Can Tooth Fairies Swim With Dolphins?

This is me, swimming with a dolphin in the Bahamas. Quite a cool experience, even if it is a huge tourist attraction. Although, I personally feel that tourist attractions are attractive for a reason, people like them. But I digress.

With all the loose teeth in the house at the moment, and the drama of Cara needing to lose one more tooth on her own or at the hands of the orthodontist next week, and a recent "Tooth Fairy" episode of Arthur, Max has a few questions.

I have never even encouraged the tooth fairy thing. Honestly, I feel good about remembering Christmas and Easter. Am I expected to remember every tooth that falls out in this family by waking myself up in the middle of the night to put a dollar under a pillow? No. The older kids lose a tooth, display the tooth in their hands, ask for a dollar, and then throw the tooth away. It's much easier that way. I thought all pretending was gone when the older kids don't even try. But somehow, George and Max are convinced there is the real thing out there.

Last night, after another close call with Cara and the ortho, and George wiggling his first loose tooth, Max asked me, "Mom, what does the Tooth Fairy even look like?" I was tired. I was in the process of putting him in bed. I had no desire to pretend a fairy existed. So maybe my response was not as endearing as it should have been.

I said, while throwing my hands up in the air, "It's me. I'm the Tooth Fairy. Okay?"

He tried to fathom that for a moment. "You're the Tooth Fairy?"

"Yes."

He almost started to cry, "But then you can't be our mother."

Then the conversation of tooth fairy powers and existence began between George and Max, all while I laid by George trying to get him to sleep.

Max, "But the Tooth Fairy can fly. You can't fly, so you're not the Tooth Fairy. So you can still be my mom."

Max, "But how does the Tooth Fairy open the pillow?"

George, "She doesn't open it. She just puts stuff under. She's big, like Mom. So Mom could be the Tooth Fairy."

Max, "Mom could be the Tooth Fairy and our Mom."

George, "But where are all the teeth? Do you have a secret stash somewhere?"

The conversation went on a little further. Basically, I understood that I can't be the tooth fairy because I can't fly and I don't have a bunch of extra teeth hidden somewhere.

So this morning, I showed Max this picture of me in the Bahamas earlier this month. I asked him if tooth fairies could swim with dolphins. He replied, "Yes, the Tooth Fairy can do anything. Even swim with dolphins. Even make holes in walls. But you are not the Tooth Fairy because you can't fly."