Dentist trip

M had his first dentist appointment this morning. We had been meaning to take him in forever, because the ubiquitous "they" say that the earlier you take kids to the dentist, the more comfortable they'll feel at appointments in the future, but, of course, had been putting it off. Then, yesterday, he started pointing to one of his teeth and saying that it hurt. He has all his teeth in now, thank God, and the tooth looked a little odd next to the gumline, so we thought maybe he had a cavity. I called a pediatric dentist that someone recommended and the earliest they could see him was this morning. I was dreading the visit, because I was sure he had a cavity and the dentist would give me a lecture about all the things we're doing wrong from a dental point of view (namely that he still nurses off to sleep at night and that's really bad for your teeth).

Not sensing my anxiety, Mateo was beside himself with excitement over the impending dental visit. All day yesterday, he kept begging to go to the dentist right now! He knew the dentist's first name was Marshall and he kept asking when we would get to see Marshall. This morning, we had to leave pretty early to make it on time, but we had a few minutes of extra time for breakfast and he pretty much refused to eat anything. He said something to the effect of 'no, I don't want breakfast, I want to leave for the dentist RIGHT NOW!"

Anyway, the long story short is that he doesn't have any cavities. Whew. His tooth was a little bit stained, which is why it looked weird, but there wasn't anything wrong with it. The dentist said that his gums were still a little irritated around one of his most recent molars, so that could have been causing the pain.

And, Mateo was a total rock star throughout the visit. He played happily with toys in the waiting room, as I explained to the receptionist that Mateo has two moms and hence I had crossed out the "father" part of the form to add another "mother". (This whole gay parenting thing seems to include coming out to people in the most random places.) He trotted happily back to the exam room and sat on the chair without a word of complaint. He got a bit discombobulated when they started reclining the chair, but was quickly distracted by the cool sunglasses he got to wear so the light wouldn't shine in his eyes. And, not only did he let them look in his mouth, but he sat patiently through the whole cleaning. The dentist and the hygenist said at the end that many two-year-olds won't even sit in the chair, so he did really, really well.

He was so excited about the whole thing that, after we got home, he spent the first 10 minutes "showing" baby Talia how to floss. Priceless.

Yay for healthy teeth!