We love the dentist!

We took the girls to the dentist once before, when they had just turned two years old. They loved riding in the "up and down" chair, and had their teeth counted, and then got balloons made out of latex gloves. We meant to go back six months later, and yet time got away from us and we missed that appointment.

Christina called last week to get another appointment scheduled for them, and found that the only time they could get us in was when one of us would have to take the girls by ourselves. Oh, and also - at this appointment they decided they would try to do the full-on cleaning, too.

So, Christina headed out with them this morning. The girls were really excited, especially because the woman cleaning their teeth was named "Candy." They love candy (although isn't this an odd name for a dental hygenist??) and thought that would be great. Candy asked who would go first, and Elena promptly volunteered Clara. Clara got some cold feet after passing four different patients getting their teeth worked on before we ended up at our room, and so we all voted that Baby Zoe should go first.

After Zoe had ridden up and down, she invited Clara up in the seat, and she happily joined her friend for a ride.

She lay right back after that ride and did an AWESOME job at getting her teeth cleaned. She picked strawberry toothpaste, opened her mouth big like a tiger, and got all 20 of those teeth shined up. She never complained once, or asked to get down - she just sat there like a champ.

The doctor came in, showed her how he could shine a light in her mouth, and pronounced her teeth perfect.

Clara and Zoe - perfect little patients.

After seeing all of the fun Clara was having, Elena was chomping at the bit for her turn. She hopped right up there in the chair, and took a turn smelling Candy's orange-scented gloves.

Just like her sister, she was a total star at getting her teeth cleaned. She also picked strawberry for her toothpaste, and got all 18 little teeth shined up (turns out she hasn't gotten her top two molars in yet - who knew? And oh, man, we are not looking forward to more teeth coming in!!!).

The dentist checked Lena's teeth out, and as we all can see from looking at her for two seconds, she definitely has an underbite (the cutest one on the planet - it makes the nicest little smile!). It's possible that it will resolve on it's own, but it's unlikely. Class three underbites usually require correction, and when we asked if there is anything we should be doing now, we decided all we could do was save up for the eventuality of some specialized dental attention. Good thing we all like the dentist!

Don't worry about Lena -she's got a smile on her face and one eye on the dentist, and we'll make sure she gets help down the road to keep those teeth in good shape.

It was a really fun visit, and I think they'd go back again this afternoon if we'd let them. They picked lip gloss out as their prize after finishing the appointment, and that just made their day. They love having their own "lip stuff!"