As a longtime reader, I absolutely LOVED today's post. Here's why: sometimes (through no fault of your own) your posts make me feel inadequate. Not only are you a fabulous knitter (and quilter/seamstress) but you also seem to manage and enjoy three kids so well. My two kids (ages 5 & 6) often overwhelm me and I don't get to enjoy them as much as I should. Let's not even compare my knitting to yours. So it made me breathe a sign of relief to read today that the Tooth Fairy forgot to come to your house not just last night but other times. It made me think, "Ah, she makes mistakes too!!!" It's like watching Elizabeth Zimmermann or Barbara Walker drop a stitch or neglect to K2TOG or something! :) Thanks!

The tooth fairy got lost on the way to our house a few times too so not to worry. She's a very busy fairy!
I'm sorry your boy is sick. It's amazing how fast those bugs spread once the kids go back to school. Hope he's better soon!

My kids used to leave wonderful, funny notes for the tooth fairy when she forgot to stop. ("Are you sick?" "You will lose your job if you don't do better," etc.) I still have the notes. DD and I sit down and read them from time to time and laugh. These are the best years of your life!

sometimes the tooth fairy runs out of change and has to go home and get some more, but by the time she gets home it's morning. There's been times when the tooth fairy doesn't come until after school. I think, since morning came, she needs to hide out until they leave for school, so sometimes they've found it after school...that's happened to us before, but she always makes her way back either the next day or even the following ;)

Yuck! I hope, by some miracle, that the rest of you can stay well.

I see that you've been assigned the same forgetful tooth fairy we had.

The tooth fairy in our house falls asleep before remembering to put a gift under the pillow. Bad, bad, bad! Luckily Son #1 doesn't believe in the tooth fairy, so he just told me to pay up the next morning! Sentimentality, there it goes.

My girls know that the tooth fairy is very busy and to keep her on task she has asked that my girls have me call and schedule with her office (wink, wink) and she then gives us a day that she has "scheduled" to visit.

Since we were notified of this GREAT system from the tooth fairy's office life has been great!

What Leslie said!!!

:)

our toothfairy is also forgetful, sometimes the tooth is just too heavy for her--it helps to leave it in an envelope taped to the door. My kids don't mind, because she pays a little extra for each day that she misses--this week, she left 3$.......

I really loved today's post because I too have been a poor excuse for a tooth fairy and had to find ways to keep the tooth fairy thing going. I almost lost the thread completely when the tooth fairy forgot again and my 4th grader began to suspect something. Thankfully, circumstances presented an opportunity to have a letter from the tooth fairy sent from California (we live in Virgina). My daughter couldn't think of any other way that a letter could've been sent from there and she bought it. I need to give a huge thank you to my husband's cousin.

once my daughter lost her tooth at grandma's house, and misplaced it. so she wrote the tooth fairy a note, explaining such. in return the tooth fairy gave her a $1 bill (the tooth fairy usually gives golden dollars) explaining that paper tooth=paper money. when the real tooth appeared, the paper money would be replaced with the golden dollar. i still have that note, and all her baby teeth. having only one child, i love having those teeth in a special trinket box put away safe.

For some reason my tooth fairy left a dollar on the back of the toilet instead of under my pillow once. I think she was just confused because I was at my dad's house and she just didn't know where to put it. (I think my dad forgot until morning and I was already awake)

Ditto to Leslie ;)

I know a kid who wrote a letter to the tooth fairy which read: "Dear Tooth Fairy, I know you don't exist". Still giggling about it :) (Oh, and the tooth fairy still left him a gift).
Hope your son gets well soon. Man, those school bacteria/viruses get around quick!

I have to admit - there have been several times that the tooth fairy didn't come. I usually will tell them that when they don't lose their teeth early enough in the day that the tooth fairly can't add them to her "route". THis only works when they stay up to pull out their tooth right before bed - but man, who wants to go out and get cash after 9pm? The ATM wouldn't do - because I'd have to get change...I wonder if it was this complicated when I was growing up - I would guess not, because my parents had to carry cash - there weren't ATM cards.

We had such a remedial tooth fairie. At least I taught my kids that you can't trust fairies. Also, my son missed his first two days of Grade 12 with a dreadful cold. He didn't get to watch TV, though.

At least your tooth fairy doesn't fumble through their wallet in the dark, trip over toys, swear when they step on legos in their socks, and put a $20 under the pillow by mistake. My dad tried very hard , but tooth fairy he is not. :-)

The tooth fairy has forgotten at my house as well. Luckily one of my daughter's friends told her it was because of the little ziplock bag it was in, the fairy couldn't open it. So I decided it was better to put it in an open box on the window sill, an idea I got from another blog. The reason the fairy didn't come in the first place was that my daughter kept waking up every time the fairy neared her room and one time sat straight up in the bed wide awake.

While the tooth fairy hasn't visited me in decades, now the DDS TAKES $$$, I would have imagined she was a wee bit nervous about catching the illness and spreading it to other kids she needed to visit.

I think we must have the same tooth fairy :hides her head in shame:
Hope your little guy is feeling better soon.

One time the tooth fairy forgot to leave me something for my tooth and my mom sent me back twice to look again. She was sure that the tooth fairy left something and I was just overlooking it. I couldn't find it, but as soon as my mom looked she found the money under the bed. Man, that tooth fairy does the craziest things!!!

Oh yes, Suzanne, we've done that one before!!

I'm so relieved to hear that our tooth fairy is not the only one with occasional bouts of memory loss. ;0) Thanks for sharing all your stories and ideas!

I've found tooth fairy money under the bed, too!

I've also told my kids "She was on vacation."

And once, the tooth fairy left a note apologizing because she had a lot of teeth to pick up the night before and didn't make it to our house.

*sigh*

I really like the colors your using. I hope that things get better for the boys.

I had to come out of hiding to say I feel your pain. We're in our second week of school and my 10 yr old is home with some mutant virus/cold. My 7 yr. old had it too but she was lucky enough to have it over the week-end and not miss school. I figure at least it's when they're still reviewing work from last year and not into the new stuff yet.

Hope he feels better soon..and that it skips the other kiddos.

I'm reminded of my Dad's 50th birthday. My Grandma showed up with a gift that rattled. When Dad opened it he recoiled, grinned, then laughed out loud. It was every one of his baby teeth she had saved all those years! Eeewwww! Biohazard!

B-a-a-a-a-a-d tooth fairy!

I hope there's a picture of Thing 1 and Thing 2 in there. I still tell folks about that awesome costume!

I used to palm the money, say it fell behind the bed and that she simply didn't need any extra molars that week. Because you're not alone in forgetting to flutter into their bedroom while they sleep!

Wow! we must have the same tooth fairy, always a day or two late! I hope your little one is feeling better. have a great day!

Once when confronted with a teary boy who did not get a tooth fairy visit, I popped out with, "well, did you sprinkle the glitter?" What do you mean? he asked. Well, I said, it was a pretty cloudy night last night and sometimes the tooth fairy can't find the teeth. You need to sprinkle some glitter on the walkway whenever you lose a tooth, just in case. From now on, the glitter sprinkling is part of the ritual. Oh, and if the tooth fairy misses you, you're in luck. She always leaves a little extra something the next day. Sometimes it's a foreign coin, sometimes a Sacajewea dollar (that she gets from the kiosks at the train station).

Anyway, hope the boys are feeling better. I have identical twin boys too (age 8) and a little boy, age 18 months. I love your blog!

Once when confronted with a teary boy who did not get a tooth fairy visit, I popped out with, "well, did you sprinkle the glitter?" What do you mean? he asked. Well, I said, it was a pretty cloudy night last night and sometimes the tooth fairy can't find the teeth. You need to sprinkle some glitter on the walkway whenever you lose a tooth, just in case. From now on, the glitter sprinkling is part of the ritual. Oh, and if the tooth fairy misses you, you're in luck. She always leaves a little extra something the next day. Sometimes it's a foreign coin, sometimes a Sacajewea dollar (that she gets from the kiosks at the train station).

Anyway, hope the boys are feeling better. I have identical twin boys too (age 8) and a little boy, age 18 months. I love your blog!

The tooth fairy in this house had to pinch a 50 p coin from the tooth owner's purse recently because she had no change... (that was after she forgot to visit two nights in a row). Worse still: this mummy completely forgot the tooth was waiting under the pillow and changed the bedding and now the tooth is lost!

We have told our children that our tooth fairy is union. If you put your tooth under the pillow after her submission cut off time, you just don't get anything until the next night. Also, sometimes she's really late and puts the half dollar under the pillow while they are in the shower in the morning. She's the only game in town, no free market, so she can do craptastically and still have job security.

We had a run of unfortunate Fairy events early in my daughters tooth replacement era (but not FIRST). The tradition was the Fairy would bring a Sacajawea $. One year, she lost a tooth the night before Easter and the Fairy was quite intimidated by that hoppy bunny guy and didn't leave the golden coin. Then to make matters worse, she lost a second tooth while eating Easter dinner and swallowed it. That slack... Fairy must only have one Sacajawea dollar at a time or the fact my daughter swallowed the second tooth must have thrown her off her game cause there is no place in our world where you can get a Sacajawea dollar on Easter Sunday! So, we learned early on that sometimes conditions are way beyond even the most well-intentioned fairy! T