The Tooth Fairy

Our late-bloomer has finally started losing his baby teeth in quick succession. He lost both front teeth within a week of each other sometime in late Spring. And recently he lost one of the neighboring front teeth.

This kid, who's efforts to earn money for all the model trains and things he "must have" are often thwarted by his own eight-year-old lack of motivation, has chosen to not leave his fallen teeth for the Tooth Fairy. I guess it's not such a terrible thing. Our Tooth Fairy is kind of cheap.

No, he wants to save his baby teeth to hand down to his children.

That's not to say he hasn't had the Tooth Fairy experience. He left his first two bottom front teeth for the Tooth Fairy. The more recent teeth he'd been keeping in a small plastic treasure chest the school nurse had given him when he lost a tooth at school. A couple of nights ago I presented him with a small wooden box, train and tender inlaid on the top, which opens by sliding the top to the side. One of those secret boxes that looks like a block of wood until you figure out how to open it.

He loves this box. It's kept in his bedside drawer. Likes to look at the teeth in the box and listen to them clack around in there.

I'm not sure how his children will feel about this legacy of baby teeth.

Personally, I would prefer cash.