan - when I got home, I was to wake Mikaela so that she could show me the tooth she had lost. Then, Mikaela could put the tooth under her pillow. She’d go back to sleep quickly, and I’d make the Tooth Fairy swap. And on Monday night, when I got home around midnight, everything went exactly as planned. Mikaela woke up quite sweetly. She gave me a big welcome home hug and kiss. I gave her a little gift I’d brought home for her (a stuffed doll). She showed me her tooth and told me about how her teacher Amanda had helped her to pull it. And she was sound asleep again, within seconds of tucking that tooth under her pillow. I went back downstairs and picked up the envelope with a gold dollar coin in a cute little pouch in it, the envelope was exchanged for the tooth, and I stashed the tooth in Mikaela’s baby book. When I went to sleep after that, all was wonderful.

Then we all woke up this morning. I was still exhausted, and working on about 5 hours of sleep. I went in to wake up Mikaela. She asked where her tooth was. I suggested she check under her pillow. She found the envelope from the Tooth Fairy — and immediately went ballistic. She was incredibly distraught, because she wanted to show me her tooth. She had absolutely no memory of our conversation from last night. I tried to reason with her - I pointed out that she was sleeping with the doll I had given her. I recounted our entire conversation, and asked her where that toy came from if I hadn’t come in to talk to her. But she was having none of it. She was wailing about wanting to show me her tooth.

Exhausted and frustrated, I screwed up. I went downstairs, retrieved the tooth from Mikaela’s baby book and brought it back upstairs. I gave her the tooth and broke it all down for her. I explained to her that the Tooth Fairy is like a game that parents play with their children. She was glad to show me her tooth. And then it hit. She told me that she didn’t want the Tooth Fairy to be a game. I told her it was up to her - the Tooth Fairy can be real if she wants it to be. She wasn’t having any of that. I ruined it. I should have just suggested that we wait to leave the tooth for the Tooth Fairy until after Mikaela had gotten a chance to show the tooth to me (during normal waking hours). Of course hindsight is 20/20. But I had a pretty myopic morning.