That's Not Edible!

Let me just say, that when you spend the majority of your day looking like this
<-------------------------------------and eating everything in sight, you're bound to get something stuck in your gums. Last night, as I was brushing Adam's teeth, I noticed something dark between his teeth. It was hidden behind his front teeth, so I have no idea how long it had actually been there. Brushing, flossing, sheer brute strength holding him down and trying to scrape it out with a fingernail didn't work. Hmm, well, it is past time for him to have his first dental check-up. I spent this morning calling the pediatric dental clinic only to hear a recording that they aren't seeing patients until March due to them not having a dentist. Interesting dilemma. I called the next closest base (20 min. away) and their clinic is closed today because it's "National Children's Dental Health Month" and so they're doing some special awareness seminar on another base. Third choice- Camp Courtney (45 min away), a doctor (dentist) actually answered the phone when I called. I explained the situation, hoping I didn't sound like some crazy mother who never feeds her kid and just lets him forage outside for whatever sustenance he can find. Surprise, surprise, he told me to bring in him right away. What a huge relief. I packed up the kids, armed with a map, snacks and plenty of tunes on the ipod. I only took 2 wrong turns, but still managed to be 20 minutes early so I feel it was a pretty successful trip. Adam ate a whole granola bar, 3 peanut butter crackers and a half a cup of H2O. Good thing he decided to snooze those last 5 minutes, I was practically out of food.


Camp Courtney has a pretty cute children's jail. Oops, I mean kid's waiting area. It would have been helpful to have a door or gate. Adam really loved exploring, which made filling out the paperwork especially challenging. But beggars can't be choosers and this is by far one of the best waiting areas we've been to. Mary let Adam hold Mooey the Cow because she didn't want him to be scared for his first appointment. I thought that was particularly sweet of her.

About to meet the dentist. He's blissfully unaware of what's to come.Prying out the foreign object. It looks so easy, but what you can't see is me holding Adam's arms, trying to keep his wiggly body under control and simultaneously being kicked in the stomach over and over and over. Thankfully, the dentist was fast. Any bets on what was stuck up there? Stick, pine cone, rock, dirt, snail, dare I think food? Drum roll, please.....if you thought pine cone, then you win! He gets those little tiny ones and shoves them in his mouth and squirrels them away like he's well, a squirrel. Ouch, that must have hurt. It was one of the prickly points that was stuck in his gum.
Yea! We survived!On our drive north, I noticed 2 McDonald's with indoor playgrounds. How exciting! We don't have any close to where we live, so I told Mary if she was extra good at the dentist office, I would treat her to something special. She and Adam both deserved some quality play time and I seriously deserved some fries.All in all it was a pretty good day. I'm relieved we didn't have to wait all weekend to get the pine cone removed. I'm happy that my children behaved themselves at the dentist. I'm super glad we don't have to make the drive to Camp Courtney every day (traffic was rage inducing). I love that as the dentist is walking out of the exam room he says, "Oh, and try to keep him from eating any more pine cones." Ha,ha,ha. Helloooo, did you not see how in the past 5 minutes he tried to put in his mouth the mirror, the foot pedal for the chair, the plastic covering on the chair, the tooth brush, your knee....? All I can say is "Adam! That's not edible!" And try my best.