Induction

Hannah has another loose tooth, her third. In the car the other morning she took a break from wiggling it to inform me that "When this tooth comes out, the Tooth Fairy is going to bring me $2!"

Really? How do you know that?

"Well, when I lost my first tooth, I got 2 quarters. Then when I lost my next tooth, I got a dollar bill. Every time I loose a tooth, I get twice the amount of of money I got for the last tooth. So I'm getting $2 for this tooth."

I almost almost asked her how much she figured she'd get after she lost her, say, 12th tooth. But I don't think I want her counting that far ahead (though I was curious whether she could figure it out--she keeps surprising me with her intuitive grasp of arithmetic).

What she doesn't know is that the Tooth Fairy grabbed that dollar bill in a panic when she remembered--on her way to go wake Hannah up for school--that she hadn't taken care of the tooth the night before.