Tooth Fairy AND the Easter Bunny?

Ottawacker Jr. has been looking anxiously in the mirror for a little while now. You wander round the corner and see his face contorted into a grimace as he stares into the bathroom mirror. I started to worry that I had missed some announcement of illness while I was in the basement, so I broke the golden rule and asked Mrs. Ottawacker a question to which I didn’t already know (or at least suspect) the answer.
 
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Is it serious?”
“What are you talking about now?” she asked – a little more sharply than was called for, I thought.
“The boy. Why is he always looking in the mirror and pulling faces?”
“Oh that. It’s his tooth. It’s almost out.”
 
And indeed, that was the reason. Governed by some fear that if his tooth was still in on Sunday, he wouldn’t be able to have any Easter chocolate. I think there was a sudden realization that as he had used this excuse to justify his not eating carrots only the day before, parental logic would dictate the non-consumption of chocolate.
 
The worrying and teasing has obviously had its effect, because mid-afternoon there was a loud shout and an “it’s out”…, and indeed, there is a nice new gap in his teeth where once a right mandibular incisor had been. The relief was palpable.
 
His, not ours. For now we are faced with another problem: we have no Easter eggs. Until earlier this week, neither of us had realised it was Easter this weekend. And by then, it was impossible to order one in. Slightly chastened, we put in an order which we will receive next week, and have used Jacinda Ardern’s line about how both the tooth fairy and Easter bunny are essential workers, but might well be delayed because of all the coronavirus problems.
 
He took it like a trooper. Eventually.