When I was a wee one, some friend of the fam gave me this cutsie leetle decorative pillow with a tiny gingham pocket on it for my lost tooth / money exchange. I was supposed to put the pillow under my pillow. I'm not sure I ever did, because going through a box of carefully saved childhood trinkets, I came across the pillow-- tooth still there (though split in two, no doubt spilling my genetic material willy-nilly.) I must have pulled one over on the tooth fairy because I don't remember ever feeling shortchanged.
It was cool to find that physical evidence of the small me, so I say, save the teeths in a film canister/box/baggie/jar. On the other hand, I'm an artiste, so I tend to collect such odd relics (don't even ask about the ever growing bag of cat hair I've saved from combing the kitties over the past few years-- waiting to be washed, spun & knit into a hat (with cat ears, natch).
PS: Hi. I'm delurking. Found you through Dr. B around Thanksgiving, and am much obliged to you both for your insights, wisdom and excellent writing.
My mom always put our teeth in a shot glass on the kitchen window sill. In the morning the tooth would be gone and a dime would be there instead. I was an adult before I knew the tooth fairy doesn't usually operate like that.
Now my youngest is past the tooth fairy-believing stage, so we can admire the tooth for a bit, then dispose of it. No more sneaking around pillows in the middle of the night.
I save all my kids' teeth, along with a locket each of their hair from their first real haircuts. But I'm a sentimental sap, so maybe I'm weird. I have made them both photo/scrap books of their "lives so far" and was thinking of putting the baby teeth in those.
I remember when my oldest daughter went through that stage where she lost several teeth in a short period of time. Her little sister and I took to calling her "Toothless", which she didn't care for one little bit.
I stuff the cast-out teeth in my underwear drawer...something that didn't seem at all creepy until I posted it here.
Shucks.
I saved my youngest daughter's teeth until the day she found them and wondered why the tooth fairy was giving me her teeth to hold onto. That was the incident that led to the conversation that led to the death of the tooth-fairy myth.
This last year has also seen the death of the Easter bunny (she found the candy in a drawer) and the death of Santa (logical progression). I was saddened a bit, but it helps that I don't have to jump through all the hoops anymore just to perpetuate a fantasy. And I guess that's sort of cynical of me.
"perpetuate a fantasy?" waaiit a minute...
Give them to me. I'm making a vagina dentata holiday centerpiece.
My girl believed in the tooth fairy until one night a tooth came out, she put it under her pillow and there it stayed. I noticed the tooth being gone the next day and we talked about her "big girl teeth" and such, but beyond answering her five year old questions (why her big girl teeth didn't just come in when she was a baby and why we needed teeth) we didn't make a big deal about it...
Until the day she asked why the tooth fairy hadn't taken her tooth. I was distracted at that moment and said, "because I forgot to get it"...oops..
End of Tooth Fairy...
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