Our day today started out like every other Wednesday. The kids woke us up a little too early, ate cheerios, then started getting ready for school. But then Grayson made a discovery in his mouth. For months he's been hoping to lose a tooth. Many of his friends have lost not just one but several teeth, but he has not. He's always checking for wiggly ones, but so far there have been none. So we were shocked when this morning he came running to show us that inside his mouth, just below one of his front baby teeth, a new big tooth had popped through.
He thought it was cool, but we said "uh oh" and tried to not look too alarmed. The baby tooth it was supposed to replace was still rock solid - no wiggles at all. The new big tooth was below it and growing toward the back of his mouth. It was completely through and had probably been through for at least a week. let's just say there weren't merely white ridges - it was a tooth!
We got the boys off to school and I called our dentist who confirmed my fear - the baby tooth would likely need to be pulled. UGH. As a Mom, this completely freaked me out.
I went about my Wednesday (my favorite day of the week!) as usual. Ella stayed home with a sitter so I could read to Grayson's class at school and have lunch with him. It was hot dog day so he bought his lunch - his favorite! I never actually eat (it's at 10:45 am!) but I sit and we spend some quality time together.
Then at noon I picked up Max from preschool and he and I went to Chipotle for his favorite - quesadillas. We then ran a couple of quick errands and I dropped him back at home with the sitter. I then went to pick up Grayson early from school and take him to the dentist. Oh, how I was dreading this visit. I warned the dentist ahead of time that he HATES shots and would likely panic if he saw one coming. Maybe you should use the laughing gas I suggested. Nervous Mom. Really nervous Mom.
On the way there I played it cool, and treated him to Yogli Mogli (his favorite frozen yogurt) as a special pre-dentist treat. I made him promise me he'd be brave no matter what our dentist said about his tooth. Mom, is he going to do something bad to me? Grayson asked. No, of course not! Dr. Goettl is the very best and would never do anything bad to you. It will be fine and you'll do great. I didn't lie, but I did not tell him what I knew was coming. I knew for sure he'd panic.
So we arrived at the office and our kind dentist (who is a really jolly happy man and is great with kids!) took a look and brought Grayson back to his exam room. Should I come? I asked nervously. No, Mom, you stay here and if we need you we'll come get you. He said.
It took about 20 minutes and I could hear from a distance all that was going on. They talked, he joked, Grayson laughed. I'd hear little things like "there we go" and "ok now we'll do this" and Grayson would answer back or laugh.
I waited for the first yelp. For the first scream. For the crying. For the nurse running to get me. For sure this would happen as soon as he saw the needle, or the pliers, or the blood. I paced in the waiting room and tried to carry on a conversation with Tracy, the receptionist.
Soon the assistant came out and said I could go back - they were done. Done? Yep. Tooth was out. Grayson was just fine. His lip felt like rubber he said, and he thought his tooth looked really cool. Dr. Goettl put it in a little plastic box he wore around his neck.
I was astonished, and thanked Dr. Goettl from the bottom of my heart. Grayson was really surprised when I told him the tooth fairy would finally come to our house. He didn't think this "counted" since the tooth didn't actually fall out. Yep, baby, it counts. It really, really counts!
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