Good thing this only comes around every six months

July 31, 2009
With the odds stacked against her for healthy teeth thanks to my family's genes, we decided it was time for Pearl's first dentist appointment. We were hoping that if we went to a pediatric dentist, Pearl wouldn't scream too much and actually let the dentist look at her teeth. Boy were we wrong! It was a horrible morning and Jeff almost called and canceled the appointment all together. I was determined to just finish off the morning with another hour of screaming, tears, tantrums, and some yelling on my part and hauled her off in protest. She was fine in the waiting room because there were toys to distract her but kept asking "what's that?" at the drilling and wheeling sounds coming from the exam room. I tried to convince her to take a peek and see how the big kids handled the situation but once it was her turn she FREAKED! I swear that kid remembers getting her first shots at the doctor's office because anytime she sees a nurse she clings to my legs and screams! We pretty much disrupted the entire office routine and resorted to holding her down for 17 seconds, just long enough for the dentist (who was this sweet lady and seriously no more than 5 feet tall) to count her teeth, tell me her last two teeth were almost through (DUH! With the morning we had had already, I knew that!), and that the best we could do was keep working on a routine to brush her teeth twice a day. The bright side of the morning was a new Disney princess toothbrush for Pearl and a $7 co-pay for mom.