Magic of Make-Believe

There’s something missing in our home as of Tuesday – Susie’s tooth!  Much to all of our surprise, the tooth that only started wiggling a week ago is already gone!  Apparently while Susie was eating lunch at school, she reached up to wiggle her tooth for the umpteenth time that day and was shocked to find it had fallen out.  We assume she must have swallowed it, but she took it in stride once we assured her she’d still find something under her pillow the next day. 

When the kids were young, Jim and I decided that we would tell the kids the truth about the Tooth Fairy, Santa, etc, but that we would still emphasize to the kids that we can have fun pretending.  So even though Susie knew it was going to be her parents sneaking into her room that night, she was still so excited she could barely stand it.  And honestly, I was too!  I found an idea online to paint the quarters with glitter nail polish so they would “sparkle” with fairy dust.  Much to my surprise, I actually had purple sparkly nail polish in my possession (thanks Mom!), so I was able to transform some ordinary coins into magic ones, and I printed out an envelope to put them in under her pillow.  I swapped it for the picture of a tooth we drew in place of her actual tooth.  Susie found the envelope the next morning and was so bowled over by her sparkly coins that she took them to school with her, and then took them to bed with her the next night.  I love the fact that she is still entranced by the magic of this whole experience, even though she knows it’s all make-believe.  My grown-up girl still has a marvelous childlike imagination!