What We Did Over the Holidays, Part II or Playdates and the Tooth Fairy

After Lucy came in and told me she had lost her tooth, she said, "And this time, I'll even let the Tooth Fairy have my tooth!" This is the third one she's lost--the first one is sitting in a drawer somewhere, the second one (the original Snaggle Tooth; she now has another one of those) was never recovered after losing it at a gymnastics birthday party, but she had this one in hand and was supposedly ready to give it up.

However, as the evening neared, she changed her mind. I thought she might be nervous about having the Tooth Fairy come in her room at night, so I offered to put it in the guestroom. No, for some reason, she just did not want to give up her precious tooth. I said, "Tell you what. I'll call up the Tooth Fairy and let her know that she is supposed to leave you something, but she is definitely not supposed to take your tooth." I had found her a Princess watch at Kohl's on clearance for the Tooth Fairy to give, and she was not going to ruin this magic moment for me.

I dialed information and started to talk to the Tooth Fairy. Unfortunately, I voice-activated something so I had to surreptitiously hang up yet still pretend to be talking. Then a rather loud, recorded male voice came on. "Who is that?" Lucy asked suspiciously, since it was so loud she could overhear him. "He's the Tooth Fairy's assistant. While she's out making her rounds, she needs someone to take her calls." She seemed OK with that, but at bedtime she still had more doubts.

"Why does the Tooth Fairy visit people? And why does she have to take their teeth? Is she really real?" she asked. I was making up answers left and right and totally doubting why in the world I was even doing this when Darren chimed in, "She takes big kids' teeth and gives them to babies so they'll have teeth when they get bigger." I shot him a glare. "She does NOT. Lucy knows perfectly well that God gives us our teeth. Will you please stay out of this? I'm trying to teach her about the Tooth Fairy."

We finally settled that the tooth would sit on the dresser. After Lucy went to sleep, I made up a little card with a sticker on it and wrote in tiny print, "Congratulations, Lucy! You lost your tooth!" and left it with the watch (and the TOOTH of course). She was thrilled in the morning, but crud. Don't we have 32 teeth or some such ridiculous number? How am I gonna keep this up?

Another thing that happened over vacation was that Lucy invited her friend Daniel over to our house to play. Since she's busy with school and church, we don't do many playdates, but she's been asking to have Daniel over for months. According to Mrs. Blevins, they are inseparable at school. I figured it would be a nice time for me to meet another mom as well since I've only met maybe one since kindergarten started. Lucy had gotten some board games and an elaborate paint set for Christmas, and she thought the perfect time to try them out would be with Daniel.

He and his mom came over on Monday. He is just adorable. I said to his mom, "Lucy has been so excited that Daniel is coming over to play," and she answered, "Oh yes, we hear about Lucy all the time at our house too." Then Daniel looked up at me and said calmly, "I am going to marry her when I grow up." Oh. OK. Glad to have that settled.

The two kids played happily for at least two hours. They really do get along well. They played Chutes and Ladders for awhile and painted elaborate pictures. Another truly brilliant idea of Lucy's was that I get out my old typewriter from college so that they could type on it (because Kit Kittredge always types on a typewriter). Those two little monkeys had so much fun pounding away on that. They used sheet after sheet of paper, writing what they called "nonsense stories."

That evening, I asked Lucy if she'd had a good day. "It was great," she sighed. "I loved having Daniel come to my house. When I grow up, he's the one I'm going to marry."

Then she added, "I think I'll have to keep my eye on him though. Just in case he tries to marry someone else."