Susan Senator

Is there anything more adorable than 7-year-old mouth? Benj lost a front top tooth and I can’t stop looking at him and smiling. Why, oh why, can’t you just kiss your little boy as much as you damn well want to? Why does God make them so cute and then so twitchy about kissing their mommies? So unfair…

Then, last night, he got all nervous that the Tooth Fairy (which he once spelled “Toth Fairy”) might not be able to get to the tooth under his pillow because his head was heavy. I reassured him because I know her very well.

When morning came, I was probably as excited as Benj to see what she had brought. But he said, “All that was there is the old dollar on my dresser from last time.” I knew he meant the last tooth that had come out (bottom, also cute but not as cute); he had left the dollar there all that time! Money — who needs it? Not Benj!

Anyway, when he said that there was nothing there, I said, “Yes there is, I — ” and I caught myself just in time. So I said, “Yes there is, I know it must be there. Let’s go look.” Sure enough, it had gotten tossed among the covers. I blamed it on his bear, Bluebeary.

Ben was thrilled with his dollar, and I stole a kiss.