These Fairies Do Wear Boots

Yesterday, just after loading the groceries into the trunk, I heard Ella yell out in a slight panic "I lost my tooth!" followed by crying. I gave her a paper napkin from the glove compartment and found her tooth on the floor. As the crying subsided we talked about growing up and the tooth fairy and biology. It felt momentous.

A friend asked me if a kid lived on an island and never heard of the fairy, if they would inherently know that something magical just happened. I said I bet there would be some sort of right of passage and today I looked it up and read about all the things people do with baby teeth. Turns out it is a right of passage in a lot pf places and I read a great deal about the tooth mouse but I got the biggest kick out of reading the first tooth fairies of a sort were vikings.

"Cultural historians say that superstition has always surrounded teeth and these valuable tokens have been used to ward off witches and demons in the past. Vikings were even supposed to give children a "tooth fee" for using children's teeth."