It’s 10:42 at night, and I just got back from a tooth fairy outing. Jason finally relieved Eli of the front incisor that’s been bothering him for weeks. I guess it was so quick and painless that Elias didn’t even realize it’d been pulled out. Good riddance. Seriously, that TOOTH. It was the bane of our kid’s existence. He couldn’t really eat with it, and it looked crazy. I mean, it was so barely-hanging-on that it stuck out at a 90-degree angle.
Elias was so stoked about the tooth being gone that he made me put it online (literally; the first thing he said is TELL FACEBOOK OKAY?), and then went to tell his sister. Who thinks everything he does is awesome. Verbatim conversation:
ELIAS: ADDIE GUESS WHHAAAAAT? I HAVE A HOLE IN MY MOUTH WHERE A TOOTH SHOULD BE!
ADDIE: Elias, that is so. really. the coolest.
When a tooth is lost in our house, the Tooth Fairy comes. She writes a note in sparkly lettering I got from Michael’s, and leaves the letter and a toy under Eli’s pillow. Tonight I realized I was totally out of the sparkly lettering, and the Tooth Fairy Notecards, so I just improvised. I went to Walmart, bought a one dollar congratulations card and Star Wards stickers and some of the Halo figurines Eli’s collecting, and spent half an hour filling up the card with a story. Turns out, the Tooth Fairy needed some help so her grandson, Simon, was stepping in. (I wrote this all left handed to make it more convincing. My left-hand penmanship is on par with a kindergartner’s.) So Simon gave Eli these Halo toys and the stickers, because Simon thought they were great and so was Eli. I showed it to J when I was finished. “This is the CUTEST THING I’ve done in my entire life!” I announced, passing it over.
“Oh my gosh,” Jason chuckled. “Simon Toothfairy?”
“I know. It’s ADORABLE.”
I had to Mission Impossible the bulky Simon letter under Eli’s pillow and slip the precious tooth-holding one out, but– I did it! I did it.
And afterward, I came down to the office filled with catalogues of Christmas toys I’ve been marking off and browser pages tabbed with Black Friday sales, and it kind of hit me: wow. All these tiny acts of love that hardly are ever recognized or correctly attributed. I am the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and they’ll never know, or even if and when they do, they won’t remember me like that. They won’t remember tonight. They won’t remember their mother, writing for a half hour over the desk, still cold from the outside. They won’t remember me staying up till midnight on Christmas Eve to fill their stockings. They’ll remember me cleaning, they’ll remember me working on the computer, they’ll remember me chauffeuring them to school events. They’ll remember me as the one who made their world run smoothly but they’ll never appreciate that I was the one that brought the magic to it as well.
It’s a bittersweet thing; parenthood. And in the end, I guess it doesn’t matter. The magic is there. The world is as it should be. The Halo figures will be a hit. And I’ll wake up in the morning and gasp when he shows them to me, and discuss how a tooth fairy can even GET INTO our house, and check the window sills for fairy dust. Just like I always do.
Elias will remember. When he’s older, he’ll remember looking for fairy dust, or going on Easter egg hunts around the house, or dumping out stockings packed with care in the early morning. And he’ll know the real magic was having a mother who filled his childhood with wonder. You won’t have to worry about being correctly attributed in the end. No one else could have even come close. 🙂
This is so cute! And yes, I totally agree with your insight on parenting. But, I like to believe that the day comes when your kids are parents themselves, and then they realize all the things like this that their parents did for them. And even if they don’t, you’re not doing it for that day. You’re doing it because it makes you happy right now to see that look on their face in the morning! Lucky Elias!
I LOVE this post, Becca. I love that you took the time to create Simon Toothfairy to make it special for your little boy and I love the insight about how bittersweet this whole parenting thing is.
I would have also loved to have seen that letter. Pics?
Very cute and excited little boy 🙂
Would love to hear Eli’s reaction to the letter from Simon Toothfairy!
How nice, Becca! What a fun mum you are… and it doesn’t matter that it doesn’t matter, you know? It’s just good and fun. We need more of that, everywhere. 🙂