Christmas

Just a quick post on Christmas before I head upstairs to bed. I'm exhausted!

Last night on Christmas Eve we went to Jason's grandparent's house, where every year they have a big get together. It's usually pretty fun, but this year was trying. It was getting later and later and none of the adults were stepping up to be Santa (every year someone dresses up to pass out gifts to the kids). At last someone did - Jason! I haven't got pictures, as I forgot my camera, blast it, but someone is supposed to be sending me some. When I receive them I will post, trust me!

So Gavin was freaked out by Santa. Today he told us, anytime we asked what he thought of Santa, that "Santa was scary. I went away." Which he did. He didn't want anything to do with Santa. Which is probably just as well, since he's a smart kiddo and may well have seen past the disguise.

Today when we came downstairs Gavin freaked out all over again. He didn't like the presents being under the tree. Didn't want them there, please-take-them-away-and-fast-thankyouverymuch. Near as we can figure, is that he was freaked out by the thought of the Scary Santa coming into his house while he was sleeping, even if it was to drop off a bunch of fun presents. It took a good 15 minutes, but he did calm down and we were able to get him to open his gifts. He continued to be wierd off and on about the presents, alternately opening them with gusto and throwing them across the room as if they were grenades with the pin pulled.

In the afternoon, my family came over and we had a chaotic, but nice, afternoon and evening of good food and lots of presents. Seems everyone was having an "off" day, as all of us had several stories to relate about crazy, wacky things that had happened today. Here's hoping tomorrow's a better day.

And now, the kitchen is all cleaned up, and after I put away the leftover cinnamon rolls from breakfast this morning (which were in the fridge but had to be moved once dinner leftovers were stowed there), I am off to bed. As Gavin would say, "I so s'eepy."

success!

It's Saturday morning and Gavin slept at Grandma's house last night. He slept all night, too. We were worried he'd wake up a lot just because he was in an unfamiliar place, but thankfully he didn't. Hooray! And for me it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was really nice, if a bit strange, not to have the little guy running around. We both kept remarking about how quiet the house was. Not the lack of vocal and playing noises, just the lack of GAVIN. It gave a noticeable silence and emptiness to the house. So hooray, that's one more thing I can relax about going into labor, knowing that he won't freak out and be miserable during an overnight.

Oh, and did you know Gavin isn't a traffic light? Neither did we until last night on the way to Grandma's when he informed us of this fact. He was asking what the colors of the traffic lights mean (something he knows, but still asks at least 4 times every time we're in the car). After he was done asking, I started asking him other colors - "what does blue mean?" "What does brown mean?" - to which he would respond with giggles. Then Jason asked him what Gavin means, and after a long pause, Gavin said "Noooo, I'm not a traffic light!"

gavin's latest adventures

To begin with, his adventures have nothing to do with the photo to the right. That's just cute and I wanted to share. There are a couple more if you click on the picture and follow the link to Flickr.

Now, the adventure. A couple of weeks ago I was standing in line at Burger King, holding Gavin. On a whim, completely out of the blue, I asked him to open his mouth wide and look at the ceiling. I checked out his teeth, hunting for spots that might be cavities. This is something I've never done before. And yet, there before my eyes, and much to my horror, was an enormous brown spot covering the entire back of one of his upper molars. Just to be sure I stuck my finger in his mouth an scraped with a nail. The nail sunk in a bit and the texture was rough, and Gavin pulled back and exclaimed in pain.

I was horrified. I repeat, horrified. Even though I know it happens, I just never thought he'd have cavities this young. Kids his age aren't supposed to have cavities! Did I mentioned how horrified I was?

So I went home and called out dentist. The receptionist told me the dentist would look at him, but would likely refuse to treat him because of his age. They referred me to a pediatric dentist, the same one several friends I consulted recommended. It took me a few days but I finally got around to calling and making an appointment.

The pediatric dentist was fantastic. She was everything you'd expect a ped doc to be - friendly outgoing patient and engaging, not to mention able to work around the wiggles of a two and a half year old.

She confirmed what I already knew, that it was a cavity. She also said that his molars are hypoplastic, something I haven't managed to find a whole lot of good information on, but essentially means that he didn't get enough of some essential nutrient (calcium, most likely) when the tooth buds were forming, and now they are more susceptible to decay. Additionally, she found another spot on the same molar on the other side of his mouth that had a spot of decay in a much earlier stage, and a spot between his two front teeth. She said the only one that needed filled right now was the orginal one I'd found.

Yesterday we went in for the filling. Jason came along to be the muscle, as I didn't want Gavin to be tied down in the papoose blanket, and I knew there was now way I could hold him with my enormous belly in the way. And thank goodness he was there, as Gavin's struggles were a challenge even to Jason -- he is a strong kiddo, particularly when pumped up with adrenaline.

First Dr J did a cleaning, which freaked Gavin out, but it seems to have taken care of the spot between his front teeth. Then the drilling and filling of the cavity.

It was not pretty. Or fun. Or easy on the ears. Or the heart. But we survived. Gavin is none the worse for the wear, and now when he talks about Dr J and his adventure, it seems that he is processing the experience well. He has a checkup scheduled in 6 months for a regular cleaning and so on, so we shall see. Dr J assured me ethat the vast majority of kids are fine and have no lasting damage or great fear of the dentist. I hope not, as I had terrible fear of the dentist for years and years. I don't want him to have the same fear.

* * * * * * *

His next adventure will take place tomorrow night at Grandma's house. He'll be having his first (attempted) sleepover away from mom and dad and our home. This is in preparation for when I'm in labor, just in case he needs to be away from us overnight.

My mom was here this evening and she asked Gavin if he wanted to have a pajama party at her house tomorrow night. Wow, you should have seen how excited he got. He was so thrilled at the thought! He wanted to go sleep there NOW, TONIGHT! Was so sad when he couldn't.

We shall see how it goes tomorrow. Hopefully we'll all sleep through the night!