Dentist Recommended, Mother Approved

Yesterday was checkup time at Kiernan's dentist. I'll make this quick...it went well.

I never realized when I was growing up how much parents have invested, especially emotionally, in dental checkups. I know, big surprise. Add this to the long list of things that should be obvious that continually dawn on me as I get further into parenthood. I just didn't consider, as a child, that the results of my various checkups were a source of angst and pride for my parents. Just never occurred to me. I remember how crushed I was upon the news that I'd gotten my first cavity. I was totally focused on how that made me feel, and not at all really aware of how my mom must have been feeling as she broke the news to me that summer. Yes, part of my crushed feeling was that shame a child feels upon disappointing his parents, but as far as awareness of how she actually felt about it...that didn't really enter into it.

From this side of the fence it is so different. We go to the dentist with Kiernan for his checkup and we are in suspense far more than he is. Granted he is only five (and three-quarters...ahem), so he's far more interested in the cartoons showing on the flat screen television mounted on the ceiling. As the hygienist works on his teeth I find myself in absolute suspense. When she praises Kiernan for his oral hygiene, I feel a sense of relief accompanied by joy. And pride. My boy has good oral hygiene! Hooray!

Kiernan barely hears it. He's trying to listen to Dora the Explorer above him. A show he never ever requests to watch at home. But, you know, it's the tv. We all tend to go a little bit blank when we fall into its tractor beam.

Anyway, the checkup went exceedingly well. Just a tiny bit of plaque on one of the new molars growing in in the back of his mouth. Not a big deal and easy to let happen as those things are just barely coming in, which is exciting too. The hygienist taught us how to augment our brushing to take care of those. Eventually the dentist herself came to check out Kiernan and praised his teeth as well. Very nice.

There was something for everyone on this visit to the dentist. I was particularly pleased as I've become quite...um...let's be nice...insistent...upon using an actual sand timer for brushing so that we go the full two minutes. Two minutes is a lot longer than you think it is when you're brushing a five-year-old's teeth, or when he's doing it himself. Starting to be faithful to using the timer made me feel I was being annoying and anal, but it's been a good policy, especially as he takes over more the actual brushing responsibilities himself. So Kiernan got some cartoons. I got some validation. What was in it for the mother, you ask?

Well, the dentist had some advice for us concerning Halloween. I expected her to warn us all about eating too much candy, which she did. What I did not expect, was this: "So when it comes to Halloween, you really should eat more chocolate than candy, okay?"

Permission to eat more chocolate. It's a shame she's only a pediatric dentist.

After the appointment we went out to dinner at a restaurant of the patient's choosing. Of the alternatives presented to him, I wanted to opt for a cool Japanese restaurant called Musashi, one of those places where the chef comes and cooks at your table. But I knew he wouldn't choose that place. The only things they serve there that he will eat are rice and miso soup. That's it. And of those two choices you can only really bank on the former on any particular night.

No, I knew he would choose an all-you-can eat soup and salad place called Souplantation, which I think he hears as Muffinplantation in much the same was as Ginger hears "Blah blah blah" no matter what you say to her. That was fine since I am a big fan of soup, even if I did have a hankering for some Japanese. To the cavity-free go the spoils.

After dinner Kiernan worked on the last of his homework for the week. In First Grade the homework is given out as a packet on Friday, and is due the following Friday. No homework is to be done over the weekend. It is parceled out over the course of the school week. The final assignment was a creative writing assignment about an adventure, in this case a trip we took a couple years ago to Hawaii. Kiernan and I worked on the brainstorming for the piece early in the week, and he completed the actual writing with his mom. She let him choose the medium for writing his final draft.