August 29, 2007 by Barbara.

Supper time on gymnastics nights can be rough. Reid is tired and usually mostly full since we give her food before class. We try not to make a big deal about supper, although she is more than welcome to join us at the table. Last night, Reid spilled a bit of milk while I helped her to pour it into her glass, and by little I mean more than went into her glass. She wanted to wipe up the spill but since some of the milk was poised to go off the table, I took a quick swipe before handing over the cloth. Did I mention that Reid is tired at supper? She melted down completely and then showed her dad her latest trick: yelling loudly and deliberately at the object of her anger. After an attempt to explain why things hadn’t gone her way, I put Reid in the front room until she was done yelling and went back to eat. Reid came back to the dining room to continue her performance. Ken offered her a chance to watch tv and she stopped and went to watch Little Bear. When the show was over, and just as we were finishing our supper, Reid came back to the table and then looked in horror at her bowl. She pointed and said something about the beans. Ken offered to remove them from the bowl but Reid offered more specific instruction - there was only one kidney bean raising her ire. Ken removed it and Reid happily ate her chili. It was like the sun after the storm.  Perhaps she just needed to “win” one argument.

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August 29, 2007 by Barbara.

I used to like our dentist. We’ve gone to her for a decade or more. When she left one inconveniently-located mall dentist office, we followed her to one that was somewhat more convenient. We would have followed her to an even less convenient place because I find dental visits stressful and Ken doesn’t like change. When I finally admitted that the spot on Reid’s 2 front teeth was a cavity, I initially called a dental practice that specialized in treating children and adolescents. Advice from a friend that I might be surprised at how good Reid would be at the regular dentist - and also be surprised at the cost of the specialist - led me to book with our family dentist for Monday.

And Dr H was FABULOUS! She showed Reid how the chair went up, up, up and then way down and then back up a bit before it reclined. The dentist handed Reid a mirror to watch her work. They counted Reid’s teeth and then the dentist used the “tooth tickler” to check out Reid’s teeth. The dentist had time to fix the cavities and so increased the gap between Reid’s front teeth to get the decay and make it easier to clean them. Before each activity, Dr H explained what would happen and showed Reid the tool and how it would work. Maybe that is standard procedure for dentists these days but it definitely wasn’t when I was a kid.

I’d been afraid that Reid would pick up on my stress but once the dentist got started, there was no stress to pick up on. I don’t know that I’d say “a good time was had by all” but I’m pretty sure Reid enjoyed herself. It’s good to be a kid in 2007.

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