Not to be party poopers, but we really haven’t pushed all that Santa/Easter Bunny/Toothfairy stuff. I mean, we read all the great books to our kids, and so they all have imaginations the size of Alaska. But we have never said to them, “This character’s real” or “This one’s a fraud.” Instead, we’ve made the conscious decision to just feed their little imaginations with stories of old (and new) and allow them to draw the lines when it comes to that stuff. Except eventually kids get around to asking you point blank. And then what do you do? I can only tell the truth. It’s a disease that runs deep in me, compulsive truth-telling. It can be a flaw, especially since sometimes the truth is unpleasant, and sometimes it just seems like the truth to me at the time, only to discover later that maybe it wasn’t so much…

But ever since Claire started losing her teeth, she has been absolutely obsessed with the toothfairy. She wants to know everything about her. We’ve checked out a book at the library and had several precocious discussions on the subject. The little stinker asks hard questions. So when Claire lost her second tooth, she decided to do something crazy. She wrote a letter to the Toothfairy, to be included with the tooth. She included a piece of chocolate from her easter candy even. And then she decorated a ziploc bag and put all of these things inside it and under her pillow. Here is her letter:

And so I could not resist. The mommy and the writer in me had to reply on the Toothfairy’s behalf.  Here is what Claire received under her pillow the next morning, along with a crisp $5 bill:

Also included was THIS photo:

But the little stinker didn’t buy it. The next morning at 6:30am, she came giggling and cold-footed into my bed, and snicked, “Mom! I know you’re the toothfairy!”

After all that trouble I went to, I accidentally left the chocolate candy wrapper on my desk where I typed the letter.  And then she told me that I’m the only one who calls her silly girl. Are 6 year-olds supposed to notice that kind of stuff?

Smarty-pants had better not ruin it for her brothers.