An Empty Space

During family movie night, while watching The King and I, I was startled by a squeal of excitement louder than Deborah Kerr's crescendo. Immediately I knew- after months of wiggling around, Isabella's loose tooth decided it was time to move on, and where there was a tooth a moment ago, there now was not! The empty space now occupying her smile left me with one of my own; Loosing your first tooth is an exciting right of passage to be sure, but it is also a painful reminder that children, that my children, continue to grow up. Having nursed her (literally and figuratively) though the painful processes of acquiring those baby teeth, it is a doubly painful affront for them to be now rendered obsolete and already be coming back out! I did though, to my credit, jump up and down right along with her.

For a household that does not carry out the nearly universal tradition of Santa (which is a WHOLE other blog entry), I was insistent to allow the tooth fairy to visit, lest I kill all the magic of childhood. I conferred with Wes as to whether or not the tooth fairy should adjust for inflation- I mean, I received a dollar a tooth, and that was 20 years ago! But (surprise, surprise) Wes decided a dollar was a fair amount, even now. The morning was met with even more squeals, as an overjoyed Isabella announced, with perfect youthful logic, "I doubted if the tooth fairy was even real, but she left me money, so now I KNOW it isn't just a story! She IS real!". I sometimes forget just how innocent they are- it's so beautiful really. An entire toothy conversation ensued, with Josephine's question, "What does the tooth fairy do with the teeth? Does she throw them in the trash?". Isabella interjected her own line of questioning by asking "Where do you suppose she lives?" Unwilling to allow the innocence of the moment escape, I preserved the fiction that much further by creating an entire vision for the girls of a fairy land built with the treasured teeth, because of course, the tooth fairy regards the pearly whites she collects as precious and, like us, is always looking for ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

In addition to the boon left by the tooth fairy, Isabella was doubly treated, as we made our own snowballs to compensate for the lack of snow that actually fell during "the big storm" this past week. It was a delightful next-best-thing, and much tastier!

Snowballs

very vanilla ice cream, or non-fortified nastiness store bough ice cream

sweetened shredded coconut, such as Baker's

1. Using a spring loaded ice cream scoop, make as many round balls as you would like, place on a plate, and let set in the freezer for about 10 minutes to firm up and retain their shape. Spread a good amount of coconut on another plate, remove the ice cream balls from the freezer, and roll in the coconut (or allow the little ones to do it).

You can make these ahead of time and place back in the freezer uncovered for an hour until completely firm, then wrap in wax paper or plastic until ready to serve.

Try getting creative with making various sized balls and creating your own dessert snowman!