Santa's got it easy

Last week was a milestone, both for my son as well as my wife and I.

After days of wiggling, poking and prodding, Michael announced to us — and, judging by the volume of his voice, the neighbors — that he lost his first tooth.

Naturally this came with some excitement for myself and Louise. Pictures were taken and posted, phone calls were made to grandparents and other family members.

Even our two-year-old got into the act, though at first he wasn’t sure why we were celebrating. When we told him, he went straight to jamming his fingers in his mouth and checking for loose chompers — part of that “monkey see monkey do, all eyes on me” attitude that comes with being a younger sibling.

Now, this being the first lost tooth it naturally comes with the obligation of filling yet another fantastical role as the Tooth Fairy. Having four Christmases under my belt, I thought I was well versed in how to go about exchanging some coins for an incisor. Totally wrong! I’ll take the Santa bit over fairy work any day.

First off, it’s much easier to put some packages around the base of a tree after the kids have gone to bed. They don’t know what’s coming; they just know something magical happens while they’re tucked away. But now, Mikey had something in his possession to exchange, and by God he wanted to do it himself.

There was a bit more pleading on my part than the average night to get him to bed, and he fought tooth — pun intended — and nail over the course of an hour. Eventually sleep won out, but we still had the exchange to deal with. The tooth had been put in a baggie prior, as Michael didn’t want to lose his bartering chip, but said baggie was now in his grip, with his hand tucked under him.

I’m sure anyone with kids knows, once they’re asleep it’s important to be delicate with them lest their eyes crack open and they decide 20, 10 or even five minutes is enough to recover their energy. There was a brief moment when I thought I’d blown it and I saw those eyelids flutter briefly, but thanks to a barely-lit room and a little falsetto the crisis was averted.

When the next tooth comes out I think it’ll go a bit smoother, at least until these guys are ready to learn the fairy secret. Until then, I just have to keep them away from the pliers.