SO...FYI, THE TOOTH FAIRY CHARGES LATE FEES...WITH INTEREST

So, Saia lost her 6th tooth at school. She brought it home in a little plastic tooth case on a string around her neck.

We put it in her tooth box, and under her pillow it went.

And the next morning...it was still there! Damn Toothfairy!!

At first, Saia reasoned that she must just be tired of coming to our house, what with her teeth practically leaping out of her mouth of their own volition these days. And then, you know, there's two of them.

"I cried a little when I saw that she didn't take my tooth, Mama," she said.

[ugh. can you hear my heart breaking from where you are?]

But then we snuggled in close under the covers and tried to think of reasons why she didn't show up. Ultimately, we figured that she must've just gotten bogged down by the rain. I mean, it's been raining non-stop for over a week now, and with all those feathers and jewels and glitter and stuff -- come on! -- flying through a storm's got to be no easy feat, you know? She's probably just running a little late.

So, I get up to let the dogs out, and crawl back into my bed with her so we can plan the day's events, and then she gets up to go show her brother what happened.

And lo and behold!!!

"MAMA!! Hey! What happened here????" she screams.

And as I wander in drowsily, she stands there with a $5 bill in one hand and an empty tooth box in the other, grinning from ear to ear, and scrambling for an explanation.

"I thought the Toothfairy only gave me $5 for my two big teeth," she says.

"I thought so, too, baby," I replied.

And she's still just standing there in the middle of the room, her eyes searching the skies for an answer, her brother throwing out all sorts of crazy illogical suggestions, when suddenly her gorgeous little brown eyes light all up and she looks right at me and says...

"Ohhhhhhh! It's a late fee."

...