Today James visited our dentist for his bi-annual checkup and as always, did a remarkable job.  On the drive there, we talked over what the hygienist and dentist would do, and he said he remembered from last time.  James opened his mouth and held it open when asked, held the suction tube and used it when needed, and answered all of their questions.  He really only needed me there to drive him, I guess, because I just sat in the corner while he handled the appointment like such a big boy.

I asked when the dentist typically starts taking x rays of youngsters, and the hygienist said  whenever the child would cooperate enough to hold the insert in his mouth and hold still.  So, we decided to give it a whirl, and as I suspected, James did a great job.  His only disappointment was that he couldn’t take the cool x rays home.

At the end of his appointment, James not only received the usual bag of toothpaste, toothbrush, and floss, but also two small prizes he picked from a basket.  Very cool.

James was so excited following his appointment that we decided we would set up a dentist office at home and he could work on Dad when he got home.  So, once home we set up shop in about 30 minutes.  We lowered and leaned back an office chair for the exam chair, made an x ray machine out of tinker toys, got out his toothbrush and paste to “pretend” with, put an extra tube of toothpaste into the little bag for Dad to take home afterwards, found and cleaned a small magnifying glass to use as a mirror during the exam, got out Dad’s heavy winter coat to lay over him during the x ray, and last but not least, found pictures online of x rays and printed them out.  Whew.

Now, the hard part of waiting until Dad arrives home tonight.  I’m sure Kenny will be thrilled he’s getting a dental exam from James.

While helping James set up dentist, I had flashbacks to childhood when my sister and I would set up all kinds of shops in the bedroom we shared.  We LOVED doing this and I believe we even had file folders labeled with each “shop” so when we were ready, we had notes on how to do it.  (Crazy how organized I was as a child!)  We played flower shop, doctor’s office, restaurant, beauty shop, troll book shop, and many more.  We had so much fun together imagining how to recreate these places and then making it happen.  It thrilled my heart today watching James imagine and create just like we used to.