BELIEVE

Yesterday we had quite the eventful playdate over at our house. Our good friend and neighbor Little Miss E was over and nearing the end of our fun time doing Christmas crafts together she announced to Big J her newfound knowledge: Santa isn’t real. Her basis was simple, it’s just absolutely impossible that Santa can do what he does… in fact, reindeer can not fly, and elves and fairies do not exist. Big J was flabbergasted. Could this be true? I asked her what she thought – and she fervently admitted that she thought her friend was losing it and of course Santa was real. Her friend was losing the battle and so decided to up the ante when announcing that even the Tooth Fairy wasn’t real! She was choosing the wrong little girl to approach this subject with; Big J adores the Tooth Fairy, had lost her sixth tooth the day before, was pen pals with the Tooth Fairy and had even decided to dress up as her for Halloween. It was inevitable that she would throw a fit. Little Miss E stood her ground on all the before-mentioned subjects and even added proof: “MY DADDY TOLD ME IT’S TRUE.” Big J shot right back, “Well I’m going to ask your Daddy for myself!”

Our “friend” left and I made a quick call to her dad to let him know briefly what had taken place and to prepare him for the questioning I was sure Big J was going to put him through. He was extremely apologetic and promised to tell her what she believes is definitely true. Halfway through lunch, Big J couldn’t stand it any longer and got on the phone to call our neighbor. He was so sweet: he told her Little Miss E is very confused right now and not to listen to her. He told her that of course Santa is real, that maybe when Little Miss E loses her first tooth then she’ll believe in the Tooth Fairy, and that he remembers a time when he was a child while standing on his front porch he saw Santa and his reindeer flying in the sky. Big J was not amazed by these stories, only confirmed in her belief. She’s been talking about it a lot since then, but I think we cinched it with the help from the Tooth Fairy.

The other day when her tooth fell out (or actually was pulled out by the school nurse – another story I don’t want to get into) she fell asleep uncharacteristically early and didn’t leave out her tooth. So last night she did. Right before I was to fall asleep, Mr. Man reminded me of my tooth fairy duties. I was out of change and didn’t feel like going out to the car in the rain, so I upped the two quarters to a whole dollar bill. Not only that, but on it I wrote the letters B-E-L-I-E-V-E. (Big J is also obsessed with “the Polar Express” right now – and if you’ve seen it, you’ll understand the significance of that word). She was floored this morning and stated that she’s pretty sure the Tooth Fairy knows that her friend had tried to make her not believe, but she’s really glad that she does. Phew. I’m not ready for my little girl to stop believing. In fact, I’m still convinced that when I was a little girl laying in my bunk bed and looking out my window on Christmas Eve, I saw a red light that could only have been one thing: Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. I still believe.