Somewhere off the Coast of Africa

I am having technical difficulties, and cannot get any photos to upload, and a really lame virus has infected my keyboard.  It maks the words Itype hook together nd drops every few leters or spces. Thefaster I type, the wrse t seems to get. 

Anyway, I am sad not to be able to post right now, but I am going to keep trying!!! I the meantime, please enjoy some of my very early posts you may never have red...

Since Tessa lost a tooth this week, and the Toothfairy was, uh, "delayed" again, this one seems apropos!

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It is a long time tradition in our family to leave a note to the Tooth Fairy to accompany lost teeth. The notes are a chronicle of the events leading up to the tooth having exited the mouth of a given child. Some have been yanked, some fell out by surprise, once a kid did the whole string-on-the-tooth trick and tied it to a door that was then slammed. It took two slams. The whole thing is a pretty big deal around here, and the note is the Odyssey that immortalizes the tragedy and bravery of it all.

She always writes back.

Only lately the Tooth Fairy letters have become more apology notes than anything else. This week when Ellie’s tooth got caught on her sleeve and popped out (to her gales of laughter), it dawned on me that her last tooth, lost just before Turkey day, had never been taken care of. And by taken care of, I mean she put it in a baggie and left it on the table, I threw it away by accident, she cried, I promised that the Tooth Fairy would visit anyway, yada yada yada, I forgot.

I mean, she did. The Tooth Fairy.

As it happens, we have had to make a lot of excuses on behalf of that dental pixy of late. Not long ago she was caught in a storm over Africa and didn’t make it to our house for FIVE DAYS! The storm itself lasted only two days, but as we explained to the gap-mouthed child, there was a lot of catching up to do, what with the world's children losing teeth left and right and only one tiny pair of wings to carry the load. We were so glad when she finally remembered, I mean, caught up, and visited our house. She left an extra somethin’-somethin’ for that child on account of the delay. Kind of like being bumped up to first class when you have been put on standby.

Tuesday, after Ellie had lost her tooth, I had made a cryptic note on my hand in pen… “TF” it said. “Toothbrush and Floss” I told Ellie when she asked, “so that I remember to brush and floss”. That night as he dozed on the couch I told Guy, the carrier of cash in the family to “go do it now”, but somehow he fell asleep. The next morning there was a sneaky scramble while Ellie ate her cereal, and the absent-minded sprite took care of business in broad daylight.

“Aaaaaaaa! Look!!!!” squealed Ellie as she produced the envelope from under her pillow moments later. “Two dollars!”

We read the note together.

“Ellie, The trash man brought me a tooth a while back that he found. I guess it was yours. A little something for both.

Love- Tooth Fairy”

Post script: Ethan looked at me the other day with a raised eyebrow and a strange grin.

“I know.” He said.

“About what?” says I.

“Santa.” He smiled.

“Ya wanna’ know where ya’ messed up?”

Apparently, he pointed out, among other blunders I committed, Santa and the Tooth Fairy have the same writing.