Dear Tooth Fairy,
WHY? Why do you do this to us? After countless sleepless nights, agonizing weeks/months to help our babies grow their teeth, why must they lose them 5-6 years later? And you make a living off of this! You get the kids excited for this rite of passage. You bribe them with money to give you their precious little baby teeth. And you know what you do to us poor unsuspecting mothers? You ruin us. You bring us to tears because we really aren’t talking about a baby tooth now, are we? We are talking about our BABIES! Our sweet tiny babies who really aren’t babies anymore.
You are reminding us that they are growing up way faster than we could ever imagine…
Perhaps it’s the pregnancy hormones making me overreact just a little. But I really don’t think so. You see, Tooth Fairy, I am not a crier. In fact, I generally laugh at overly emotional people who cry at sappy movies or kindergarten graduations. Yet the second I discovered my baby’s first wiggly tooth I was a puddle on the floor. After confirming with other friends, I learned I wasn’t alone.
Because you see, Tooth Fairy, it’s the little things that get us. We prepare for the big events. Birthdays, graduations, all of the momentous firsts we can handle. But those little things, they sneak up on us and catch us off guard.
~It’s those moments when you are happily playing Yahtzee with your five-year-old and realize his tooth looks different. You reach out and realize it is wiggling. Suddenly you are unconsciously holding your breath and fighting back tears because your newborn son is suddenly about to lose that first baby tooth he suffered so much to grow.
~It’s when they all of a sudden do something they couldn’t before.
~It’s when they get a haircut and suddenly look years older.
~It’s when they read a word you didn’t know they could even pronounce.
~It’s the flash in their eyes when you fast forward 20 years and catch a glimpse of their adult selves.
~IT’S THE MAJOR IN THE MUNDANE.
~It’s usually when your husband looks at you like you’re nuts…
~It’s when they say they can do it themselves and you know they’re right.
~It’s when they pour milk in their cereal without making a splash.
~It’s when you catch them looking at themselves in the mirror.
~It’s when they can swing without a push.
~It’s noticing every remnant of baby chub is gone.
~It’s seeing your “baby” stand next to another younger “baby” and realizing he’s a giant.
~It’s the crack of the baseball bat, the first goal, the confident gleam in their eye.
~It’s seeing little brother earnestly chasing after big brother, wanting so badly to do everything he can do.
It’s the little things; they catch you off guard; they stop you in your tracks; they remind you that time marches on, every second of the day. You don’t only grow through the milestones. It’s the little things that matter. It’s the little things that are really the huge things. It’s these sudden reminders that one day your babies won’t need you anymore. That this precious, innocent time is finite.
It’s realizing that smile is forever going to change. That teeny tiny tooth will be a vacant space, soon to be replaced by “grown up teeth.”
So Tooth Fairy, if you can send the Slow-Down-Time Fairy or the Bring-Back-My-Baby Fairy, I would greatly appreciate it. I’ll even leave $1 under my pillow for you.
