What's a (fictional) fairy to do?

You may remember a while back when I was sure the magic was over as far as the Easter Bunny was concerned. Well, I haven't heard anything about that since, and the girls are as excited as ever about Santa coming, but lately Vicki's been suspicious of the Tooth Fairy. She and her best friend have started a mystery investigator team whose sole purpose is to determine the truth behind the Tooth Fairy. Is she truly a fairy, or is it just Mom & Dad playing games with us? So for about a month Vicki has been randomly (hoping to catch me off guard, I believe) popping up with the question, "Is the Tooth Fairy real?" My constant answer, "What do you think?" is always followed by an exasperated "aaarrrrgghhhh!" and my daughter stomping off to scheme some more.

She finally had a chance to try out some new tactics this week when she added another gap to her grin. The tooth came out at school on Monday (without any assistance from string of any sort, thank heaven!) and when she got home she placed it under her pillow without telling me. Sneaky, sneaky. Of course, being her mother, it didn't take me too long to notice that something was missing in her mouth. If she hadn't been showing us how loose the thing was for weeks, I may not have missed it, but she has no one to blame but herself. Since that plan was foiled, she came up with another one: leaving the Tooth Fairy a note demanding THE TRUTH. Here, as best as I can remember, is what the note said:

"Dear Tooth Fairy,

Are you (please choose one)

a Fairy..........Mom..........Dad

TELL THE TRUTH!

Love,
Vicki

P.S. Why do you always give me 50 cents?
P.P.S. Please put my tooth in the container"

What a dilemma! Do I lie to my child in order to keep the magic alive, or do I be honest and run the risk of exposing Santa, too? And not to mention the fact that vital information may be leaked to little sisters.

Then I forgot about it for two days. I know, I know, I'm a terrible Tooth Fairy. I've almost forgotten before, but this was the first time I'd actually let it slip completely. Tuesday morning she woke up and sadly informed me that the Tooth Fairy hadn't come. I frantically grasped for any excuse I could come up with, and picked the idea tha the Tooth Fairy must be really busy right now, what with Halloween so close and everything. Because LOTS of kids lose their teeth around Halloween from all that candy and stuff, right? Then I forgot about it until Wednesday morning at 6am, when it was too close to her normal waking-up time to risk it. One more day of disappointment and doubt.

Last night I finally remembered. In the end, here's how I decided to respond: next to her first question I wrote, in cursive, so as to disguise my handwriting, "What do you think?" and drew a smiley face winking (I'm pretty sure you can tell that's what it's supposed to be.) As for why she always gets 50 cents, I just wrote, "No particular reason," because there isn't one. I just don't really like the idea of paying my children any more than that for something that's going to happen whether the Tooth Fairy comes or not. I did put her tooth in the container, though. That was easy. This morning she came to me for interpretation of some of the cursive, but I played it cool and took my time deciphering the script. Nothing else was said, so I have no idea what her conclusion is. I think she took the letter to school to discuss it with her friend, so I'll probably receive a full report at some point in the near future.

Sigh. I guess they all have to grow up sometime, but it's fun while it lasts. And Lexi hasn't even lost any teeth yet, so it's not like this is the end of all things Tooth Fairy. I think Vicki will love being in on all the secrets, whenever that time comes, just as much as she loves believing right now.