Thursday, May 10, 2007

two front teeth

Emi lost her two front teeth last week and I kept wanting to post about it but obviously we were gone!

Emi's bottom two teeth have been loose for what seems like forever. She rarely wiggled them to help the process along. I kept trying to pull them out (gently so she didn't know) or turn them but, just like the owner, the teeth were stubborn. On Thursday, April 26th, Emi came home with a huge smile, a little gap and a tooth in her first. It had fallen out at school and she gave the story from A to Z, including a detailed report about how much blood there was. I was a little disappointed that I wasn't there for it but the best part was yet to come. My mom had sent us little tooth-shaped plastic boxes to keep the teeth in so she put it in there and put it under her pillow when she went to bed. I've been telling her about the tooth fairy ever since her teeth started wiggling so she knew what was going to happen.

When it was time for bed, she got her tooth-shaped box and put it under her pillow. I told her to try to keep it in the same place so the tooth fairy would be able to find it. She nodded very seriously. I had decided to give her 500 yen ($5) for each tooth. It seems steep when I think about it American dollars but for Japan, I thought it was fair. I didn't actually have a 500 yen coin so Chikara and I went to a vending machine and tried to make change. Instead it spit out a whole bunch of 100 yen coins at me. Grr! I had no choice but to give her 5-100 yen coins in a little bag. Around 11:30, I went into their room to make the switch. I took some laundry in with me just in case she woke up but she was snoring so I knew she was really asleep. I put my hand under her pillow and found the little toothbox right away. I took out the tooth and put the box back under her pillow along with the money and walked out of the room as quietly as I could. Success! I have to admit I was nervous. I've never had much success in getting the girls to believe in Santa Claus so I was determined to succeed with the tooth fairy.

During our trip, Emi lost her second tooth. On Sunday, she was playing hide-and-seek and suddenly she popped up from between the rows of chairs and came running towards me. I thought maybe she had bonked her head but she held her little tooth in her hand. She was very excited once again to make a big deal about the blood. What is it with her? I thought that her tooth might come out during our trip so I had brought her toothbox so we wouldn't lose the tooth. Unfortunately, I still haven't been able to find it although for sure it's somewhere in our stuff so I'll keep looking.

One of her new teeth is already coming in so the gap will soon be gone. It's too bad because she's so cute when she smiles. Here are some pictures!



5 comments:

Perogyo said...

That gap is too cute for words! Hope it doesn't hurt too much to lose them.

Gina said...

Oh my, how adorable! Congrats to Emi for losing her two front teeth! : )

And congrats to you too, my fellow Mrs. Tooth fairy! Ha ha ha! : )...(thinking) sneek in, take the teeth and leave the money in it's place. It's hard being sneeky isn't it? Ha ha ha : )

coarse gold girl said...

Emi's toothless grin is so cute!

Your post reminded me that I have to get out DD#1's tooth that she lost over winter vacation (the month long vacation that nearly did me in--how do you do it? I only have two!). She kept wanting to leave it for the tooth fairy but the tooth fairy was too tucked out to try to stay up and exchange tooth for currency!

I have actually conked out and forgotten to get the swap accomplished. . .but I always blame it on "Daddy must of frighten the tooth fairy off when he came home so late from work. She's very timid you know and only will enter a home when it is completely quiet and everyone inside is asleep. . . " so far DD#1 has bought it.

We give 500 yen per tooth too. . . now that DD#1 is 9 she has quite a stash!

Last question: what do you do with the redeemed teeth? I've kept them all as I can't seem to bring myself to throw them out. . .but?

Lily said...

What a cute story! I want to see the tooth box when you find it.

Anonymous said...

I have yet to introduce the Tooth Fairy as Felicity talks about Santa Claus pretty much all year long. But she did spy the tooth box one morning and asked about it for the rest of the day, so I know the Tooth Fairy explanation is probably around the corner...