Amanda Lamb: The Tooth Fairy isn't perfect

OK, so the Tooth Fairy isn't perfect. Sometimes she forgets to leave the money. This usually happens after a particularly late night at the computer writing. On one recent occasion I was on the treadmill early in the morning when my youngest daughter came running in with a look of horror on her face.

"Nothing. The Tooth Fairy left me nothing," she said with her little arms crossed over her peace sign pajamas. "No money, no note, nothing," she said again as if I had somehow missed the first declaration.

I froze. It had slipped my mind. I was usually so good at keeping track of important details like this one. I had to think quickly.

"The alarm, Sweetie. Mommy had the alarm on. Not even the Tooth Fairy can come in when the alarm is on," I said crossing my fingers behind my back. "Let me go check. Daddy, just turned it off to go out and get the paper. Maybe she slipped in."

I turned the television in our home gym from news to cartoons and raced upstairs to type a note from the Tooth Fairy on the computer. I slipped that, along with four quarters, and a little gift for good measure, beneath her pillow and ran back downstairs.

"Why don't you go check now." I said casually. She looked at me skeptically and turned to go upstairs. A few minutes later she returned with the note, the quarters, and the small beaded necklace I had gotten for her in the mountains but forgotten to give her.

"Mommy, this is fishy," she said holding her loot in one hand and the note in the other. "Did you do this?"

"Sweetie, it is important to believe in magic," I said trying to artfully change the subject.

"I do, but I think you're trying to cover up for the Tooth Fairy's mistake," she said with total sincerity.

And she was right.