The Tooth Fairy sometimes runs a little late.

So, chalk this one up to the Annals of Bad Parenting. Yesterday morning, Abby's long-dangling tooth finally jumped ship with a little help from yours truly. As always seems to happen with her loose teeth, we were getting a little ill watching it cling on to her gum with its last bit of connective tissue while Abby became increasingly paralyzed and unwilling to do anything about it. Not ten minutes after, however, we all dashed out the door for Maddy's fifth birthday party, reverberations from which then occupied the remainder of the day. Abby's tooth loss, sadly, was quickly forgotten.

At some point that day, it seems, Abby went and retrieved her tooth from the top of my dresser and before going to bed, placed it under her pillow. None the wiser, we all went to bed and....woke up in the morning. Abby came down, dressed, and asked Brian, "does the tooth fairy really exist?" Brian asked why, and she reported, "well, my tooth was still there this morning."

Uh oh.

Brian stammered something about how sometimes the tooth fairy runs a little short on time, and that she was sure to visit. My heart sank and I came out and tried to repair the damage myself by asking, "is Maddy still asleep?" And when Abby said yes, I threw up my hands and said, "of course! Well, as long as at least one kid is still asleep in the room, the tooth fairy may wait and get some other kids done first and then come. She's got until all kids in one room have woken up." I ushered her into another room, all the while explaining my nascent and hole-riddled two-kids-in-a-room theory, giving Brian the opportunity to dash upstairs and back. When he came back and gave me the nod, I told her, "I bet you anything it's already there." She gave me a narrow look, but obligingly went upstairs to check.

She's no dummy, though. She's pretty suspicious about the whole thing. Good girl.