I wonder if the tooth fairy is hiring?

Spencer has been losing his teeth like crazy lately. Those saucer sized adult teeth are pushing their way up and those poor defenseless baby teeth are jumping for their lives.

A couple of weeks ago he finally lost his fourth top tooth. It had been dangling by a thread for what seemed like weeks-so loose that I totally wanted to just pull it out while he slept. So he lost it. Put it under his pillow. The tooth fairy came and left him a dollar. The next morning before breakfast he was playing with the tooth. Apparently he brought it downstairs instead of stashing it in his treasure box with his other teeth because he wanted to bring it to school and show his teacher. He was playing with it and he claimed he dropped it into the heater vent. His eyes start to well with tears as he asks me to please help him find it. This whole episode is taking place at around 7:20 am with him on the verge of tears and two other children in their seats waiting for breakfast. I tell him that I will look for it later but have too much to do before he has to go to school. But I want to bring my tooth to school! So I pull the top off of the heater vent and am instantly repulsed by the amount of crud that is down there. Strands of carpet, various sizes and colors of crumbs, dead bug bodies, scraps of paper. Spence takes one look down there and tells me that I should vacuum that out sometime. Ya think? So I start digging into the vent and am pulling out handfuls of grossness while looking for his tooth. I dig out as much as I can and still no sign of the tooth. Spence is really starting to get upset. I tell him that maybe he just thought it fell in there, maybe it bounced off the window sill or went into the bucket of Hailey's toys. He tells me again that I should vacuum out the vent duct (I think he was totally grossed out by the filth). I tell him I will but if his tooth is in there it will be gone for sure after I vacuum. He tells me that after I vacuum we can empty the vacuum bag and look for it. I tell him that is never going to happen. He reluctantly agrees to the vacuuming. So I vacuum out the vent and instantly feel a sense of restored feng shui. I peer into the vent to see how much crap is left in the turn that is too sharp for the hose to make. There sitting right in the open, no trace of filth around it, is his tooth. Spence tells me it must have been a miracle.

Today, the boys were outside playing in the pool and Spence walked up to me and handed me a tooth. I was stunned. I didn't know if he just knocked it out or what. There were no tears. I asked him if it was loose. He told me it was. This is his ninth lost tooth overall - apparently they are becoming not so much of a big deal to him. I took the tooth and set it on a plate by the door with other stuff that had to go in the house. Spence continued to play and a while later asked me where I put it. I didn't think much of it until I went to take stuff into the house and noticed the tooth was gone. I asked him what he did with it. I don't know. My kids drive me crazy with how irresponsible they are about their things. They lose things constantly. Especially Spencer. He is totally forgetful. After all I went through to get his tooth back two weeks ago - he forgot to bring it to school with him. All the drama for naught. Crazy! I told him to retrace his steps and remember what he did with it. He had no idea. He remembered he took it in to show Gladis, but then he didn't show her and then didn't remember what he did. I said that maybe he left it in the house. He knew that he brought it back out. Ok - small tooth, big yard with tons of toys. This should be simple. NOT! We looked everywhere we could remember that he was but still couldn't find the tooth. We tried to retrace his steps and still had no luck. Then he remembered that he picked up the head of a dead pinching bug. I walked over to where I remembered seeing the pinching bug head and there was his tooth laying on the driveway. Another miracle. I wonder how many more we get until we reach our quota?