Well Played Mom, Well Played Indeed

I have a fourteen year old daughter.

She is smart, funny, beautiful, witty, kind, and talented. I love her more than I can even describe.
But, she IS fourteen.
Not a great age for girls.
Or their moms.

These teenage years bring lots of tears, anger, resentment, and  joy, quickly followed by more tears and "you just don't understand."

The past couple of weeks have been especially bad and it made me reminisce about my own teenage years.

They weren't pleasant.
They weren't pleasant for anyone, especially my mom.

There was lots of yelling and screaming matches.  Lots of rolling of eyes, slamming of doors, and sassy comebacks. There was also fighting with my dad, my brothers and my sister.  Telling my parents they were horrible and that I hated living at home.

When it was really bad my mom would just about break down and say, "I really hope you have a daughter just like you someday."  It's kind of a mom thing to say.

So, here I am. Riding the hormone rollercoaster and thinking, "Well played mom, well played indeed.

The Tooth Fairy Doesn't Live Here Anymore

I was cleaning the kitchen this weekend. I mean thoroughly cleaning.  Wiping down baseboards and windowsills, and such. The kind of cleaning you do when your in-laws are coming for a visit.

And I found a tooth.
Actually, I found two teeth in the kitchen. And one in our bedroom. So, three teeth in total.

Which lead me to ponder, how long have these teeth been laying around? Who did the teeth belong to?  And, most importantly, why did the tooth fairy not take care of this business.

Obviously the expectations of the tooth fairy at our home are very low. I'm pretty sure it started when our daughter lost her first tooth.

A friend and I had taken our six children to the beach for an overnight of fun mommy time. Except the road was closed due to a car fire and the detour took three hours.  Six kids, under the age of six, in the car, for four hours.

We were wise mommies at the time and decided to hit the grocery store for food before checking into our condo.

As soon as we opened the car doors, the kids went crazy.  They ran into the grocery store and ran through the store for over 15 minutes.  I. Am. Not. Kidding.  People were staring at us, the mommies, while our kids were rolling on the floors in the frozen food aisle.

We, the mommies, were buying wine.

After rounding up the children and attempting to pay for our food, I looked down at my sweaty, dirty, daughter and said, "What happened to your tooth?"

"What?", she said while sticking her tongue through the new opening in her mouth. "I think I lost it when I bit an apple."

"Where is the apple?" I asked.

"I don't know" she responded.

So, there it is.  First child to lose a tooth and we have no idea where it could even be hidden among the produce.

Back at the condo, no word is said about the tooth or tooth fairy and it was quickly forgotten.  Until the next morning, when one of the six children reminded her that the tooth fairy didn't come to give her money.

I assured her that the tooth fairy would come when we got back home and she seemed totally fine with this explanation.

Until the tooth fairy seemingly forgot. And forgot. And forgot.

And when the tooth fairy finally remembered and even left her a note explaining that she was late because she had tried to find the tooth, my daughter brought me the money the next morning and said, "I don't like the tooth fairy. She doesn't need to come here anymore."

And, so she doesn't.