The Tooth Fairy is going to be broke...

In the last month, the tooth fairy has been shelling out money to our oldest child.

Tate lost his first tooth recently and it was so not the traumatic experience I was expecting. I'm not sure what my expectations were. I truly don't have much to go on here because when I was a little girl I had lots and lots and lots of dental issues that resulted in my teeth being pulled at various times so I NEVER had to pull a tooth on my own or have my parents pull a tooth. In fact, I only remember having one SLIGHTLY loose tooth which had to be pulled before it came out on its own.

In my limited experience, and in my vivid imagination, having and pulling a loose tooth had to be a most painful thing requiring doorknobs, and string, and slamming doors, and twisting and pulling, and torture devices, and all that stuff.

I also thought there would be blood involved, possibly lots of blood. Much to my surprise this tooth pulling business is no big deal. Tate lost his first tooth about a month or so ago. He twisted it right out, came and told us, and we took pictures and that was that. No blood, no gnashing of teeth, no crying, nothing. In fact, it may have just been one of the more exciting days of his life. That night he put that sweet little tooth under his pillow and the tooth fairly promptly left him five bucks. The next morning, he was even more excited and started wiggling that next loose tooth so he could make some more money.

Well, just this week, that second little tooth came right out. Again, we did not assist him with the extraction at all. He twisted that little booger right out, minimal bleeding and again with extreme excitement he came running to tell us he had pulled his tooth. Wow. I had no idea it would be this easy. What isn't so easy is that Tate expects five bucks from the tooth fairy for EVERY tooth.

I don't know about you but I'm thinking there are 3 kids, soon to be 4 in my household alone, and each have 20 teeth at five bucks a tooth....that will likely lead to a very broke tooth fairy.

My question is .... what is the going rate for baby teeth these days? The tooth fairy has been so excited about the ease of teeth pulling and maybe a bit of a softy and has shelled out five bucks for the first two teeth but I have it on good authority that she is re-thinking the situation and is considering the fact that if five dollars were given for each tooth for each child, that would total $400. That's a lot of moo-lah for teeth.

Speaking of teeth, what should the tooth fairy DO with those baby teeth? I'm sure she would love any suggestions and I will be sure to pass them along.

Lolly