Dear Tooth Fairy...

Mia lost her first tooth. In our house the tooth fairy brings gifts and money, usually books. Justin and Emma both lost their first teeth well into their first grade year. We didn't even know Mia's tooth was loose until right before it came out. Let's just say the tooth fairy wasn't prepared with gifts for her. Charlie was working late and she didn't have back up.

Mia walked up to me and smiled. I said it looked like she had a loose tooth. She hadn't noticed it. I said it would be ready in a couple days, but I could try to pull it if she wanted. She said no and left the room to get ready for bed. A few minutes later she came back and the tooth was sticking straight forward, about to fall out. I pluck it out. She loved it. She screamed with excitement and said it didn't hurt to lose teeth. She called Daddy and told him to come home. She and Emma wrote the tooth fairy a note asking for pom-poms.

The tooth fairy came, but had just ran out of pom-poms. She promised to bring some next time. Then this morning Mia said her tooth next to the missing tooth was loose too. It was barely wiggling. Mia asked me to pull it out for her. I said it wasn't ready yet. She went in her room for a while and came back about 30 minutes later. She showed me that the tooth was getting looser. She had hit it with a chair in her room, then with a toy. I asked if she hit herself with a chair on purpose. She said "not on purpose, just to get the tooth out." She really wanted the tooth fairy to come back, and now she knows that losing teeth doesn't hurt (at least it doesn't hurt her.) I tried to explain that she shouldn't force her teeth out and pretty soon she would be out of teeth to lose. She decided to lose teeth in a pattern: lose a tooth, don't lose a tooth, don't lose a tooth, lose a tooth...

Super Freak

Justin's baseball team had their team party last weekend. We had a lot of fun and got to know all the parents better. There were three assistant coaches and a manager. Throughout the season I spoke mostly with the manager and his wife, the team mom. I barely spoke to the other coaches. When we left the party the coaches and manager were standing together. The manager gave me a hug, then stepped back. I turned to say goodbye to the coaches, but felt awkward because I didn't feel like I knew them well enough to hug them, but it was weird because I had just hugged the manager. So of course I voice everything I was thinking. There was an awkward silence that for some reason I felt I needed to fill. The more I spoke, the worse it got. I kept trying to stop, but the silence was unbearable so I kept going. "Sorry, I am not going to hug you. I am just not a hugger. It is okay that Robert hugged me, but I have a problem initiating hugs... I am okay with other people hugging me; I just don't hug other people...My parents aren't very touchy people. They hugged us and stuff, but we just are not touchy...I feel really awkward... I am just awkward and weird, okay?... Goodbye." It even hurts to type it.

Did You Know?

Emma: Humans are animals.
Mia: I know. We are mammals. Mammals are animals.
Me: What is a mammal?
Mia: They are warm-blooded; birds are cold-blooded just like reptiles. (birds are warm-blooded)
Emma: Mammals also don't lay eggs, except for platypuses. They are mammals and lay eggs.

Not bad for a five year old and eight year old; mostly correct anyway.

My Bad

So my parenting has been a little sub-par lately. I must be distracted. Yesterday I packed the lunches for the kids and sent them to school. When they got home Justin asked who had made his sandwich. He had two pieces of bread and nothing between them...Oops.