Day 29: A Number

Ten: The number of teeth that have been lost at the Lyle house.

Two: The number of times we have successfully pulled off the

 tooth fairy thing on the first night.

Jeff and I really stink at being the tooth fairy.

I feel like we make a good Santa team

and we pull off a pretty good show as the Easter bunny,

but both of those are planned and discussed months in advance.

The spontaneity of the whole Tooth Fairy gig

 just seems to throw us off.  

Fortunately, we have convinced the boys that each tooth fairy is different.

That was my genius idea to explain why they will never

 be paid 20 bucks for a tooth like some of their friends.

A lesson in Market Value, really.

Just like houses, teeth in different areas of the country have different values.

Here in Plano, teeth are worth one dollar. 

And that is only when she finds time in her schedule to come pick them up.

But the tooth fairy that represents our zip code is kind of a slacker.

She needs to be put on a Performance Improvement Plan, really.

***

On this particular day last week, Hayden lost his tooth at school.

We congratulated him and then forgot all about

it about thirty seconds later.

Fast forward to the next morning he came downstairs pretty bummed

that the Tooth Fairy hadn't shown the night before.

Jeff does a pretty good job scurrying around the house, rounding up a dollar

and leading Hayden back into his room to make sure he didn't just "miss" the payment.

"No DAD! I know she didn't come because the

 tooth is still sitting on my night stand!" Hayden said as they

walked up the stairs to re-examine his room.

Sure enough, it turns out that the tooth fairy HAD in fact been to our house.

She had hid the dollar under his lamp.

And that tooth Hayden thought he saw still sitting on his night stand?

It was a tiny note written by "her" that said "Way to go Hayden!

I think Hayden is on to us, but is going along with it

because, really? why wouldn't he?

He still has plenty of dollars to earn.