::Serendipity::

Eyes and Teeth ________________________________________________________________

I had a cleaning yesterday at my friendly neighborhood dentist. I never mind the cleaning. It's the other stuff that I hate. With a passion. I used to get panic attacks when I'd have a filling or anything. Icky.

They have a new dental hygienist. She's done most all of the kids now. She'd come out in her little voice and tell me how great the kids are doing brushing and flossing and how there was just a tiny bit of plaque but they are doing a great job. I was shocked and pleased! Timmy brushes his teeth in 10 seconds and I have to send him back about 3 times before I think he's done a good enough job. And we've been out of flossers for a while. And rinse. Sad the things I thought I'd never skimp on when were are short of moola. But there you go. The ugly truth.

Now I doubt her ability to judge how clean my kids' teeth are all the more. I've never had a more gentle cleaning in my life. It took her 10 minutes to floss my teeth because she was so timid about getting the floss between my choppers. But X-ray's don't lie, so at least I know we are all cavity free.

I bonded with the other hygienist. Her name was Kim and she was a bigger girl like me and she had this wild curly blonde hair that had almost as much personality as she did. She'd talk all through my cleaning and I'd try to talk too, but that's kind of hard when someone has a sharp metal instrument in your mouth but somehow I'd manage to get a laugh out. She cracked me up. I don't know how we communicated, but we did and we managed to be buddies. But she got on me too. I didn't floss enough. Or hard enough. "Get down in there and dig into that gum! You've got gingivitis, girl! Don't be mamby pamby about it! Scoop out that plaque!" Whoa. Okaaay. When she cleaned my teeth, my mouth felt like it had been under assault, but it felt oh so good too. Yesterday, I barely felt a thing. And she said I was doing a great job, which I haven't been. I've been out of flossers too. Did all this gingivitis Kim told me about disappear in the last 6 months? She freaked me out! All this talk about recessed gums and surgery. Baby, I got my happy buns a flossing and rinsing! I will do anything to prevent the dentist from working on me. I guess I must have made some progress because the dentist checked me over too, and pronounced me in good shape. Thank you, Kim! I have healthy gums!

Kim was hard on the kids too. She scared them into flossing. This nice little kitten hygienist is just too sweet. She'd thank me for every time I opened my mouth. Which was a lot. I figure at least 34 thank yous. That more then makes up for all the other people I come across who don't thank me for spending money with them. (Major pet peeve! If I chose to spend part of my lack of money with you, the least you can do is thank me or tell me to have a nice day instead of looking at me like I'm in your way.) I just hope she's as good as she is gentle. I remember thinking that she made it seem nice to be a dental hygienist. Maybe when the kids graduate, I could go back to school and clean teeth. I never thought THAT before. Weird. Other people's mouths are ishy. Heck MY mouth is ishy. Germ factory from heck!

Then I had an appointment with my lovely eye doctor. He's 6 and a half feet tall and reminds me of my uncle. He's from back East too and we share the same birthday. He's also the only one who could mention my approaching 40's and not piss me off. And he talked me into dilating my eyes so he could give me the best exam possible (because of my encroaching 40's). Okay, so it didn't take a lot of talking on his part. He inferred he wanted to do it and that's all it took. Even though I hate it. And can't drive. He assured me that driving would be no problem. I believed him.

Side note. Why do I believe other people more then I believe myself? Was it his white doctor coat, or his confidence? Weird.

So I sat in the parking lot for a half hour waiting for my pupils to contract. They didn't. You should have seen me trying to cross the parking lot to my van in the oh so bright, bright sun. I think I gave myself a wrinkle from squinting so hard. I bumped into more then one car, thankfully not setting off any car alarms. I couldn't even read my book, so I listened to talk radio. Darnit, that Sean Hannity is adorable. My wonderful husband (who is much MORE adorable) left me a sandwich while I was inside too. So I gobbled that down with my eyes closed and made a mess down the front of my shirt. Heh. I called Riley and told her I was waiting for my eyes to equalize and then I realized I was going to be sitting there for a very long time. I found my Audrey Hepburn sunglasses and thankfully they fitted over my glasses and I could see! It was a miracle!

It took my eyes all night to get back to normal. Dude. That was not fun. But I'm getting new contacts so I can wear my Audrey Hepburn sunglasses this summer and not end up with crows feet any sooner then I have to.

Xander is now putting Timmy's hot wheels cars down the front of his shirt. I don't know what his little logic is in this, but it's adorable. I guess he didn't have a pocket in that shirt. Heh.

I've loved this time alone with him in the mornings. It sure is hard to have just one kid! I forgot how hard. I'm so used to having them all to entertain each other (Xander). He can be quite demanding! I had to sit and watch Cars or Max and Ruby with him, or play Wedgits or dance to Wiggles music. Darnit! I'm not getting much else done, but I'm having fun.

And when I've put him to bed for nap time, I've been making the kids' beds. They were confused by this. I asked if anyone had noticed their bed and they all said they didn't know who had done it. Um, who else? The bed making fairy? I've never really cared about their bed's being made. As long as their rooms are picked up, that's good enough for me. But really. To see their confused looks... I think this is something I need to work on. Bed Making 101 shall commence Monday morning. Because I can't start anything new on Friday. Or Saturday. I have to wait for Monday. There is no rhyme or reason to me, is there?

posted by Terri at 6/15/2007 10:44:00 AM >1 comments

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