first trip to the dentist

on tuesday, madelyn finally had her first dental appointment. i say "finally" because madelyn has been asking to go to the dentist for at least 6-months, if not longer. when we got there she told the receptionist that she was going to get a toothbrush and toothpaste. and then the receptionist told her that she would get a "prize" too! madelyn couldn't believe the bounty of riches that came from the dentist's office.

the teeth cleaning appointment was sort of a 'practice' appointment. they told me that they would only do as much as she was comfortable with, there wasn't any real goal other than getting her used to the whole experience.

when she woke up she declared excitedly that she was "going to the dentist today!" she could barely stand waiting for her 10am appointment to get here. and when we got there the enthusiasm didn't taper off. she and mason raided the toy selection while we waited and when it was her turn she jumped right up in the chair without waiting for me or to see if i was even coming. she took a ride in the chair (which stopped mason in his tracks too) and got to pick out some sunglasses so that the bright light didn't hurt her eyes. and then the hygienist got started.

the hygienist, jody, is the same hygienist that takes care of matt and i so madelyn has met her several times. she started out by making madelyn a glove balloon before counting madelyn's teeth and watching out for "mr. tongue". madelyn did great with the instruments in her mouth and jody moved on to polishing her teeth. madelyn picked strawberry 'paste' because it was sort of striped in the tub. and madelyn was a little disappointed that jody got to wear the 'ring' for the 'paste'. madelyn was just holding out her finger and waiting as soon as jody referred to it as a "ring".

madelyn got to touch the special spinning 'toothbrush' before jody loaded it up with 'paste'. and then madelyn was showed how to use the "vacuum" to help rinse the toothpaste out of her mouth; i think she liked that part. once the cleaning was over the dentist came in to take a look and do his own evaluation as a baseline going forward. both he and jody talked with madelyn about trying to stop sucking her thumb. they told me that they would like her to have stopped by the time she is 4.

and then the gift time had arrived! first madelyn was given a bag and then jody loaded it up as madelyn pondered over which toothbrush to take home. she finally settled on a blue monkey toothbrush. along with the toothbrush she got a small tube of toothpaste, a roll of tootie-fruity floss, dinosaur and crayola flossers, and a lost tooth necklace. and if that weren't enough, now it was time to go pick her "prize". after a long time examining every option in the large bowl (jody sat on the floor with her to examine all the options), madelyn selected a dragonfly stamp.

after school i tried to get her to tell me about the appointment because she kept reliving it excitedly over and over. she didn't quite have the same enthusiasm, but here is her telling about the appointment in her own words...



and then she got a little crazy with the dragonfly stamp while she and mason were playing in her room. she came out and told us that mason had a dragonfly on him. i asked where and she told me his hand. and then she came out a few minutes later and told us that he had one on his cheek. and his other cheek. and his arm. and his other arm. so matt and i called mason out too and he was ecstatic (and clueless) that he was covered in stamps. daddy even ended up with a few stamps on his hands. i was the only one who didn't get branded.we had to use nail polish remover to get the stamps off of daddy's hands before his 'important' meeting this morning. oops. love.