When I was growing up, the Tooth Fairy had it together. She brought all sorts of cool stuff every time that we lost a tooth. I remember (on different occasions of course) getting gum, shiny quarters or crisp dollars, beef jerky, earrings, and KING sized candy bars.

I think that Tooth Fairies must be on strike in the nations because Nena’s Tooth Fairy officially bit the big one this time around. After WEEKS of coercing and pleading, my good friend Leigh finally convinced Nena to pull out her tooth. Oh, and she did it at Leigh’s house. Yes, this woman truly does work miracles with my family. She is the Franco Whisperer.

Since it was such a mildly traumatic moment in little Nena’s life you would think that the Tooth Fairy would have a little bit of compassion on her tiny little soul and leave her a treat worth the anguish. Right???? Well, I guess that is how it goes in theory but, in reality, things are different.

This is my theory. Just a theory mind you because I have no idea how that darn fairy really works. I assume that Nena losing her tooth late on a Friday afternoon came as a complete shock to the Tooth Fairy and she must have been completely unprepared for the occasion. She had to have been unable to get out of her little fairy castle and get to the Tooth Fairy Emporium because she was surrounded by little munchins and didn’t want to reveal her most amazing gifts to them. So, she thought that she would just find something in her lovely stock of supplies at her fairy castle and leave them for sweet Nena.

However, after a long and exhausting day of raising munchkins, the Tooth Fairy must have fallen asleep on her bed still fully clothed only to be awoken 4 times during the night to soothe those little munchkins that were afraid of the dark, spiders and Willy Wonka. After missing her alarm on Saturday morning, she completely forgot that she even had a visit to make until she heard a sweet little voice coming from the Realm of Nena announcing that the Tooth Fairy must have forgotten to come.

I am sure at this point in time the Tooth Fairy was feeling absolutely awful that she had stabbed a big hole in the dreams of little Nena whose number 1 ambition in life is to become a fairy. She MUST have put it on her list to get to the Fairy Emporium to pick up an extra special gift for this little girl. However, during the day, I am sure that she got caught up with dishes, housework, cleaning out her front hall closet, soccer games, a wedding reception, a drop in visit from her brother the body builder fairy and it totally slipped her mind.

It probably wasn’t until the munchkins were all tucked into bed (for the fourth time that night,) the company was gone, the house was less of a disaster than it had been, and two episodes of “My Name Is Earl” had been watched that she realized that she had missed little Nena and her poor lost tooth. What is even more annoying is that I bet that the Tooth Fairy even wrote a note to on her own hand reminding herself to pick up a treat.

So, panicked and nerve wracked. she must have raced to her secret fairy stash cupboard to grab something that she had previously picked up from the Emporium only to find that they were gone. GONE! GONE!!!! I bet you that that fairy had a nasty little Toad that found her stash and had done away with it. So, our poor lame Tooth Fairy did the only thing that she could think of and raided what was left of the Halloween candy left over from 7 months ago and grabbed a few packages of Whoppers, a tiny bubble jar and a gold Susan B. Anthony dollar coin that she got as part of her change from the McDonald’s drive through. She must have felt like such an idiot leaving old trick or treat candy in the place of gum and earrings.

However, in true, grateful fairy form, sweet Nena woke up the next day at the crack of dawn and squealed in complete glee that the Tooth Fairy had remembered her and had brought her 3 packages of candy . Yes, our Tooth Fairy is very lucky that the bar has not yet been set very high and that her one immunity card had not yet been spent. Oh, and I bet that that (now much more savvy and wise) tooth fairy went to the Emporium the very next day to stock up on supplies just in case.

Moral of the story: Be prepared and set the bar low!