1 Mother 2 Another

Several nights ago, Cora came into our
room in the middle of the night complaining that part of her mouth
hurt. Now, ever since we’d gotten back from New York,
middle-of-the-night visits are not uncommon; we spent a week
sleeping everyone in one room, and it’s natural for the girls
to, shall we say, elaborate on issues to make them visit-worthy.


So when Cora told me in the middle of the night that her mouth
hurt, I assumed it was a canker sore –she’ll get them
occasionally when her diet goes to crap (thank you, vacation!)- and
told her we’d look at it in the morning.


When morning came, Cora brought it up immediately, and imagine my
surprise when I looked in her mouth and saw that she was teething!
Yes, her six-year molars were coming in, and apparently this one
was particularly painful.


I explained the situation to Cora, who immediately became delighted
and spent the rest of the day constantly checking on her “new
tooth”. She asked for popsicles constantly, which I provided
by making her a strawberry/spinach smoothie (don’t judge,
it’s delicious) and freezing it into pops. She gnawed away
happily, and all seemed well.


Until bedtime.

“I wonder what the tooth
fairy’s going to bring me for my new tooth!” Cora said
happily as she snuggled into bed.


Uh-oh.


“Um, baby,” I began tentatively, “the tooth fairy
only comes when you lose a tooth, not when you get another baby
tooth. You won’t get any money from the tooth fairy for
this.”


“But I might!” she insisted.


“I suppose it’s always possible, but I don’t see
it happening,” I said more firmly.


Cora humphed and rolled over.


And ever since then, I’ve heard about it. Multiple times a
day.


“I just keep really hoping the tooth fairy will come.”


“I’m getting tired of waiting for the tooth fairy to
come visit me!”


“Maybe tonight my deepest wish will come true and the tooth
fairy will visit.”


Cora’s admitted that she knows we’re the tooth fairies
here, and so I’ve told her point-blank that she’s not
getting any cash for breaking in another baby tooth. But so far my
protestations are falling on deaf ears.


Then yesterday the stakes were upped even more, when Cora’s
kitten lost a baby tooth and Maddie happened to catch it.


Now, I’ve had several cats and I’ve never seen one lose
a tooth. I assumed they had baby teeth like us, but just to be sure
I called the vet who confirmed that yes, it’s normal for a
kitten to lose her tooth. So we whooped and saved it in a cup and
danced around happily.


Then Cora turned to me with shining eyes and said,
“There’s no way the tooth fairy can ignore this! At the
very least she has to give me some cash to buy my kitten a
present.”


So I had to start again with the whole bad-fairy routine,
explaining vehemently that there’d be nothing under her
pillow in the morning. After all, if I cave on this, the next thing
I know Maddie will be demanding retroactive pay for all her baby
teeth. With interest.


As she was going to bed Cora sighed again, saying, “I just
really want the tooth fairy to come visit! But I suppose she never
will. So go ahead and remove my tooth pillow – which I SEWED
MYSELF FOR HER – from my bed and stow it in my dressing
table. What use have I for it?”


Yes, she really does talk like that.


Sigh. What’s a tooth fairy to do?