The day my 7-year-old daughter finally lost her first tooth, was the day she discovered cloud nine.  Not only was she ecstatic about her tooth, she was convinced she was about to start raking in some serious mucho dinero like her Big Brother.

“Mom, do you think I’d at least get 10 bucks like Sidney?” She asked, with a big grin.

“Well, it depends on how much the Tooth Fairy thinks your tiny tooth is worth.” I teased.

That evening, my husband and our oldest daughter collaborated.  Into an envelope, they tossed a ten-dollar bill and crafted a handwritten note that read…

             “Mikala, thank you for the tooth,

                Sincerely, Lucy-The Tooth Fairy”

“How did she know my name?” I overheard her asking her Dad the following morning, as she read the note out loud…again...and again!

“The same way Santa Clause knows who'd been good and who'd been bad?” I replied with a mischievous smirk.

Several months later, while she and her younger sister were goofing around in my Jewelry Box, she accidentally found a pearly object that resembled…what? Yep, you guessed it. Her lost tooth! By the time she was done grilling me, I had no other recourse, save for the bitter truth!  And when she asked, “Does this mean that Santa Clause and The Easter Bunny are not real either?” I thought there was no better timing than right then, to come clean.  Yep, it broke my heart and hers. But the truth, they say, shall set you free!