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Today was ‘dentist day’ for Maya. A day that I always dread.
I have been taking her to the same pediatric dentist every 6 months since she was one year old. Every appointment has been the same – she somewhat handles the ‘tooth tickler’ tooth polisher.. but completely melts down when the hygienist sprays water in her mouth and sucks it back out. From that point forward, she is always a mess – tries to sit up, tries to clamp her mouth shut, cries, grabs for mommy.. it is ugly.
"I DON'T WANT PRINCESS TEETH!!!"
Her dentist is always awesome with her and calmly reminds her that she has never, ever hurt her.. and that she is only looking at her teeth, etc. Dr. Autumn always gets the job done, but it is a wrenching experience for everyone.
So here we are today.. I am dreading the visit. I am talking it up – how fun it is, how pretty her teeth will be, how it is never ‘hurty’. Maya is being calm, but talks about how she hates the water spray and, even more so, the water ‘sucker’.
We drive to the dentist’s new facility – it is so much larger and brighter.. very nice step up! We enter the main room for x-ray and cleaning, and see 6 ‘tables’ (the kids lay down flat on their backs rather than in a chair).. with 4 of them being used. A couple of the kids are pretty young – probably 6 or 7 years old. There are no parents in the room.
And.. Maya was AWESOME!!
She was quiet and nervous, but she made it through the x-ray with no problems.. and then she allowed her teeth to be cleaned – deciding she LIKED the water sprayer (after the hygienist allowed her to take drinks from it).. and she even did great with the water ‘sucker’! She opened wide for the dentist and was very calm and smiley. She was actually ecstatic when the dentist told her that one of her teeth is starting to be loose (not remotely wiggley yet, but will be at some point in the possibly-near-future)!
At the end of the cleaning, Maya even suggested that I should go sit in the waiting room!! (ok she not-so-politely said ‘Mom – go out of the room!’)
I seriously cannot express how excited I am about this milestone. Truly a momentous day. Sometimes you actually reach that light at the end of the tunnel – no matter how dim it looks some days!!
******
I was so proud of Maya that I took her to Red Robin with me for an early dinner (Aj was home with Devi). We were enjoying our meal while Maya was chatting away about various subjects (real and Maya-reality)… I was only ½-listening, as much of the conversation revolved around her bear and the fact that he wasn’t listening to her this morning and required a time-out.
Maya paused for a minute in her chatting, looked at me with her ‘I’m only 5, but I am acting like I am 25’ look.. and said, with her most grown-up lite and amicable conversational tone: “So, did you used to want to buy a baby that wasn’t Indian?”
WHAT?!
Me: “What did you say?”
Maya: “Did you used to want to buy a baby that wasn’t Indian?”
Me: “First of all, people do not ‘BUY’ babies. We didn’t buy you or your sister. We ADOPTED you. Big difference. Not about money.. there were lots of steps to find you and for you to find us.. and for us to become a family.”
Me: “And secondly, we chose to adopt children from India because Daddy is Indian and because we have always known that there are many, many girl babies in India who need families.”
YIKES. Ok that was completely unexpected and random. She was satisfied with my answers.. she wasn’t looking concerned or anything.. merely curious. Very interesting. I wonder what spawned that question?
Hm.
These type of mom-experiences probably are to explain the fact that I accidentally wore two different shoes the other day.
Yes, that’s right.. two different sneakers (at least they looked remotely similar.. remotely). All day. Took Devi to therapy and took off my shoes and put them back on without noticing. Ran errands. Picked kids up at school. Two different shoes.
I finally noticed late that afternoon. Would you like to know what is truly sad about that experience?
I wasn’t even embarrassed.
Wow.
