Melissa Is A Lazy Blogger - Melissa Has Discovered Blokus
It has been nearly a month since I last posted. In that month, I turned 32, met our newest great-niece, was introduced to Blokus (and promptly found where I can play it online), discovered my oldest son is as enthralled with it as I am, welcomed in Roll Up The Rim To Win with a win (how I love this wondrous season in my personal calendar that comes *just* before Spring), and took my 4 year old in for his first filling.
I will not lie. I was pretty nervous about this visit. His teeth are a mess and it's imperative that we get one of the teeth dealt with asap. That tooth is going to require a long visit and involve quite a few steps to complete. Having dental traumas himself as a child (dental traumas I can understand, having had impacted wisdom teeth broken and extracted while I was awake), he suggested the option of us going to a pediatric dentist and having all the teeth dealt with at once. I was reluctant to take this approach as #2 is a little strange about doctors -- likely a result of the numerous appointments and procedures for his kidney condition that started when he was born. He associates doctors with unpleasant things and having just gotten him used to the dentist office, I am hesitant to take to yet another place to have "stuff" done.
I explained this to the dentist and together we figured out a game plan. On this visit we dealt with one of the two teeth that are not as bad (leaving the really easy ones until after the "bad" tooth) to see how he would tolerate the freezing and having work done in his mouth. #2 was enthralled.
He thought it was cool that they were going to kill the "sugar bug" in his tooth. He loved the television on the ceiling, which luckily happened to be showing a cartoon he loves and hasn't seen in awhile. He loved the hygenist -- he's a bit of a flirt with girls and acts all cute and funny to make them smile. He loved Dr. Mark, the dentist, who is really great with kids. He really loved getting to play with some of the tools ahead of time. He loved the way his mouth felt after the freezing -- he told me his mouth was silly and was randomly singing songs and saying words to hear how they sounded with half his mouth frozen. Most of all, he loved the treasure box -- getting to pick two (!) toys for being so good during his appt.
Our dentist was happy with how he was during the appt and we decided to book another appt asap to deal with the second worst tooth and see if #2 will be a little less "curious" about all the new things for that appt. If it goes well, then we go back a few weeks later to deal with the really bad tooth. Oy. By the time we're done, #2 will have more cavity-related fillings in his baby teeth than I have had in my entire life.
Speaking of teeth, my almost-six-year-old has his first loose tooth! We're all pretty chuffed about it. :) He turns six tomorrow, so the timing couldn't be more perfect for him. I'm pretty excited about finding him the perfect gift -- doubly excited that not one piece of it is a toy! He's getting the board game Blokus Duo, a gigantic book on paper crafting, a book with instructions for making a wide variety of origami airplanes (they look pretty awesome) and a block of origami paper. He is origami obsessed. :) I can't wait until he unwraps it!
His birthday party with his friends is planned for Sunday -- so far, two have confirmed, one will not be coming, and we are unsure about the fourth. Hopefully all three will be able to make it. We'll be painting "cool" t-shirts they can take home at the end, then they'll play video games, and I've put together some good treat bags for them to take home. The nice thing about only having a very small number of kids coming to celebrate means that I can spend $10 or so on a treat bag for each kid. I feel better if I feel I've sent each kid home with a bag that more or less equates what they may have spent on a gift -- mostly because it's really not about the gifts. It's about celebrating a special day with friends and having a lot of fun. :)