Second trip to the dentist

You might remember Eliot's first trip to the dentist, which occurred about this time last year. Well, the ole dentist trip has rolled around again this year. I was a little worried that he wouldn't remember last year and that we would have another "first trip" experience. I had forgotten, however, that he is a whole year older now. And he has a whole years' worth of maturity and development under his belt. He had a lot of questions, but I had tried to explain everything in the days leading up to the trip. We talked about cavities and "dragon breath" and how we really didn't want either of those things. We talked about what the dentist would do, and that he had to keep his mouth open VERY WIDE (which we practiced quite a bit).

This year, he walked into the waiting room, holding my hand. He was amused by all the toys in the waiting room, then the hygienist (Stephanie) came out to get him. She introduce herself, then she really threw me for a loop. She said, "Well, I think Eliot can come back all by himself. Mom, why don't you wait for us here?" The blood sorta drained from my face; I just KNEW this was a bad idea. Silly woman, I thought, she doesn't know anything about kids! Haha!! But.. why don't I just let her find out for herself. She'll be sorry! So I sat back down, of course thinking, be my guest, Sucker!

But you know what happened? Eliot took her hand and walked back to the office with nary a glance in my general direction. He was too busy explaining to Stephanie (apparently his new best friend) what a dentist is, why he loves tree frogs, and demonstrating how to open his mouth VERY WIDE. So I sat, all alone in the waiting room, contemplating how I was both happy and sad about this event. At one point the door opened and I could hear him back there talking up a storm about his Halloween costume. Before I knew it, they both came back out to the waiting room, Eliot being the proud new owner of a little toy tree frog, which he is very proud of, and several large stickers.

When we got in the car, I was all questions. "How was it? Were you sweet? Did it hurt? Were you scared?" He didn't have much to say about the whole thing. It must've been pretty mundain in his opinion. He did say, though, "Well, Dr. Carr was very nice. She didn't even stick a needle in my mouth." I'm not sure where he got that idea, but I agreed that it was very nice of her.

alligators in the night

Eliot has been snuggled into bed for about 20 minutes. Suddenly he comes racing through the living room and jumps into my arms, crying. “I had a strange dream. There were alligators in my room.”

I explained that there couldn’t be alligators in his room for several reasons: alligators are too big, we don’t live near water, we live in a house with walls and doors, etc. Eliot suggested that perhaps our door should be made of bricks. So the alligators couldn’t get in.

“Plus,” I added, “If an alligator rang the doorbell, I would NOT let him in. I would tell him to go to another house, thank-you-very-much.”

“But what if it was a nice alligator? Would you let him in?”

“Maybe…”

“Maybe if the alligator was wearing a hat and had a flower and a necklace…? And the necklace would have bugs on it? Then would you let him in? The alligator?”

“Uh…”

“Our brick door would have to have a doorknob in it. For the nice alligators”

If it weren't for those hands!

Eliot got in trouble the other day for throwing his toys. The situation deteriorated to the point that we took away his TV privileges for the evening. That REALLY made him mad. He wouldn’t even sit in the same room as me. When I sat down he said, “well, if you’re going to sit in here, I’m going to go sit in the there.” He picked up his dinner plate and carried it to the other room and sat down. At one point he was so frustrated while we were talking that he turned around and, throwing one hand up over his shoulder, said, “I just can’t DO this anymore,” and walked out of the room. (Truth be told, I know exactly where he got that – it’s got me written all over it.) Thankfully, by the time I was tucking him in, we were back on speaking terms.

I kissed him goodnight. He held his hands up and stared at the palms. “Mommy? Sometimes I WANT to do nice things, but my HANDS just do mean things.”

“I know,” I said, “but you have to tell your hands not to do those things. YOU control your hands.”

“That’s why tomorrow I’m going to do nice things.”

UPDATE: Eliot’s hands have been exceptionally well behaved since that incident, as well as the rest of HIS BODY. That very difficult night has certainly paid off.

My Body, Myself

The Butterfly class has been talking about nutrition. I know this because when I asked Eliot about, “healthy foods” he corrected me, “it’s nutrition, Mommy.” This has spawned all sorts of conversations about HIS BODY. As in, “Does meat have protein? Protein is good for MY BODY.” And “You have to have a skeleton so you can run and jump and pick up toys. Your skeleton is part of YOUR BODY.” And “if I stand on the furniture, I might fall off and that will hurt MY BODY.” Of course, these conversations have a tendency to take place in public places – restaurants, grocery stores, and the old classic – the ladies’ room. Whenever we go to the restroom I can pretty much count on hearing giggling from the other stalls.

Beach trip with friends

We just got back from the beach with friends. See some of our pictures here and here.

horseback

(Click on the image for a larger view)

We went to a birthday party last weekend at the Oak Mountain petting zoo. That was a really great place for a party – the goats, sheep, chickens and such just hang out and the kids can walk up to any of them and pet. Eliot got very giggly about touching the goats’ horns. Then he chased the poor chickens around the field. But the best part was the horseback riding. Eliot was second in line (behind the birthday boy). I was skeptical about whether or not he’d actually get on the horse, but when it was his turn he ran out there and hopped on with not so much as a glance in my general direction. As he was led around the corral, he got his shoulders moving in time to the rhythm of the horse – has he done this before?! When he was done, he got in line to ride again. He got to ride three times before the party was over. And yes… that IS a pink bandana he’s sporting in the picture. It is, after all, his favorite color.