So Mini-me the elder lost a tooth on Saturday. It had been loose for a while and we knew it was going soon –and there we were at our real house doing some work when she came running out with blood in her mouth all excited that it had finally happened and that the tooth fairy would be coming that night (yes she still believes and yes we leave money). And then the kicker – she added how cool it would be that the tooth fairy would be coming the same night she was trying to catch a leprechaun in her trap since the next day was St. Patrick's Day (yes she still believes and yes we leave gifts and leprechaun treasure).
Okay then. It was one thing when we did any of the nighttime visits in our house – kids went to bed upstairs and with the exception of the tooth fairy (we just slipped in later) we set up everything downstairs. Granted two things in our house may have required a little more prep but still not too bad. But here? We have two rooms and four of us sleep in one of them. It was Saturday night and everyone stays up a bit later (which for us these days is like 10 for the adults but still). This was going to be like Mission Impossible. We had nowhere in the apartment to hide the St. Paddy’s day stuff so had to get it from the car after bedtime and take care of it. And of course the tooth fairy required full sleep. An added complication was that she was so excited about two visits she couldn’t get to sleep and kept popping out. Meanwhile, all I wanted to do was take of everything so I could *go* to sleep (did I mention we had been doing work at the house?).
The leprechaun trap was easier. Once the kids were in the bedroom, big guy hoofed it out to the car while I kept watch on the bedroom to make sure she stayed in there (10 seconds to complete mission – GO!). He was in charge of the leprechaun trap while I had the much more delicate mission of tooth retrieval and money replacement – I always get the finesse jobs. I had not seen the selections he had made so had to go with the program – a box of Lucky Charms cereal, Hershey's Strawberry syrup (in my view the name Hershey should always be paired with chocolate but so be it) and two giant foam swords (??). Not long after St. Paddy’s was complete on the kitchen table, the bedroom door opened and sure enough it was the elder still not able to sleep. So, since it was getting late (10:30 – sigh, how old am I?) I went in with her to take care of my part of Operation Paddytooth. This did not go well to say the least.
She was sleeping on the floor so I went there as well (yup that’s right – two on the floor and two on the bed) and told her I would read a bit. Of course, I needed to know where the tooth was so I made a ploy that I just wanted to check that it was in a good spot. Good thing – it was way on the other side – I would have never gotten to it. I moved it over into a good close spot, kissed her good night and bided my time. And bided. And bided. She tossed, she turned. A few times she repeated how she could not sleep – she was just too excited about the nighttime visits (yo, kid, if you don’t go to sleep soon I’m going to fall asleep and there will only be one visit). Eventually Big Guy came in to go to sleep and I still hadn’t gotten the job done.
But not long after he came in it happened – the breathing became a little deeper and I figured it was time. I was ready and sure I could do it – these hands have decorated many a cake and can be quite steady and sure. I had the money in hand and slowly snaked it under her pillow, gently feeling for the tooth box (yeah – I convinced her to put it in a little box so the tooth fairy could find it more easily – technically this was not a lie), confident I would be done in no time. And then I heard “Mom is your hand under my pillow?” Seriously? Clearly I am not Mission Impossible material because I thought I was being quite the pillow pick pocket. “Um yeah, just making sure everything is in the right place- you've been moving so much.” That’s when Big Guy stopped his chuckling and jumped in with an inspired idea (co-parenting in action!). “Hey since you are having trouble sleeping do you want to sleep in the living room on the chair tonight?” First of all, she always wants to sleep there and second of all, yes, when there are five of you in a one bedroom apartment, a chair becomes a sleeping option. She jumped at this at about the same time Big Guy clearly remembered the fully loaded leprechaun trap sitting in the kitchen in full view of the chair (again, two rooms – not much space to operate – take that Mission Impossible with your 47 room mansions where there is always somewhere to go when the job goes wrong to make a phone call or meet a beautiful woman for 30 seconds of cool flirting).
Big Guy was fast on his feet (back? He was still in bed) – quickly said that there was stuff on the chair and he would go set it up for her (let me make the chair for you so you can sleep on it) and call her when it was ready. Of course in the meantime she had to check if the tooth fairy had come yet. And I’m thinking – "well, she tried but you had to be all 'Mom is that your hand?'" Meanwhile it is now going on toward 11:30 and if you recall from the beginning I can't stay up late. At this point I'm close to just saying "for the love of sleep I'm the tooth fairy and Daddy's the leprechaun so just go to sleep so we can give you money and gifts. As if you don't get enough of them through the rest of the year. We're Santa and the Easter bunny too." I can tend toward cranky when I’m really tired. It is a testament to my steely self control and parenting skills that I did not actually blurt this all out.
Finally he was back to shuffle her out to her bed/chair at which point she asked "should I take the tooth with me?" Good lord will this night ever end? Thankfully the law of gravity was on my side as the recliner she would be sleeping on was so old it didn't actually stay in a reclining position for long...and she understood that the tooth fairy couldn't spend so much extra time searching for one child’s tooth when she had so many visits to make that night – if she ran out of time it wouldn’t be fair to the other kids (she gets her practicality and thinking of others from me I’m proud to say – my close call in destroying her childhood beliefs because I was tired and cranky aside).
So off she went to sleep on a broken recliner and in about two seconds I had replaced tooth with money. Operation Paddytooth was complete. And a bonus: I realized I had the entire floor and the blanket to myself for the whole night. How luxurious. This all worked out okay after all...
Okay then. It was one thing when we did any of the nighttime visits in our house – kids went to bed upstairs and with the exception of the tooth fairy (we just slipped in later) we set up everything downstairs. Granted two things in our house may have required a little more prep but still not too bad. But here? We have two rooms and four of us sleep in one of them. It was Saturday night and everyone stays up a bit later (which for us these days is like 10 for the adults but still). This was going to be like Mission Impossible. We had nowhere in the apartment to hide the St. Paddy’s day stuff so had to get it from the car after bedtime and take care of it. And of course the tooth fairy required full sleep. An added complication was that she was so excited about two visits she couldn’t get to sleep and kept popping out. Meanwhile, all I wanted to do was take of everything so I could *go* to sleep (did I mention we had been doing work at the house?).
The leprechaun trap was easier. Once the kids were in the bedroom, big guy hoofed it out to the car while I kept watch on the bedroom to make sure she stayed in there (10 seconds to complete mission – GO!). He was in charge of the leprechaun trap while I had the much more delicate mission of tooth retrieval and money replacement – I always get the finesse jobs. I had not seen the selections he had made so had to go with the program – a box of Lucky Charms cereal, Hershey's Strawberry syrup (in my view the name Hershey should always be paired with chocolate but so be it) and two giant foam swords (??). Not long after St. Paddy’s was complete on the kitchen table, the bedroom door opened and sure enough it was the elder still not able to sleep. So, since it was getting late (10:30 – sigh, how old am I?) I went in with her to take care of my part of Operation Paddytooth. This did not go well to say the least.
She was sleeping on the floor so I went there as well (yup that’s right – two on the floor and two on the bed) and told her I would read a bit. Of course, I needed to know where the tooth was so I made a ploy that I just wanted to check that it was in a good spot. Good thing – it was way on the other side – I would have never gotten to it. I moved it over into a good close spot, kissed her good night and bided my time. And bided. And bided. She tossed, she turned. A few times she repeated how she could not sleep – she was just too excited about the nighttime visits (yo, kid, if you don’t go to sleep soon I’m going to fall asleep and there will only be one visit). Eventually Big Guy came in to go to sleep and I still hadn’t gotten the job done.
But not long after he came in it happened – the breathing became a little deeper and I figured it was time. I was ready and sure I could do it – these hands have decorated many a cake and can be quite steady and sure. I had the money in hand and slowly snaked it under her pillow, gently feeling for the tooth box (yeah – I convinced her to put it in a little box so the tooth fairy could find it more easily – technically this was not a lie), confident I would be done in no time. And then I heard “Mom is your hand under my pillow?” Seriously? Clearly I am not Mission Impossible material because I thought I was being quite the pillow pick pocket. “Um yeah, just making sure everything is in the right place- you've been moving so much.” That’s when Big Guy stopped his chuckling and jumped in with an inspired idea (co-parenting in action!). “Hey since you are having trouble sleeping do you want to sleep in the living room on the chair tonight?” First of all, she always wants to sleep there and second of all, yes, when there are five of you in a one bedroom apartment, a chair becomes a sleeping option. She jumped at this at about the same time Big Guy clearly remembered the fully loaded leprechaun trap sitting in the kitchen in full view of the chair (again, two rooms – not much space to operate – take that Mission Impossible with your 47 room mansions where there is always somewhere to go when the job goes wrong to make a phone call or meet a beautiful woman for 30 seconds of cool flirting).
Big Guy was fast on his feet (back? He was still in bed) – quickly said that there was stuff on the chair and he would go set it up for her (let me make the chair for you so you can sleep on it) and call her when it was ready. Of course in the meantime she had to check if the tooth fairy had come yet. And I’m thinking – "well, she tried but you had to be all 'Mom is that your hand?'" Meanwhile it is now going on toward 11:30 and if you recall from the beginning I can't stay up late. At this point I'm close to just saying "for the love of sleep I'm the tooth fairy and Daddy's the leprechaun so just go to sleep so we can give you money and gifts. As if you don't get enough of them through the rest of the year. We're Santa and the Easter bunny too." I can tend toward cranky when I’m really tired. It is a testament to my steely self control and parenting skills that I did not actually blurt this all out.
Finally he was back to shuffle her out to her bed/chair at which point she asked "should I take the tooth with me?" Good lord will this night ever end? Thankfully the law of gravity was on my side as the recliner she would be sleeping on was so old it didn't actually stay in a reclining position for long...and she understood that the tooth fairy couldn't spend so much extra time searching for one child’s tooth when she had so many visits to make that night – if she ran out of time it wouldn’t be fair to the other kids (she gets her practicality and thinking of others from me I’m proud to say – my close call in destroying her childhood beliefs because I was tired and cranky aside).
So off she went to sleep on a broken recliner and in about two seconds I had replaced tooth with money. Operation Paddytooth was complete. And a bonus: I realized I had the entire floor and the blanket to myself for the whole night. How luxurious. This all worked out okay after all...
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