As you can see, Julian has a very loose tooth. He’s very proud of it, and quite excited by it.
The other day as we were walking along he asked me, “Daddy, if they’ve explored Antarctica and the South Pole and the North Pole, and they didn’t find a Santa Claus, where does he live?”
It’s always hard to know how to answer this kind of thing. I punted with, “What do you think?”
Julian replied (this is a word-for-word quote): “My working hypothesis is that the presents come from you and Mommy and there is no Santa Claus.”
After a little quick soul searching, I confirmed his hypothesis (after all, he is eight). I added an injunction to keep the secret from his younger brothers, so they could continue to enjoy Santa.
“OK,” says Julian, “and what about the Tooth Fairy?”
I tried “What do you think?” again, although I knew where it was going…
Julian didn’t miss a beat. He said, “Of course you and Mommy are the tooth fairy, and now I can tell you what I want in exchange for my baby tooth.”
How soon we grow up!