First Dentist Visits

Part I - Gracie's Visit

Gracie's dentist appointment, her very first because I'm freakishly nervous like that, went GREAT! Really!  The child is 5 years old now and has had teeth since she was 4.5 months old.  I remember the day her first teeth popped through very vididly.  We were packing up and heading out for our 3800 mile family roadtrip with a little chunky baby! And she picked that day to bust out her first two teeth. 

I felt she was as prepared as a kid could be for her first dental torture.  A dentist visited her preschool and they put on a little play about brushing teeth. She got to dress up like a tooth and "sugar-bugs" stuck to her.  Another day, I took her with me when I went to the orthodontist. She got to see the office and the chair and tools, and she watched me lay there and open my mouth for the dentist. 

Gracie loved her dentist visit! She was happy and laughing and loving all the attention they were paying to her. They cleaned her teeth, counted them, poked them, did xrays, and a flouride treatment. No cavities!

The entire time she was in the chair, she was staring at a movie on a tv that hung from the ceiling. All three of the kids were loving the movie on the ceiling. Libby and Charlie were cranking their necks so that they could see too.


The dentist was awesome. Very good with kids! I'll bet if he wasn't a dentist, he would be one of the Wiggles.  He must have a whole bunch of kids because he really understood how to talk to the kids and make the appointment wonderful.

The place was pretty cool! The kids loved it. Colorful paint on every wall, tv on the ceiling, toys and video games in the waiting room, children's books everywhere, and yet it wasn't over-stimulating. The kids were enchanted but not overwhelmed. Gracie got a little mermaid spinning toothbrush and each kid got a balloon. Libby was jealous that Gracie got a princess toothbrush and got to have her teeth tickled and she didn't! So, I made her an appt for tomorrow!

They loved it so much we're going back! I am beyond flabbergasted in such a good way!

Part II - Libby's Turn

Today was Libby's turn and she wanted to go and get a princess toothbrush like Gracie did. She was in a great mood, right up until she did a faceplant in the driveway and skinned up both of her knees and bumped her chin.

That was at 9am and the appointment was at 11am. Two solid hours of crying over skinned knees! I was pretty sure the dentist appointment was doomed. She snapped out of her bad mood as soon as we got there. Whew! Just in time to go to the dentist's and play in the waiting area. We had to wait a long time today, didn't get called back till 11:35. Then she remembered that she was crabby and started to cling and cry.

I only had Libby and Charlie this time because Gracie was at school.

So, she just had a quick eksam (oh great, now my letter eks won't work on my keyboard! just sound it out.) No eks-rays and no cleaning or fluoride treatment. Mainly because of her angziety (ok, who knew I used that letter so often). The dentist and I faced each other, knees together and we held Libby on our laps. Her head went in his lap and I held her hands and her body was in my lap. She cried, but he said this was the best hold for two year olds, it has the feeling of being safe and mom is holding her. True. She opened enough and he poked all of her teeth and flossed them. He said no cavities and he didn't think she needed a cleaning or fluoride at this time due to her behavior. He would rather she just have a quick and relatively easy appointment and we can do those things when she is ready. Sounded good to me.

He said her baby teeth are crowded. He sees orthodontic work in her future. She will need an ortho evaluation as soon as her permanent teeth start popping through at age 7 or 8. He said the earlier the better, before they set into the jaw bone (oh, like mine?)

She got to sit up and get a hug and she said "that was fun". She's two and already understands the fine art of sarcasm! I'm so proud!

We went back to reception and they had a Cinderella spinning toothbrush for her. She was so eksited!

Charlie, the Amazing Baby

My 7 month old grandson, Charlie is absolutely amazing!  He's pretty darn cute too!  Lately he has been growing by leaps and bounds. Every time I see him he looks bigger and can do more things.

We had to put up our baby gate on the stairs.  Seems early, but using a temporary laundry basket baracade wasn't doing the job.  And we had to babyproof the TV electronics.  He already found the joys of pushing buttons.

Charlie is 20 pounds now. He crawls too.  He was getting around just fine with scooting and wriggling and rolling, but he recently learned to do a real hands and knees crawl.  Or, I should say a hands and knees sprint. The kid is fast!  He crawls to things and pulls himself up to standing too.  Yup. Standing.  And if he is excited enough he will let go, stand for just a second or two on his own and then tip over.  I am shocked that he can do this since he seems pretty top heavy; he seems to defy the laws of physics. 

As his grandma, I just have to show you lots of pictures!  Here they are:

Size Doesn't Matter

The tag is all wrong. It should say 0 - 31 months, or as long as I can squeeze my skinny little butt into them.

Wax on, Wax off, repeat

I confess.  Six months ago I was out of my mind. Why did I get braces? 

On my last visit, the orthodontist suggested that 4 teeth come out.  So, he clipped my wires so that they are only on my front teeth and my doomed teeth were set free.  Did you catch that bit about the wire being snipped? 

I have sharp pointy wire ends poking me!  One side broke free of the rubber band and is now sticking out farther than the other three pokey ends.  This is uncomfortable to say the least. 

It popped off the bracket on Friday. Saturday I was too busy to deal with it. Guess what, the office is closed until Wednesday. I've been being stabbed in the face for five days now and I'm growing unhappy with the whole poking business.

I have some dental wax to paste over it, but every time I eat the wax falls off.  I think I've swallowed an entire candle by now. Ewww. I really don't like the feeling of the wax in the first place, it's kinda yucky, but at least it isn't poking me.  Now, if I could just quit losing my blob of wax!

Grandma came to visit

My girls have two grandmas and one of them came to visit!  They have my mom and my mom's mom. Grandma and Great Grandma. AKA The Grandmas.  They're a pair, always together, just like Gracie and Libby.  They do things together.

Grandma came without Great Grandma and really threw the girls for a loop. "Where's the other one Grandma?"  "Where is the Gracie Grandma?"  The whole idea of just one grandma was mind boggling!  But we all managed just fine even though we sure missed having Great Grandma here too.

My mom flew in on Saturday just in time to go out for dinner and left on Monday morning. Quick Trip! We had a wedding reception to attend on Sunday. It was a lot of fun!  My mom wrote about her trip on her blog, so I won't repeat the same story.

The girls sure enjoyed having Grandma here, even though it was a quick trip. They were very excited and sorry to see her go again so soon.  She was instructed to bring Great Grandma Gracie with her next time and she said she would. We sent her on her way home with lots of hugs to tide her over until we see her again.

I'm Serging!

I am a total serger newbie, but I'm doing it!

I've had the machine for 2 years now,  really, you'd think I would be serging like a pro or at least doing some advanced work by now. But, I've barely been able to get the thing to work.  The machine has mostly just been a dust collector. 

I had it working at one point and then ran over a pin.  Apparently, that is a big serging no-no!  I just took it to JoAnn Fabrics again and the very nice lady in the Viking store inside JoAnns tweeked it for me and got it going. She says there is something wrong with it since the tensions should all be on "N" but she figured out how to adjust each tension knob until the stitching was right.  Whew!

For some reason, I still couldn't get it to work after I brought it home. When I was at JoAnns, I had red thread in the machine. I decided to change it to black and then nothing worked. After a couple of days of struggling with the black thread, I tried white.  First try and it worked like a dream!  

I serged the edges of a bunch of cute baby flannels and made some receiving blankets and burp cloths for my new grandson (he's due in May). 

Next I tried a Tshirt reconstruction that I've had my eye on for two years at least.  Using an adult size Tshirt, I made a dress for my daughter to play in. I really like it and she does too!  It was quick and easy.  I do think it needs a ruffle for the bottom because the lettuce edge didn't ruffle up enough.  The tutorial that I read has a strip of elastic in the back to make the dress more fitted, but I'm not sure Gracie needs that.  Although, Libby will.

I am ready to raid my husband's stash of neglected Tshirts and serge up a bunch of play dresses for summer.  Nice cotton Tshirts will be perfect for summer!

Coming Soon: Orthodontic Hell!

I'm so excited!  NOT!

I went to the orthodontist today for my once a month tweek.  And the dentist gave me some bad news.  It's always weird when the dentist discusses my treatment with me while I'm laying down in the chair.  They tip me back really far and I almost wonder if I'll slide off and land on my head.  This is how I have serious conversations about my braces with my dentist.

He said that my teeth are stubborn.  Well, that's no surprise. I'm stubborn all over.

Hovering over me, he went on to say that my teeth are just too crowded and they cannot find the space they need. He thought they might be able to line up in my jaw, but it's not  happening like he'd hoped.  Therefore (yes, he said "therefore" while he wore his bubble gum smelly gloves) I need to have four teeth extracted.

There it is.  The word.  Extracted.  Extracted means grabbed with a claw-like pair of pliers, twisted and yanked out leaving a bloody hole.  Four extractions. One in each quadrant so that my teeth are balanced and I don't end up with my front teeth off to the side. Here's the good news:  they can do it today or anytime I'm ready!  Oh, goody. That is so delightful.

Two of these teeth just got fillings six months ago.  Why am I doing this again?  I should be careful what I wish for, because just the other day I was wishing I could get my braces off.  Now my wish is coming true. There will be four teeth getting the braces off! Ay, yiy, yih.  

This ought to really help the hillbilly in me really shine through.  Can you sense my excitement?  Not yet, huh?  Yeah, me neither.

 * Dental extraction tools from WWI in a museum somewhere. I hoisted this pic from the internet. Thank you, Google Image search and people who allow their photos to be shown publicly. Hopefully my dentist has more modern equipment.