Of Teeth and Tooth Fairies

On the way out the door to school on Monday, my six-year-old asked for an apple to eat in the car. Yes, she’d had breakfast, but not one that she was fond of, so hadn’t eaten much. Yet the girls know that I’m not likely to deny them when they ask for fruit as a snack.

Before we made it out of the subdivision, she tells me that because of a loose tooth, she can’t bite into the apple. I offer to take the first bite, thinking that once I break through the skin, it will be easier for her. Done.

Next I hear a muffled choking, sobbing sound. I finally figure out that she’s trying to tell me that when she tried again to bite the apple, her tooth came out and is in her mouth so she’s trying not to swallow it. Here my older daughter chimes in, “Mommy, you’ve got to turn around and go back home.”

I managed to steer with one hand while holding a napkin toward the backseat for the youngest to spit her tooth into. We pull into an empty parking lot so that I can survey the damage. Thankful for the full water bottle in her lunch box, we climb out of the car and have her rinse out her mouth.

We had amazingly left on time, so our little delay didn’t even make the girls late for school! All’s well that ends well, as they say, since the tooth fairy even remembered to make an appearance that night!