A failure and a triumph

So I was a bad mom. Claire's 8th tooth came out the other night, but it was at about 10:30 in the evening and I wasn't prepared for my tooth fairy traditions, so I told her to wait a night to put it under her pillow. I make a somewhat elaborate tooth fairy note each time and I usually leave gold coin dollars (rather than paper dollars) and I just didn't have the time, energy, or resources to do my thing that night. The yellow pillow is her tooth-holder pillow that she sewed in kindergarten at City Garden.

So, the next night came and she did put it under her pillow, but I forgot she was doing it. She claims that she told daddy to remind the tooth fairy about her tooth while he was tucking her in, but daddy forgot to REMIND the tooth fairy. In fact, the tooth fairy and daddy were in a bit of an argument about something else that evening so the tooth fairy was REALLY distracted.

So, it happened that the next morning I woke up to a 7-year-old standing by my bed and weeping because her tooth fairy hadn't come and she had already waited 2 nights! Behind her was her 5-year-old brother whose eyes were wide with pity for his sister and both were looking at me like they couldn't believe this injustice could happen!

But then, while I tried my best to comfort Claire and tell her that I was sure there was a reason the tooth fairy had missed her tooth that night, Sammy ran out of the room. From down the hall I heard a very loud clanging noise as our Sammy tried to empty the contents of his piggy bank onto his bed. He chose the two largest coins he had (quarters) and rushed them back into our room to Claire. He tossed them onto the bed sneakily and told Claire that the Sammy Fairy had brought her something.

I'm sorry, but I almost cried right there. Partly because I felt like a failure as a mom for forgetting and partly because I thought it was so sweet that Sammy had wanted to make things right for his devastated sister. Well, I made it up the best I could last night. I made an elaborate note, with it's burned edges and poem written about her 8th tooth. I drew the tooth fairy flying away as I always do. Did you know that fairies aren't allowed to show us there faces? Well, that's my story and it has NOTHING to do with the fact that I can't draw a face to save my life. I gave the best explanation I could in the poem about how Claire's fairy had broken her leg and was sorry she got behind. And then I gave her $5 for that tooth. $5!!! We don't give $5 for anything in our home. And I left $1 in there for her brother who had helped the tooth fairy out so generously. He was pretty darn happy about that.

So that is my tale of how I sucked as a mom and Sammy saved me. Even though she was sad that she hadn't gotten her fairy note the first night, i could tell that Claire was equally moved at Sammy's gesture. And now I'll just share a sweet picture of our little Wella sleeping in her crib.

Oh my goodness, look at the little face and the little arms down to her sides.

Aunt Laura generously gave us her whole crib set from Pottery Barn (I sold Claire's crib set years ago) and I love it! It's so light colored and sweet.

And that's what I wanted in the girls' room: I wanted it all light and airy and sweet.

See her little niche in Claire's room? I used to want something really cute on the walls but then I just decided I liked the light airyness of the blank wall. Mr Tommy picked out the yellow for the walls. It's just barely yellow and I'm so glad he picked it because I would have picked something more yellow-y and I would have hated it. By the way, Mr Tommy is getting married on September 4th so stay tuned for pictures of that event! He told me: "just bring the kids! They'll play in the backyard and we're gettin' married in the front!" You gotta love Mr Tommy.