Girl lost her first tooth tonight. And by lost, I really mean lost. It was hanging by a thread all day, and I should have just yanked it out, but I didn’t. She went to a princess party tonight with her best friend at a dance studio. And when I went to pick her up, I had one really sad princess on my hands.

“I lost my tooooooth,” she wailed. “I can’t find it!” Everyone in the dance studio had been looking for Girl’s tooth, but no luck. White floors, white walls, dozens of girl feet shuffling around — it could be anywhere. Girl calmed down enough to do her routine for the parents, but her heart wasn’t into it. Her mind was on her tooth.

Somehow she got the idea that we should look for it at home. “Maybe it’s in your tutu,” her friend suggested. Which gave me an idea.

You see, I know where the tooth fairy hides her stash of teeth. Yes, this was Girl’s first tooth. But I know where the old Boy teeth are.

So when we got home, I went into the special little drawer on my dresser where the ultra-sound pictures and baby teeth live. And I found a tooth in a baggy that could pass for a tiny bottom tooth. Man do teeth look dried up after three years.

As I helped Girl squeeze out of her too-tight tutu, I dug my hand into my pocket and grabbed the tiny tooth, then hid it in the bathroom rug. “Hey what’s that?” I asked. “MY TOOTH!!!” Girl cried, then ran off to tell everybody.

All I can say is, it’s a big world. There’s got to be somebody else besides Girl tonight sleeping with a used tooth under her pillow.