Dental Milestones

Grandma & I took Gus on his first trip to the dentist on Friday. I'd love to report about his bravery, but that would be untrue. He howled and howled. He has 12 teeth fully in, and two canines up top presently erupting. He has a 100% overbite, and as was the case at Viv's first appointment, we were assured that we'd need braces one day for him.

Viv, on the other hand, was a model patient for this visit - her third. She was very brave and got a sticker advertising the fact. Viv has an 80% overbite. She also has a cavity. ARGH!!! So, she got her first x-ray and was perfectly behaved under the lead apron, which had princess-y sparkles that made it all OK in her world. But there was no denying that the x-ray showed a cavity, even to these untrained eyes. The cavity is behind her top two teeth right where they touch and is sort of a half circle on each tooth. Dr. Shaw plans to fix this by grinding away the whole side of each of her front teeth so she'll have a gap between her teeth. "Not like David Letterman or anything," I was assured. OK, then like what exactly? But I guess we'll have no real way to know until she's sporting it. Viv's teeth are very close together - evidently more so than the average toddler's teeth. And Dr. Shaw says that "gaps are good" because they help prevent cavities. Indeed. We were also told that the process would be most unpleasant for Viv, "don't bring Gus," and bring a change of clothes for her because a lot of kids throw up when they have it done. Viv has never thrown up before (besides from baby spit-up) by the way, so if she does, that part will probably freak her out as much as any of it. I asked Curt to take the day off to go with Viv and me for this because I am afraid we'll both need him there.






In an effort to have the kids have pleasant associations with dentist days, I took off the remainder of the day to do something fun with them. Grandma & I took them to the amusement area at City Park. We rode the flying horses and the train. Curt met us after that and took Viv down a big slide that you ride down on a burlap bag. It's over so quickly that I missed the shot, but we went to Storyland after, and I got these shots of them going down the big dragon slide.









When we got back home we all got in the wading pool. But beforehand, Curt put Vivi's hair in the perkiest little ponytail that I just had to get some pictures of it.