Gracie goes to the dentist

It would seem that in order to be admitted to kindergarten you must know your colors, identify some shapes, recognize the letters, be able to write your name and have your shots, as well as a form from the dentist to state that you have been there. Who knew?

Gracie had her first dental appointment this week, and as you might guess it was not without its little adventures. First, momma, in her wisdom, (Hold back the sarcastic laughter here) thought it would be a good and efficient idea to schedule herself and Gracie at the same time. No, this didn't work, Gracie wants momma, and only momma, when things are uncertain. If she needs protected from the bug, bird, storm, dog, etc, its daddy, but if its drama or trauma, its momma. (hey, did anybody else noticed that rhymed? that was an accident!!) So, momma sits in the chair with Gracie in her lap to make it through her first cleaning. The hygienist was great with Gracie and walked her through everything and let her help with stuff along the way. The helping thing was great for little miss independent, Gracie thought that was big stuff. She was introduced to Mr. Thirsty ( that little suction thing that gets the goo out of your mouth) as well as the Flossasoris. Flossasoris, or Flossy, is a big purple dinosaur puppet with big (human) false teeth sown in so kids can see what will happening before it does. With the effort and talent of the staff, things went well.

After Gracie was finished it was momma's turn. Gracie had to leave the room so momma could get x-rays done. She didn't like this too much as she wanted to stay and watch momma. She was still a bit unsure of her surroundings so she still wanted to be glued to momma. With the help of another staff member, and Flossy, we made it out to the hallway. The staff member helped me and Gracie play with Flossy, floss its teeth, brush its teeth, check for cavities, etc. etc. etc. After about 10 minutes of this the staff member turned Flossy over to me to operate and we continued to play. After some time Gracie kept making the game more and more elaborate. She added putting pretend toothpaste on Flossy's brush as well as taking the tongue in and out to clean under it. (it was velcro-ed in place) At one point she decided Flossy needed to lay down like she had to so Gracie could get a better angle to floss. (this is when kids knowing the 'right' words for things can be an issue) So, daddy, following Gracie's instructions, pulls his hand out of Flossy's back and lays Flossy down. I then turn my arm over and return it to Flossy's back and with some effort I can move Flossy's mouth. This is a bit awkward and the odd angle of having Flossy in this position tends to make Flossy's legs rise in the air and expose Flossy's bottom. Gracie still cant reach to floss Flossy the way she wants to so she chastises daddy for creating this issue with the following loud and giggling statement.

"No, daddy, don't be silly. I want to floss Flossy's teeth, not her VAGINA"

Silly daddy, I should have known better. Silly daddy, it never even occurred to me that Flossy was a girl.

I manage to survive this and move on. Gracie moves on as well with a little quick and professional daddy diversion technique. Then Gracie gets to go use Mr. Thirsty to get the goo out of momma's mouth as momma is almost done.