Dear Toothfairy,

The other night, when you took Katie's tooth from under her pillow, I'm afraid you accidentally took a piece of my heart as well. You see, Toothfairy, she's my baby, and her first tooth gone, (in spite of the fact that it was pulled from infected, abcessed gums) means we've passed one more milestone for the last time; she'll never lose her first tooth again.

It was a good one though, wasn't it? One of the four roots still attached . . . a small cavity (probably the source through which the infection entered) . . . but a cute Katie tooth, nonetheless.

Even better than the tooth itself was her reaction when she discovered she was going to have it pulled: I wasn't going to tell her; the dentist had told me it "might" have to come out. But her Dad explained to her that morning what was going to happen, and instead of trembling in fear, Katie whooped in excitement and started counting down the minutes until her appointment! She was going to lose a tooth, and didn't have to wait through all that prolonged wiggling to get to the goods--the money under her pillow was what she was after from the start. That girl finds a silver lining in every experience . . . . no, she doesn't just find it, it's all she can see.

After the extraction, she carried that tooth around in a pink, tooth-shaped plastic case for three days, showing everyone we came into contact with and mentally checking off a list of those who needed to see it: all her siblings, her parents, Grandma Eddie, her friends Nicole, Chase, and Kaden, Maddie's friends, Collin and Alayna . . . and then when Grandma Sherrie, Micheal, Uncle Chewy and Aunt Mandy arrived on Friday for their big weekend, they got to see the tooth, and it was time, time to ceremoniously place the tooth under her pillow.

The next morning she woke early, earlier than usual to run triumphantly to my bedside, two dollar bills held high (a rather generous way to start a young girl's experience with the Toothfairy, I thought later), curls askew, smile slightly lopsided. (I still get a little teary thinking about it.) Her first experience with you, Toothfairy was all she hoped it would be.

So you can see how a little piece of my heart was attached to that tooth . . . I'm not sure there is anything either one of us can do about that. There is one other thing you could do though--Saturday morning, after celebrating her windfall, Katie did mention that she thought you would just take the tooth and leave the little pink case for her. So, maybe, if it's not too much trouble, it could just . . . I don't know . . . reappear? It doesn't have to be under her pillow. Maybe it could be under the bed, or behind her night stand; she would think she just overlooked it in her excitement over the money. Whatever you think is best will be fine.

Thank you in advance. We think you're the best.

Respectfully,

Emily Sandberg, mom to Ryan, Maddie, Jack, and Katie