Between tooth and bear

I had dinner last night with my friends and their six-year-old daughter, T. The night began with excitement as T exclaimed that she had a wiggly tooth. She took precautions to keep that loose tooth safe by only eating watermelon and yogurt for dinner.

Soon after dinner, T and I we were playing our usual game, Lighty (in which she is a dog named Lighty). I am sometimes Lighty's owner, but often I'm simply the voice and action for Lighty's slow-talking Southern stuffed-animal friend, Bear. (Sass, you might recall Bear's voice from a hound dog that Mom and Dad fostered during Christmas 1999.)

In this episode, Lighty and Bear were at the beach. After Lighty kicked Bear into the ocean (long story), she dove in to save him. They have a complicated relationship. Of course, as she carried him in her mouth, that tooth wiggled right out. Screams, cheers, and testing the new speech with one less tooth ensued.

The next morning, she told her grandmother on the phone, "I lost my tooth when I bit a bear!"

Her grandmother exclaimed, "How great! You lost your tooth in a pear?!"

Of course she answered, "No... I bit a bear!"