Ouch

Today, Lydia went to our doctor's office and got five immunizations - MMR, DTap, varicella, Hep A, Hep B - two in one arm, three in the other. I didn't tell her until just before we went into the shot room because I didn't want her to stress about it beforehand. She wasn't happy and cried and it hurt but she sat still on my lap and we made it through.

Then, we went to the dentist for the first time. Our new dentist is really nice and everyone in the office was very sweet and gentle with Lydia. They were able to take x-rays and clean her teeth with no trouble. However, the verdict in the end was that she needs five fillings and two-and-a-half extractions. Apparently there is a fragment of a baby tooth hanging on in one spot (that's the half). There is one baby tooth that is completely black in the middle. The dentist said she is missing some baby teeth that she should still have so he thinks there were some extracted in Ethiopia. I had thought she had some extra gaps in there where she shouldn't. They're going to do two fillings first and see how she does with anesthetic before deciding how next to proceed. If they need to they can send her to a pediatric dentist that can put her to sleep for the rest of it but if she does well they will continue on in their office. After we get all this taken care of we can then start thinking about her "classic class 3 underbite" as the dentist called it (the bottom teeth in front of the top teeth).

After all that fun we got some lunch then went to play at our friend's house. At lunch I told Lydia that they had a big dog. She was so excited, jumping up and down. I wondered about that because she was so afraid of this little poodle named Megan from our neighborhood who is about as big as a loaf of bread and just licks and wiggles. Again I said big dog and she again was very happy. I know she knows the words big dog because she has pointed to them walking past as we've been driving and said, "big dog." She asked, "Tomorrow?" I said, "No, right now, today." Lalie even tried to pantomime what it would be like when Henry greeted us but that I think confused the issue further. When she got a look at Henry she was very shocked and scared. He is an Old English Sheepdog and to top it off he has an eye issue right now so was wearing a huge plastic collar around his head. She eventually got brave enough during the visit to pet him on the back with Lalie when he was lying down but if he was walking she wasn't going near. Finally as we were pulling out of the driveway, Lydia asked, "Big doll?" That's when I realized she thought we were headed to buy her a big doll, NOT to see a big dog. And, she still thought we were going to buy a big doll after this apparent pit-stop at our friend's house. It was hard to explain the difference and it definitely disappointed her.

The kids had fun though and they played really well together. It is the longest Lydia has lasted playing in a group of without having an anger issue. It was great to have a chance to chat with my friend and get caught up. (The picture above is them playing in the backyard with sand and water - they were able to go outside to play in between hail storms. The other photos are of Lydia petting Henry and talking and waving to him through the protection of the sliding glass door. )