Incompetent Tooth Fairies

No, we did NOT see THE TOOTH FAIRY movie just yet. However, I don't even think HE could have been much more incompetent than me and hubby. I'm serious. This is one profession that just might need a renewable license!
As you probably figured out, J7 lost his first tooth yesterday at school. :) He'd been wiggling it to death the last few days, and it finally just fell out. He brought it home in a sandwich baggie w/ the teacher's neatly printed words "J's 1st baby tooth." That gave me an idea. We'll just encourage him to put the WHOLE BAG under his pillow so it'll be an easy grab, right?? WRONG. We could NOT have been more wrong.

Okay, T12's tooth missions were basically a cinch to perform. He was on the top bunk, so we just pole vaulted over to his wall and braced ourselves there if we couldn't find our stilts. Slipped an agile hand underneath that fluffy pillow, did the switcheroo, and somehow got back out of his room in perfect peace. If we say so ourselves, we used to be kind of graceful at this maneuver. Hey, we've done this numerous times now (I don't think he has any more teeth to lose, but you never know, I guess, lol) and got the hang of it.

Let's now go to J7. We should've known. ANYTHING THAT WORKED FOR T12 DOES NOT WORK FOR J7, and yet...here we try again.... ((insert rolling eyes and head smacking against a brick wall emoticons))

Unlike T12, J7 is PERPENDICULAR to the wall. That makes things tougher b/c he's kinda longer to reach than T12. I guess we got so used to the pole vault system that we were thrown at a loss as to how to handle the bottom bunk in which he's perpendicular to the wall AND the bed. You read right, he hasn't slept lengthwise on his bottom bunk yet b/c he is short enough to fit in that direction, and he's slept that way since he got out of the crib at 18 months. I got used to laying beside him to read him bedtime stories, so I didn't think anything about it.
There's also the issue of him being a relatively LIGHT sleeper. Not so much that he opens his eyes and is aware of stuff, but he moves around, A LOT when he does move. Most times he's just a hunk of lead until morning, remaining in the same position he went to sleep in.
Note to self...gotta get him a NEW pillow that fluffs!!! Do you have any idea how heavy a self-propelled bowling ball feels on your momentarily arthritic hands??? If I found the bag, I never knew b/c the pain in my hand cancelled whatever mission I had in mind.
Hubby's turn.

He gets this notion to have a flashlight...y'know, one of those weird blue-white lights (LEDs?? not sure). It's not particularly bright but it shines weird. He shines that thing behind J7's head trying to peek under the pillow. He moves that big head o' his again and "looks" straight at hubby. He waits for about 10 minutes b/f proceeding. J7 has been quiet during this time, so we're thinking we've got a chance to find that bag w/ the tooth. He lifts the corner of the pillow, and that bowling ball moves again. He thrashes around a little more, pulls the covers up on himself a little more, and again drops back into deeper sleep...we think. Hubby repositions himself so that he's kinda poised above him. He flashed the light around J7, lifting corners of the covers and pillow, and J7 turns some more. He evidently got a little aggitated in his sleep b/c he outright turned over and there where his shoulder was gleamed that sparkly bag containing that troublesome pearl. Hubby grabbed that okay. Now came the hard part. He was trying to be legitimate about leaving the money under the pillow, J7 had his hands under the pillow at this point. Hubby finally was running out of patience and just put the money beSIDE the pillow. Turns out that worked out perfectly. J7 had an itchy nose or som'n rolled over and the pillow went right on top of the money like hubby planned it there all along.

This is his first tooth. Obviously we're just gettin' started w/ him. :{ Anyone got the Tooth Fairy Manual for Dummies you can give us? We are seriously lacking skill for handling restless sleepers who wouldn't fall asleep at bedtime when he USUALLY did. Of course, part of that could've been my fault. He DID ask me for a glass of warm milk so he could go to sleep. Had I read page 22 of that book, we might've saved ourselves a lot of restless anxiety taking that Tooth Fairy exam.