Sophia's 1st Dental Appointment

On March 19th Sophia went in for her 1st Dental appointment. I had hopes that it would be as positive an experience as it had been for Padon. I thought I might also get to take some pictures but Walter had a scheduling conflict and I had to go by myself., which made pictures impossible.

We (Padon, Sophia, and I) were called into the dental room pretty quickly after arriving and the process was smooth but not so much fun. Because Sophia was so little they had me sit her on my lap, facing me, and then had her recline back into the lap of the dental hygienist that was sitting in front of me in another chair, our knees touching. Sophia was like, "What?! No!" and started to cry. The hygienist used a stack of tongue depressors all taped together to keep her from closing her mouth and said it was okay if she cried because it allowed them to look in her mouth easily. They actually polished her teeth and wiped on the fluoride, which also made her cry (it didn't taste good) and counted her teeth. They were pleased to see that she had 10 teeth and said that everything looked good and that her teeth were coming in correctly. I had been concerned because Padon's teeth came in like text book whereas Sophia got her 8 front teeth and started to get her molars before her canines.

Everything was over in a flash, they said to give Sophia the fluoride toothpaste, albeit just a tiny bit, because we don't have fluoride in our water, and emphasised that I chew a Dentyne type gum to keep down any dental bacteria that I may have and that I may pass to Sophia in kissing her.

Padon for the most part was really good, although he was excited to be back in the dental office and would have liked to have water sprayed in his mouth again to kiss the sucking tube. It was the experience I was afraid we would have with Padon and I felt a little sick inside. I hope when we go back in 6 months that Sophia isn't still as bothered by the process. I would rather both Padon and Sophia looked forward to it.

Just Some Plain Cute Pictures of Pia at the Park in March

Best Sick Kids Ever?

Two weeks ago Padon woke up and his eyes were gummy. The kind of gummy I got A LOT as a little kid. I told Walter that I used to get it a lot when I was little and I thought it was just another symptom of a cold. But then gradually as the day went on his eyes got puffier and grosser until we were starting to suspect Pink Eye. Walter scheduled a doctor's appointment and the next morning we learned that Padon didn't have Pink Eye but an ear infection; what! Who knew your ear infection could back up into your eyes?! Gross! At the question to whether Padon's ear hurt he replied "eh...", like not really... Dr. Go gave Walter two things of antibiotics and eye drops and said to watch Pia to see if her eyes didn't start to get gunky too.

Two days later Pia also had the gunky eyes with no complaints and no crying. Both kids were troopers and never complained of pain or achy ears. - As the following week went by Sophia's eyes continued to be gunky if the eye drops weren't given to her (again no crying), and a generic cough, that both Padon and Sophia had, started to get worse. We wondered if something was up but was the brush of the ear an ear ache for Sophia or just irritating wisps of hair tickling? Walter and I were riding the I-hate-this-winter-and-lagging-colds band wagon until last night when both Padon and Sophia went to bed coughing and the cough quickly got so bad they were whooping and gagging themselves awake. We inclined their beds, dosed them with Get Better Bear, and decided that maybe another trip to the doctor was in order.

I went to bed wondering if I sounded like Padon did in his bedroom if it would have been enough for my Mom to take me to the doctor when I was his age. - Walter scheduled another doctor's appointment and later called to say, "Yep! Sophia's got an ear infection in her left ear and both kids have strep throat." Cussing Strep Throat?! What kid doesn't comment on their throat hurting over Strep Throat?! And what kid eats, let alone oranges (Sophia!), with a sore throat! Thank goodness we had the awesomeness to have inclined their beds, since that was what the doctor had recommended. So Padon and Sophia have been sent home, each with their own bottle of strong antibiotics, they can't go to school tomorrow, Walter gets to call the school to say, "yeah, my kids caught that strep throat you posted that announcement about 3 weeks ago", and my kids rock for barely crying but over the discomfort of being woken up when they were tired.

Dandelion Dinner

Walter sent me this coversation exchange via email today and I totally count it as his first blog post - teehee!
Padon: Daddy I got flowers.
Daddy: You got flowers?
Padon: Yah I got flowers daddeee.
Daddy: They are very (Interrupting)
Padon: Yah. Mommy cook dem for dinner.
Daddy: Ugh, well I don't (Interrupting)
Padon: Yah. Mommy cook dem for dinner an nen, an nen nighttime comes, an nen have a green lollipop.
Awesome! I wonder if Padon will still want them for dinner when I get home. For you baby; anything!!

Want To Hear The Most Annoying Sound In The World?

"Want to hear the most annoying sound in the world?" said Jim Carrey (Lloyd Christmas) to Mike Starr (Joe "Mental" Mentalino) while riding in a furry, dog shaped, van with Jeff Daniels (Harry Dunnes, Lloyd's roommate) in the movie Dumb and Dumber.

Truly one of the funniest movies, I would never have thought that, that line may have been founded in some toddler vocal research. Did the writer have a 15 month old Pia sitting next to him/her when they wrote that funny dialogue into the script? Because even though she has never seen the movie she can make the sound to a "T". And yes, Lloyd Christmas of Providence, Rhode Is., it is the most irritating sound in the world.

Walter and I have been working and working with Sophia to sign her desires, as we did with Padon who adopted signs like they were noth'n. But our pleads of "more please, drink?, food?" and "all done?" has still resulted in a louder decibel of a grating "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" (see movie for exact sound byte). It wasn't until we dropped Sophia off at "school" that I over heard another little girl in her room making the exact same sound in request to be picked up off the floor and carried over to the snack table instead of using her perfectly capable crawling skills to get her there. This was echoed by a little boy, already at the table, at his displeasure in finding he had eaten all of his goldfish crackers. Well, I suppose it's nice to know she's learning something. It was nice to see the teacher followed the little boy's sound with "more please" and said to the little girl "come on Kaitlyn, come sit down for snack." I don't remember this with Padon, although I do remember Walter saying loudly to Padon in the car "Padon! Don't scream in the car, it's too loud!" Maybe he did....maybe I repressed it. In any case I hope it is short lived, sheesh!

And So It Begins

And so it begins...At 33 1/2 years old I have had my first undeniable gray hair. Sigh! I told Walter this wasn't supposed to happen until I was at least 43. Darn right I plucked that baby ignoring superstitions it was now going to grow back thicker and more gnarly. Will I dye my hair as it grays more and more? Yeah, probably. I know it's a gradual process but I just can't imagine myself with gray hair. That being said, Walter started graying at 27 and I can't imagine him without his graying beard, graying temples, and graying browline. Funny....