Perpetrating, and totally getting away with it!

Aeron lost another tooth this Thursday. It was a long, exciting day and we totally forgot to Tooth Fairy. She was pretty disappointed the next morning. I opined that perhaps the Tooth Fairy had had a very busy night. Put the tooth back under the pillow, I suggested, and she'll mostly likely get to it tonight. Problem solved, life went on.

We forgot again.

This morning when we realized we'd blown it again, Miles started stressing; we didn't have a gold coin (the usual gift), the girls were awake, maybe we should give up this nonsense, etc. 

"Just find me a piece of paper and a buck."

"Claire is sitting in the family room."

"A buck and a piece of paper and I'll take care of it."

He found me a folded up piece of copy paper and a crisp one dollar bill, then he went for coffee.

I wrote a quick note, with a pencil in my fist to disguise my handwriting. I folded the buck into the paper and tucked it into the waistband of my jammies. I found both girls in the family room, eyes glued to "Curious George". Scruffy was out there, too.

"Morning, girls"

"Good morning, Mama!" they chorused.

"Looks like Scruffy wants to play. Where is the ribbon he was playing with last night?"

Luckily, it's not on the floor of the family room.

"Did you take into your room?" I ask as I wandered that way, looking around.  In their room, I quickly made the switch, and wandered back out.

"Let's find something for him to play with", I said. A string was found, and they played with the cat while keeping one eye on the tube.

I went downstairs and then called up, "Are you girls hungry? Turn off the TV and come downstairs for breakfast."

They came down and asked for toast. "Toast?" I asked. "Are you sure? Neither one of you has much to bite with." Both girls grinned, showing missing teeth. "Teeth! What about your tooth, Boo?"

"Oh!" she exclaimed, then scrambled back upstairs.

Pause.

"Mama! Mama!" She came running back downstairs. "The Tooth Fairy left me a DOLLAR and a NOTE!!!"

"Really? What does it say?"

Wide-eyed, she held up the paper and read:

"DEAR AERON,

SORRY ABOUT MISSING YOUR TOOTH. A WHOLE BUNCH OF KIDS IN CHINA LOST TEETH THIS WEEK. I RAN OUT OF GOLD COINS!!!


THE TOOTH FAIRY"

Aeron looked at me, over her note, and said with a huge, gap-toothed grin, "Mama! The Tooth Fairy knows how to spell my name!"

UPDATE: We took the girls to the Dollar Tree to spend their loot. Cameron had informed Claire that those gold coins were worth a dollar, so they both had money to spend. They bought themselves sunglasses and Claire, with her second gold coin, got herself a water bottle. Everyone was happy.