I’m so tired, but I know everyone will be looking for this in the morning, so here goes!
We had an exciting day at the dentist today. As planned, I gave Lex a small dose of Valium an hour before our appointment and he was nice and relaxed… until it came time to get in the car! Then he fought like he hasn’t fought in along time! It was rough. We got him buckled in to the carseat and he settled down. We did a lot of talking about what would happen and the process. When we got to the dentist he just cried. I carried him in and he cried (thankfully the hitting and kicking had subsided) and, amazingly enough, when we got into the dentist chair he calmed right down. He was intrigued to go into a different room than they normally put him in. For cleanings he’s in an open-ish room with several chairs, for this procedure we were in a room with a closed door. Soundproof, perhaps? :) I was really impressed with how well the dentist did. He tends to talk down to Lex a bit and I think that confuses Lex sometimes, but it seemed to work well and he did an amazing job of calming Lex and he seemed really tender and attentive. No medical talk over Lex’s head, no “sit still!”, nothing. He called Lex “Lexi” many times, but that’s ok. He stayed in the room the whole time, with me and two nurses. He had me sit on the chair, legs off to the side, and Lex lay across my lap with his head positioned in the chair. I think Lex was really comfortable and I got to hold his hands. I had to turn my head a few times (needle injections in many places around his tooth, tooth pulled, something stuck deep inside the hole, eek!) but the whole thing went so well. They even gave Lex his tooth in a little green treasure chest because Lex told them that green is his favorite color.
I know you’re all wondering if the tooth fairy will be visiting our house. I’m sorry to disappoint, but I think she’ll be flying right by tonight. Alan and I struggle (ok, I think I struggle and he’s ok with it) about how much to encourage the lies/fantasies. I usually have no problem playing along, but I can’t bring myself to bring it up. Lex knows nothing about the tooth fairy and he’s a pretty logical guy, so I couldn’t figure out a way to build the story. So I didn’t. He is excited to take his tooth to school tomorrow and I think that is a better solution for all of us. :)
He wasn’t in the mood for a photo this afternoon, but I’ll get one for you soon. We spent the day relaxing. Lex napped and then played with play-doh for hours, I baked bread and mini carrot cakes (and I’m ill from my complete and total lack of will-power!), and made dinner. Eve was bored silly by the end of the day. She’s protesting daycare tomorrow, but I think it will be good for her. I’m hoping all goes smoothly getting him to school and daycare tomorrow. He’s still awake up stairs now though (it’s 9:49pm) so we’ll see how tomorrow goes!
