First Visit to the Dentist

We’ve been searching for a dentist for Alex for a while.  (Honestly, I think I’ve subconsciously been putting it off because let’s face it – once you’ve had a bad dentist experience, you remember it forever…and it makes it pretty hard to get excited about the dentist.)  First, we are very limited by our insurance as to who we can see that’s on our plan, which is a bummer because a friend at our church has a husband who is a dentist and he comes highly recommended.  Second, our dentist office will not see children until they are four years old – they recommend seeing a pediatric dentist.  Third, the pediatrician recommended Alex see a dentist when he turned three – but she recommends a pediatric dentist at that age too.  Fourth, our insurance considers a pediatric dentist a specialist, which costs a whole lot more (underscore WHOLE LOT) than a plain old dentist.  These are all of my excuses for taking so long to get him in for his first visit.

Enter Groovy Dental.  They are one of the few on our insurance plan, so I made Alex his appointment and tried very hard to forget the cost (here you can visit their website – http://www.groovymolar.com).  And it’s not like their prices are unreasonable…they are the same as every other pediatric dentist in the area – dental insurance is just ridiculous (or insert a number of other adjectives here).  For months we’ve been talking about the dentist and what he does and why it’s important to go, but Alex still wasn’t sure this would be a good thing.  We’re into rhyming so we even made up a little saying about Dr. Brad – Dr. Brad is Rad (hey, that rhymes mommy! and then the enthusiasm vanished).

This morning he woke up and decided maybe could wait to go to the dentist, “um…until later”.  Protesting the entire way, we headed to the office.  I dragged grandma along with me as back up in case of complete meltdown (okay, in reality she was there to keep me calm).  Walking down the hall in the office building he kept saying he didn’t want to go…and then we opened the door to the office and he saw the toys and his attention was instantly diverted.  Then came the moment when they asked Alex to go to the back for pictures of his teeth.  Alex looked up and said he didn’t think he was ready yet, but very sweetly and with (in my opinion at that time of the morning) way too much enthusiasm, his hygienist started to slowly persuade him that he was ready (no small feat) and finally off he walked, without me or grandma.  While holding our breath and waiting for the screaming to start, we heard a strange sound coming from the back – giggling.  A LOT of giggling…impossible, but it was Alex and when she brought him back out to get us, they were the best of friends.  He followed her right into the cleaning room and hopped up on the table like he gets his teeth cleaned at the dentist every day.  And the giggling continued.

smiling for Daddy to show him the dentist office isn’t scary after all

super-groovy glasses

opening wide like a hippo for his amazingly patient (and really fun) hygienist 

we all took a turn wearing the “groovy” glasses

The very rad (and really amazing with kids) Dr. Brad

Needless to say, the meltdown never occurred, and Groovy Dental was worth any cost to see Alex have such a great time at the dentist office.  He did cry, but it was as we were walking out the door and he kept saying, “I’m really not ready to go yet. I’m not mommy”. 

Military Forces Museum

I work on Saturdays and Sundays, so those are Daddy Days.  Alex was reading his book on Trucks! More Than 100 Vehicles and he found a type of bulldozer that has tracks instead of wheels.  This led to a discussion on what tracks are and why some vehicles have them.  Daddy mentioned that tanks have tracks and Alex wanted to see one.  Well…instead of looking them up online, Daddy took him to see a real tank – and he LOVED it!

These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago when Stacie, Joseph, William and Andrew came to visit.  It’s hard to believe how old the boys are getting and it’s so much fun to see what a great time they have when they are together.  Growing up so far away from my cousins and grandparents, it is incredibly worth the heat and other not-so-easy-to-like things about Texas to see Alex grow up so close to family.  And ya know, Texas kinda grows on ya after awhile…

Play for All Park

This is one of our favorite parks and we’ve been spending some time here lately in the early morning before it gets busy AND HOT!

One end of the park has a cute little village complete with working traffic lights, crosswalks and properly marked streets.  They allow bicycles within the village, so Alex took his Strider bike to ride.  Within the park there’s also a playground, a musical instrument section, a cute little area with all types of tunnels, a climbing area, and of course a big sandpit.  The best part?  The big trees all throughout the park, and the big fencing running around the outside with one in and out.

Latest Sewing Projects

I’ve finally had some time to sew again!  We needed a new mass bag for church so I thought I’d dig out some scraps of fabric (all from the remnants bin) and try out a tote bag pattern I have.  It came out pretty cute, although I still might think about designing my own tote one of these days.  I do like that it has a separating zipper at the top and a pocket on the outside, but I don’t like that there is no pocket on the inside.  If I’d been thinking I would have added one.

Mom and I love little sewing shops.  Our favorite is our friend Kim’s quilt shop, Hennig House, just up the street from us.  Alex loves going with us because she has goats, cows and some hens (which of course he has named).  Kim has her own line of patterns, kits and other goodies, Buttons and Bees, and I recently picked up a cute apron pattern and thought I’d give it a try with some nice fabrics sitting on my shelf.  If you’re ever up this way, be sure to stop by and visit her shop for tons of great ideas, especially if you fancy yourself a quilter!

My fabric “stash” has really grown and I have so many project ideas just waiting for me.  I have a few new ideas for my own patterns too so hopefully soon I’ll have some more to post!