Fa-la-la-la-la

Meg's school had a Christmas carol event tonight where all the classrooms paraded out one by one to sing songs for the families. Thankfully it's Texas so it wasn't cold. Meg is second from the last. Mom came with me and caught it on video. Too cute! Well, too cute if it's your kid. To anyone else, not so much probably.

We have been digging out the Christmas decorations here. It's been so fun to have a new house to decorate. It's definitely got more room for decorations and the formals here really lend themselves to it. Plus, I turned on the gas fireplace. So awesome! I was a purist before, insisting to anyone who would listen (probably obnoxiously, which can be my style) that wood burning was the way to go. I was wrong. This is so much cleaner and nicer and without the smoke smell.

What's no so great? The eight cavities the dentist says I have. I know, EIGHT. Who knew that was possible? I just went to the dentist last year! Two of them are replacing two old silver fillings that appear to be decaying, but the other six? Geez. I am going to have to get serious about flossing probably. Shit. In response, see the video my sister Elizabeth sent me. She better be careful. I have some incriminating photos and 600 friends on Facebook.

Houston, we have a loose tooth

I took Andy to the dentist on Friday. (I must say, having Fridays off is pretty handy since inevitiably I am at the peditratician's, dentist's, optometrist's, ENT -- you name it). It was a new dentist for us. We used to go to a dentist that came highly recommended in Tyson's Corner. He was great and had a really cute jungle theme, highly efficient and amazing hygenists. Really. But he was just geographically undesirable. With traffic, it took practically half a day to get to there and back. So, off we went to the new dentist.

The dentist herself was quite nice and friendly. I cared less for the hygenist who seemed quite irritated that Andy was whining a bit. "Stop crying You'll get done faster that way." A fair point, but as I have learned through my outstanding parenting, firmly stating "stop crying" doesn't really work all that well. He did calm down enough for the example.

Fortunately, no cavities (phew). And as a total surprise to me, he has two loose teeth. The front bottom teeth are wiggly -- one very wiggly and the other just a little. She suggested we practice wiggling it a little every day to ensure it's loose enough for the permanent tooth to push up and out, otherwise, it might come in behind the baby tooth. She expects the first tooth out within a month, the second probably a couple months after that.

It's funny, I was a little proud and nostalgic about the whole thing. I certainly wasn't expecting it (I was more expecting the crushing news of a cavity).

Next up, figuring out the Tooth Fairy. Someone gave me a really neat gift after I had Meg that's a tooth fairy pillow. Her reasoning was that with second kids, you already have the basic stuff. I thought it was a super cool gift. Now I just have to find it.

Strep and the dentist

Andy started complaining Monday afternoon that his teeth hurt. I couldn't quite figure out what was wrong, but I knew that I had been meaning to take him to the dentist and so I was immediately worried that he had a cavity of some sort, naturally because I had been slack about brushing and the dental visit. He had a rough night of sleep Monday night. Bjorn remember that Andy fell on his way back from the pool Sunday and hit his knees and bonked his head so we figured he must have somehow knocked his teeth in the event.

I had actually scheduled a dental visit for October with a family dentist someone recommended in the neighborhood. I called yesterday morning and explained what we thought was going on and could we please come by to make sure he didn't have some tooth trauma. They recommended that I take him to a pediatric dentist because they don't normally see kids until age 5. I am pretty sure he was still 3 1/2 when I made the appointment two weeks ago so it was a little random that they didn't want to see him. She did give me the names of some nice pediatric dentists. I then went back to a recommendation from a friend for a pediatric dentist in Tyson's. Not ideal location-wise, but he came highly recommended and best of all, they could squeeze me in to make sure his teeth weren't knocked out or something.

The visit to the dentist was actually fairly pleasant for both of us. They obviously cater to kids so there were lots of toys and the hygienists were uber nice to Andy and engaging. They took and X-ray and good news, the teeth and mouth are fine. We could even see his permanent teeth on X-ray even though he won't get those until probably age 6. The dentist gave me information on what to do in future tooth trauma, pronounced him fine and sent us on our way with a nice lecture on getting rid of the binky and ways to do it.

Figuring all was well, I took him back to school and went back to work. Andy and I made a plan that after school, we would go home, get his binkies, throw them away and in return, he'd get a big boy bike. I wasn't ready to get him a bike necessarily since he really has just figured out the tricycle he's had for two years, but it was the one thing he really wanted and seemed motivated enough by it to give up those precious binkies. So we went to Target and picked out a lovely $36 12 inch bike with training wheels and a helmet (he's in a youth size helmet since his head is so big). We took it home and Bjorn put it together for us.

Andy was incredibly ornery and kept complaining about his mouth, but I figured he was tired from a rough night of sleep. The doctor said that he might complain about his teeth for a few days and to keep him on a soft diet for a week. I thought a good night's sleep would solve things. I was wrong.

We put him to bed sans binky and after about an hour in bed, he started to cry. He was asleep, but it was clear that he was in some kind of pain. It was pretty awful because he just couldn't be consoled. He just kept saying his mouth hurt and crying. After a few hours of this, Bjorn finally deduced that it was his THROAT that hurt, not his mouth/teeth even though that's what he was saying. Around 12:30, I called the pediatrician's office because he was just miserable and inconsolable. Dr. Murphy said to give him two teaspoons of Motrin and a teaspoon of Benadryl and see him at 9 a.m.

Andy and I ended up sleeping on the twin bed in Mark's room where he woke up about every 30 minutes to an hour, with a three hour stretch from about 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. It was pretty rough, mostly on him, but us, too (Meg, sweet angel baby, slept through the whole thing). You can bet that about an hour in I was really regretting throwing out those binkies.

Bjorn took him to the doctor's this morning and found out he has strep throat. The only thing we can think of is that the sinus pressure may have actually made his teeth and mouth hurt. Poor guy. Bjorn said the throat culture part was pretty terrible as Bjorn had to hold him down to scrape the back of his throat. They also tested him for mono, which is going around. He's now on antibiotics for 10 days and the prognosis is he should start to feel better immediately. Fingers crossed he knocks this out and no one else gets it. It is really hard to watch him be so uncomfortable and no know how to fix it. I can't quite believe the dentist didn't see the sore throat unless it wasn't red yet.

So, yesterday was a big day -- we tossed the binky, got a bike, visited the dentist and got strep throat. Happy August 19 everyone!