Teeth Cred

Teeth cred. When you are six, it's the currency of "cool" since your dental loss is your social gain.  An oral vacancy is the tattoo of maturity in the elementary jungle (gym).  So, rightly, the discovery of a loose tooth practically set Eowyn's social future ablaze.  Now, for the sake of full disclosure- this coerced tooth came as no surprise to us since she had been working it over like a bilked bookie for a week of merciless brushing. Still, there was great rejoicing with the inaugural exclamation: "I lost my tooth!"  

 

...until the follow up- "But, I really lost my tooth." As in, the celebrated, abdicating "lower right central" was nowhere to be found. It was quite literally, lost.  My friend, what ensued  is the stuff of mommy blogs- raw exposés which reveal the shameful, parental depths plumbed to silence a child's tears.  Scouring every surface, plush carpet, ivory comforter, cream-intoned tile in pursuit of this pearly white, we hunted  with a disquieting certainty it was in transit towards her intestines.  No dice.

 

Cue the tears of Eowyn's awful reckoning- No tooth to produce ergo no reward to receive. Such capitalist reasoning is refreshing, but I am a sucker for suffering six year olds. So, I suggested that Eowyn petition the tooth fairy for dental gratuity, explaining the misfortune that had befallen her. Brilliant! The tears ceased (which alone made this initiative, genius) and she glibly composed a missive requesting mercy (and money).  

 

The next morning, the tooth fairy left a glittering "Washington" with a note of deceptive cheer, since her tooth is most definitely not "safe within her fairy care."  More likely, it will be safe within our sewer pipes in a few short days. Eck. Details. Details. Anyhow, all is well that ends well: Eowyn finally earned some "teeth cred" and I did not rely on Pinterest for this memory making...which makes me feel as inventive as a "stay at home" Edison.

 

 

 

**As an aside- Yes, we "do the Tooth Fairy" but we do not "do Santa or the Easter bunny" since -thus far- the tooth fairy hasn't encroached on a Christian holiday.