Aside from all of the things we did this weekend, Ryan also had his very own "hell" weekend. Things started out great on Friday morning when Ryan came upstairs and announced he lost another tooth. He proudly showed me the tooth, and then gave a great big smile so we could see the empty space in his mouth - this is where the "good" ended, and the "bad" started. On Friday night, Ryan wrapped up his tooth and slipped it under his pillow with great anticipation of a visit from the Tooth Fairy. Well, the next morning, I got up and went downstairs to find Ryan balled up crying on his bed. Not knowing what could possibly be wrong at 7:15am, I asked. Ryan's response . . . he lifts up his pillow and says, "the Tooth Fairy forgot about me." Oh shit! I was so tired the night before that I actually feel asleep before I had a chance to get downstairs and do my "Tooth Fairy duties." The odd thing was that the tooth was gone, there was just nothing in it's place. So unless there really is a Tooth Fairy and she just came and grabbed the tooth, that meant Ryan's tooth was still somewhere in the bed, or next to it - time for me to start making up for being such a lousy Tooth Fairy (and mom). So I tell Ryan I'm going to run upstairs and tell Dad about this Tooth Fairy incident when in reality I ran upstairs and started digging into my purse. Luckily I had some cash, and because of my colossal failure, I decided the Tooth Fairy was going to be extra good to Ryan this time around so instead of grabbing one dollar, I took two, and headed back downstairs. As I was standing there telling Ryan about my fake conversation with Trav, I was able to slip the two dollars under his other pillow. It was at this point that I came up with my "Tooth Fairy lie." I told Ry that maybe the Tooth Fairy left the money somewhere else in the bed considering most kids his age don't have queen sized beds. Somehow he believed this, and started to look through the bed again, and wouldn't you know it, he found the two dollars under his (second) pillow - yay!! And although he was happy with his find, he just couldn't figure out why the Tooth Fairy got it wrong this time when all the other times she got it right - having nothing good to say, I just nodded and looked confused as well - at some point the lies had to end and this seemed like a good place. With the money issue done, I still had the missing tooth to figure out (God knows he would have been , confused had he found the money and then found the tooth was actually still there - at that point, I would have had to get real creative with my storytelling (or as I like to call them, my lies). With money in hand, I told Ryan he should go upstairs and show Trav what he got so as he did that, I pulled back his blankets and sure enough, there was the tiny little ball of Kleenex holding the missing tooth - thank God! I grabbed it, stuffed it in my pocket, and the Tooth Fairy drama was officially over! This little slip up isn't looking promising for the girls. I have one kid with teeth falling out and I can't even get that right. Can you imagine what it will be like when I have two or three - good luck with that!
Onto part 2 of Ryan's weekend from hell . . . Steve-O finally kicked the bucket. Yes, the fish that never dies but always looks like his dead, is now actually dead. I'm not sure on the exact time of death, but we've estimated it happened sometime between Saturday and Sunday night. It was on Sunday evening when I went to give him some fish food that I did my usual tapping on the glass to make sure he was still alive (yes, I do this almost daily because like I said, he always looks like he is dead), and got no response. I then got a little more aggressive and actually shook the bowl, and that's when I knew for sure, Steve was a goner. His tiny fish body just swayed in the little baby waves and upon closer inspection, I noticed he looked bloated and even a bit stiff - not good. So I did what any other good mother would do, I told Trav the bad news, and had him relay it to Ryan while I put the girls to bed (I already had to deal with the Tooth Fairy issue, it was Trav's turn to step up). When the girls were in bed, I headed downstairs to see how it went, and to my surprise, Ryan handled it like a champ (in fact, he was almost too interested in tv to even show emotion - clearly Steve's passing wasn't going to be a turning point in Ryan's life). Trav did the honorable thing and flushed Steve down the toilet which Ryan said led to the ocean where he would get eaten by a shark (what a cruel ending to a family pet). Whatever, at least it wasn't as bad as I expected it would be, and we were able to put Ryan to bed just like any other day without having to help him recover from his first "death" experience.
And just to top off the weekend, it was Daylight Savings and because Ryan never adjusts to easily to time changes, his Monday morning was a crappy one too. I had to basically pull him out of bed and put his clothes on so he could get to the bus on time. Here's hoping for a better week ahead!
