If you’ll remember, when I asked Juliana what she wanted for her birthday, she asked me if I would take her to the dentist.  In that moment, it hit me that she and her sisters had probably never been to the dentist before.  I asked them and their dad and, sure enough, they hadn’t made it to the dentist before.  I decided that my goal for August would be to get all three of them to the dentist (in September, I’m going to work on getting them to their first vision appointments).  Their dad works long hours, so he was more than happy to sign over for me to be able to take them to the dentist.  A few phone calls and many pages of paperwork later, we were on our way!

I decided to divide the girls’ appointments up, so one afternoon earlier this week, Angelina and I headed over to my dentist’s office for her first cleaning!  I didn’t tell any of the girls they were going to the dentist until right before their appointment to help ward off fear (all of them were very nervous about the dentist).  When I showed up at Angelina’s school to check her out early with the promise of a trip to Sonic before the dentist, she was very excited!

Once we got back to the room, she wasn’t as excited… but she still took it like a champ!  That’s my girl!

About 45 minute later, my little rock star finished up, princess toothbrush in hand.

In an effort to knock out as many appointments as possible, I had also scheduled myself for an appointment to have a couple of fillings done.  Can you believe that, until this point in my life, I have never had a cavity before?  I had no idea what to expect and I was a bit nervous, but as soon as they put the laughing gas mask on, I was in a very good place.  A very good place I didn’t want to leave.  A very good place indeed.

Until I opened my eyes to discover that Angelina was taking pictures of me and attempting to post them to my Facebook account.

Right after the dentist began working on my teeth, an emergency case came in which meant they had to put me on hold for a bit.  Luckily for me, they left the laughing gas with me.  By the time the dentist got back to my chair, I was contemplating ways to go about life with a laughing gas mask permanently attached to my face.

Judging by the picture Angelina took while I was in la-la land, everything went well.

The next morning, I took Angelina to school and then headed over to a pediatric dentist office with Juliana and Olivia.  Both of the girls were nervous about their appointments, but luckily for me and them, the office had a very fun waiting room!

When we went back, Juliana hopped in the chair with only a little hesitation.  Look at baby girl!

Unfortunately, Olivia wasn’t exactly the same case.  The minute she saw the gloves and masks, she lost it.  Ever since her stint in the ICU, she has understandably been very afraid of doctors.  I ended up having to hold her down on the table so the dentist could look at her teeth and, when he put his finger in her mouth, she promptly bit it as hard as she could.  Oh, Olivia.

At the end of our dentist visits, we walked away with two girls having no cavities and one of the girls having several cavities.  I suppose it could have been worse, given the fact they’ve never seen a dentist before.

Can I tell you a secret?  Taking the girls to the dentist is one of the most enjoyable things I’ve done lately.  I don’t know why, but I suspect it has something to do with the fact that taking children to the dentist is such a motherly, nuturing type of thing.  I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed taking them; isn’t that weird?  I would count taking them to the dentist as one of my favorite activities with them ever, even if it wasn’t necessarily their favorite activity.

Of course, I would also count my 45 minutes with the laughing gas mask as one of my favorite activities ever, too.