Maia loses her first tooth

I had gone back to work last night--the same case I've been working on for the last 15 months.

The phone rang. I could hear Kristina handing it over to Maia. "Daddy!," she said. "I lost my tooth!" Then she started to cry, and Kristina was back on the phone.

"She lost her tooth?" It had been loose for several days, and we were wondering if it would come out.

"Yes, and now she wants it back."

I drove home to see.

"See?" she said. And then she started to cry again. Sometimes, I think she can do that on cue.



"Put it back!"

"Well, sweetness," I said, "it just means you're growing up. You're going to have a new tooth there, now, a big tooth."

"And what are you going to do with it tonight?" Kristina asked.

"Put it under my pillow," she said. "For the tooth fairy," she said.

"For the tooth fairy," Kristina agreed.

"The tooth fairy is pretend or real," she wanted to know.

I laughed. She has begun to figure this stuff out.

"Well," I said, "suppose it was pretend. Then who would the tooth fairy be?"

She puzzled over that one. She hasn't closed that loop yet.

John, Friday, June 1, 2007