This morning I went in for an appointment with my dentist, and asked about scheduling one for Noelle. Dentists recommend kids start coming in at age 3, so I've been meaning to call for a while. They happened to have an opening at 3:15, and I took it! We've read several books where the characters have gone to the dentist, so she wasn't entirely unfamiliar with the idea. I still wasn't sure how she would do, but I was hopeful.

On the car ride over, she asked me if I would be with her at the dentist and I assured her I would be. She was very patient in the waiting room and acted pretty calm. When we walked down the hall toward the room and she saw the big chair, she got a little scared. She did not want to get in the chair. I asked if I could help her get in it, so I picked her up (while also holding Evan) and set her back in the chair. She told me she didn't like it, but was still relatively calm.

After she got her "bib" and "sunglasses" put on, she thought it was kind of funny. They introduced her to "Mr. Thirsty" which was the suction tool, and showed her how the water and air tool worked. Then they used the pick to count and "tickle" her teeth. Periodically she would ask a question, most of the time it was "are we done now?" But overall, she did such a fantastic job!

Her teeth look great, and she got a new toothbrush just like in one of her books, plus a toy. I told her she was very brave, because she was scared but did it anyway. Next time they will try to get the x-rays, but they wanted to be sure that this first time was a "happy visit." I was so proud of her!

I'm bummed that I didn't get any pictures, but our camera batteries are dead. I was going to stop on the way to the dentist to buy batteries, but Noelle insisted she did NOT want me to take pictures. Whatev. :) I'll bring the camera next time!

**Editors note: I was beginning to think Evan might be in college by the time I got this posted, the internet and our blog were both working against me. It's been 2 days.

Our good sleeper is apparently very thrown off by teeth. Or at least that's what we're blaming his sudden shift in sleep habits on. He is currently working on teeth 3 and 4, and he is not that great of a sport about it. He is still his happy go lucky self most of the time, but when it comes time to sleep, he goes a little nuts. Evan likes to go to sleep by himself in his bed. I don't think that has changed, I just think he needs a little extra TLC and that kind of bothers him. Total man, right? So he's been waking up at night, hard to get to sleep for naps, and staying up for almost the entire day as of late.

Today, as you can see, it finally caught up to him at dinner time. Right after this picture he stirred a bit and put another carrot in his mouth, then promptly fell back to sleep half a second later. Poor little guy. After fighting us pretty hard at bedtime, he has now been down for about 3 hours. I expect to hear from him again soon, unfortunately. Then he will be up at 5:30 calling for "mama-mama-mama" to feed him, and he'll tease me by falling back asleep while nursing, only to wake up 15 minutes later for the day.

We trust that this is a phase, and honestly we're just happy that he sleeps at all! There's no way Noelle would have ever fallen asleep in her high chair. In spite of our current difficulty getting Evan to sleep, he is an amazing kid. Laughs all the time. Army crawling all over the place, and coming close to using those hands and knees. Says mama, and we're pretty sure he "gets it," which fills me with joy. Loves to watch his sister. Goes with the flow. Eats anything and everything. Peeks over his crib bumper down to Noelle's bed to laugh with her. Thinks I am hilarious. Does not seem impressed by the dogs (just like mama).

So teeth for him are a hard road, but we'll keep him! And honestly if the worst trouble he gives me is that at almost 8 months he would like to cuddle with me more than usual, by golly, I'm up for that challenge.