Unfortunately, he didn't wind up with a little nubbin of tooth to show for his big milestone. We think he must have swallowed the tooth while he was eating his lunch. Poor thing, he burst into big sobs when he realized that his tooth was gone but GONE.
"Now I won't get a dollar from the Tooth Fairy," he managed to get out. Then he wailed, the blood welling up in the hole in his lower gum and the tears welling up in his eyes.
I knew that's why he was crying even before he said it.
"It's okay, sweetie," I soothed him. "The Tooth Fairy knows you've been so close to losing that tooth for a long time. I know she'll still bring you a dollar. She'll understand."
Finally, the tears subsided. He agreed to have the Obligatory First Lost Tooth Photo Session on the front porch....
And we decided to cover all the bases, just in case. William dictated a letter to me yesterday afternoon, then painstakingly copied it in his own handwriting onto a piece of red construction paper. The letter read as follows:
"Dear Tooth Fairy, I lost my tooth, but I lost my tooth after it came out. I hope that I will get a dollar from you. Bye, William."
The Tooth Fairy, for what it's worth, immediately turned to Facebook for guidance. "What's the going rate for a first tooth?" I....er, she posted. The general consensus seemed to be $5--five whole dollars!!!--for the first tooth and a dollar for each subsequent tooth, preferably in those cool gold dollar coins that no one actually uses as real currency except for Tooth Fairy Transactions.
I...I mean, the Tooth Fairy wrote a very nice note to William, congratulating him on the loss of his first baby tooth and explaining that she was leaving a little extra for him this time, as it was his first tooth. The Tooth Fairy also noted, very specifically, that she would not be able to leave such a large sum the next time, but she felt that this occasion warranted the five bucks. The Tooth Fairy did not want to set any dangerous precedents, you see.
(Side note: I'm still marveling over the five dollars. I think I got 50 cents for my first tooth, back in the dark ages. By the time I lost my last few teeth, I might have gotten a dollar. I don't know why I'm acting surprised, honestly. College now costs twice as much as it did when I went there, and that wasn't even that long ago.)
The Tooth Fairy did refrain from mentioning in her letter that she had been flying up Holly Trace Way in her pink bathrobe when she realized that William had lost a tooth. You see, the Tooth Fairy who visited me when I was a little girl always seemed to wear a pink bathrobe when she was flying up my street late at night, just like my mom wore a pink bathrobe. She also had handwriting that was remarkably similar to my mother's handwriting. And she also used my mom's notepaper for her notes. William's Tooth Fairy nearly used Jennifer's monogrammed stationery for her note until she realized what a boneheaded move that would have been and dug around for a nice box of plain blue notecards instead.
The Tooth Fairy also squirreled away the red construction paper letter. That's going in the VIP box (Very Important Paperwork).
By the way, William's first baby tooth to go was not, as I was wondering, the first tooth that William ever got. I had to look it up to be sure. The tooth immediately next to it was his first tooth, as you can see here:
I admit to a few moments where I got dangerously sniffly, in the oh-my-baby-is-growing-up way. Luckily, I am still able to go over and nuzzle on Andrew when I need that kind of quick hit. Andrew, God love him, has all four molars now...but he can't seem to grow any other front teeth on the bottom except for those first two. Oh well. It doesn't seem to be holding him back from eating.
I must add an item to my To Do list: stop by the bank and ask about the Tooth Fairy coins.
