Tooth Fairy

Emma went in for the first of her serious dental appointments yesterday. The clinic won't have their next IV sedation appointments till late next month, so the doctor suggested trying nitrous oxide since she was pretty cooperative at her first check-up. I was a little apprehensive, having traumatic images of how Evan did with it last time. He fought so hard, although he was only about 3 at the time. 

Fortunately, Emma was pretty good for the most part. The appointment was around noon. I was wondering how I would keep her occupied in the morning. She herself suggested going to get blood drawn. She remembered her pediatrician had ordered some blood tests. She's a tough kid, did not even flinch as the needle was inserted. She did complain that it hurt for a while afterwards. She was tough at the dentist also. There was so much to be done that we discussed for quite a while what we might be able to do, not knowing how she would do with nitrous oxide. They ended up filling a big cavity, crowning a tooth, and pulling her two front teeth. And this is only about a quarter of everything that still needed to be done!! 

The dentist told her about the tooth fairy, which was a completely new concept to Emma, and gave her a tiny pink box to put under her pillow. (Darn it! I thought we could skip this.) So the tooth fairy had to scramble a bit to accommodate this rather unexpected tooth loss. As usual, she quizzed me from all directions on how this "tooth fairy" character worked. What is she? How would she get in the house? What would she leave for her? How would she know if Emma was asleep or not? Would she be able to find the tiny box we put in her Mickey Mouse blanket/pillow amongst all her pillows and stuff? And when Baba does his "No monsters, no bad guys, no cats in Evan and Emma's room, please" would the tooth fairy still be able to get in??? Thankfully, I could kind of play dumb and say the tooth fairy didn't visit kids in Taiwan when I was growing up so I knew nothing. I just showed her images of the tooth fairy from Google Images and tell her she's sort of a magical creature like Santa Claus and left it at that. 

First thing she did when she woke up was dig out the present. The tooth fairy replaced the tiny box with a intricately sewn pouch (Thanks, Darcie!! It was perfect! Hope you don't mind.) that held $2! Then, of course, more questions. Did mama and baba see the tooth fairy? What was that noise she thought she heard last night? Etc, etc. Her Chinese preschool teacher said it's great that she asks so many questions, that she wants to make sense of everything. NO! It's not that great when it's from morning till night, and most questions are rather… dumb. I've started to ask her to observe or figure it out for herself. I know some people say once they're teenagers they won't even wanna talk to you. But teenage is a ways away. I would love a little bit of balance right now. I must admit it was great when she had to hold the gauze in her mouth for 20 minutes after the extractions. Ahh... peace and quiet.

She's not eating much yet. It'll take her a little while to get used to the loss of her two front teeth. She'll have to wait quite a while before her permanent teeth grow in. It's so great to brush Evan's teeth. Things all seem nice and healthy. His check up is next month, so we'll find out then what "lies beneath."