Tooth Scary
posted Tuesday August 31st, 2010
Just yesterday I was pondering cognitive tests. Last night, I got all the proof I need that Sophie’s one smart cookie.
She’s had several wiggly teeth for weeks now, but there had been little action til Sunday night, when I accidentally (I swear! I felt terrible!) wiggled one a little too hard and moved it into the hanging-by-a-thread neighborhood. Sophie swore it didn’t hurt (I apologized profusely — there was blood, I have to admit) but refused to wiggle it to completion.
Finally, last night, sitting on the bathroom counter with a good view of the whole thing in the mirror, she twisted til she had a tooth in her hand. There was great rejoicing and videotaping and Sophie was really psyched — for a minute.
Then she looked concerned.
She told me she didn’t want the tooth fairy to come in her room to take the tooth. She said she was “embarrassed,” but Ray and I both knew the truth. She was scared.
I was so proud. SMART KID. Seriously, folks, who among us wants a crazy, winged creature coming close enough WHILE WE ARE FAST ALSEEP to actually reach under our pillows and grab a small object? Scares the shit out of me, just thinking about it.
“No problem!” I told her. “We’ll write a note.”
She wrote it herself, and only needed help with a few words.
Dar Tooth Fairy
Come to the living room. Do not come in my room.
Love Sophie
We posted it on her bedroom door and put the tooth fairy box on the mantle. Then Annabelle announced that she wanted to write to Sophie’s tooth fairy, as well. Poor Annabelle, she hasn’t lost a tooth in a while. I figured that by now she was completely over the tooth fairy, but I wondered a bit when I read her note:
Dear sophie’s tooth fairy, I haven’t wrote to my fairy in a long time. So I’m talking to you… Sophie is a genorous and loving kid, you will like her. I’m Annabelle, her older sister. I’m nice, and in fourth grade. Please leave Sophie Olivia the pig toys. Got to go!
“heart” Annabelle
PS look in the box!
I know I’m biased, but that note just killed me. (And I didn’t have any Olivia toys on hand, damn it.)
Both girls had fairy-dusted (thanks to Martha Stewart’s glitter collection) letters from Tallulah Fairbanks, Sophie’s tooth fairy, waiting for them this morning. Annabelle checked out her personalized stationery — purple, but otherwise just like her TF’s pink stationery — and announced, “They must be in business together!”
Yes, as Tallulah explained in her note to Sophie, she’s in training with Annabelle’s TF, Tabitha Fairchild. She also told Sophie not to be afraid, explaining, “I’m not scary!”
But I have a feeling Sophie will keep that note on her bedroom door.
And like I said, I can’t blame her. This morning I was thinking about the whole thing, and pondering the fact that Sophie’s afraid of the tooth fairy, but not at all hestitant about throwing her arms around Chuck E. Cheese. I’m a little scared of Chuck E. myself. (Plus, consider the germs on that costume!) Then I remembered the Yo Gabba Gabba tooth fairy video, which Sophie’s insisted on watching almost every morning all summer long.
Amy Sedaris as the tooth fairy. Yeah, I’d be scared, too!
(Darn YGG, they disabled the embedding feature on YouTube. But here’s the link. It’s worth it. Might give you nightmares, though. And for the record, I LOVE Amy Sedaris — just not in this role.)
that’s funny — i told anna about sophie’s note, and she knew right away that it was because sophie might be afraid (which hadn’t occurred to me). “that’s sensible,” anna said. “i mean, think about it. it’s a strange person in your room, taking your tooth. that’s a little bit scary!”
I saw her letter on facebook and I read it even before your translation. Totally made my day. go Sophie!
My Sophie (deathly afraid of all costumed mascot type creatures) had a similar feeling about the idea of a fat old guy all dressed in red who checks to see if she’s asleep before he leaves presents for her in a stocking. Smart girls.
Sophie is so her mother’s daughter.
You know I’m right.
that letter from Annabelle, oh man, melt my heart!
My 8 yo does not care for the tooth fairy, in fact he refuses to leave his tooth out for her- he doesn’t want it taken. He is happy to keep his teeth rather than collect the money.
Oh- once upon a time the kids asked me why the tooth fairy wanted their teeth? On the fly I said “Because, she takes them up to the sky and turns them into stars”.
How did that tooth fairy thing get started anyway? I never really got it. Great notes- brought a tear to my eye!
I was teaching one of my piano students tonight and his little sister came into the room to tell me that she has her first loose tooth. Something came over me and I said, “ooh…too bad. Now you’re going to have to give a dollar to the tooth fairy.” She instantly got this look of horror, as if everything she believed in had been turned upside down (which maybe is the case). Her dad (who took it all in stride) said, “No, Todd…I think you have it backwards. I think the tooth fairy leaves a dollar.” I should have bowed out gracefully at this point, but all I could say was: “That was before the recession.”
Don’t tell Sophie this story. She’ll not only be afraid of a stranger coming into her room, she’ll have to worry about her savings account dwindling.
When I first saw the note I thought it was because someone didn’t want the tooth fairy waking Sophie up, LOL.
I took things so very literally as a child (maybe you’ve noticed lingering traces of that). So because Santa was technically a stranger, of whom I was supposed to be wary, I wailed and sobbed and didn’t care to sit in his lap at least one year, maybe more.
My mom once got away from me in the supermarket and I wouldn’t tell the people who worked at the store who I was, because I “wasn’t supposed” to speak to strangers.