Dentists, School, Potty training... Normal life!

So when I was pregnant with Brendan, I read that they wanted you to take your kids to the dentist for the first time at age 3 unless you noticed a dark spot on their teeth or anything else abnormal. When 3 rolled around for Brendan, he was barely communicating and crying at every haircut and doctor appointment because he hated people touching around his mouth and ears. 4 came around and I'm not sure why I didn't take him then, but it just didn't happen. So this summer we finally take him and the first dentist we visit pulls out this scary looking contraption instead of the normal looking bite wings for close up x-rays.

Would you want that thing in your mouth?! NO! And neither would ANY child. By the way, they put a little thing to bite on in the non-pointy end, and that part is what goes in your mouth. Apparently the rest helps them line up the x-ray machine. (For the record, this office was really nice and I probably will go there for my own dental care.) So then we, obviously, have to go to a pediatric dentist the next week. He starts fussing and crying for the x-ray tech even though this time it's a normal little bite wing. They tried to let him put it in his own mouth, get me to do it, nothing worked. So they gave up (strike 1 in my book). Then the dentist FINALLY comes in to look at his mouth (strike 2). He had calmed down from the x-rays and was getting worked up again because of the long wait. Even though I was trying to bribe him with a toy from the blue store (Walmart) if he was brave for the dentist. She gave up VERY quickly and then proceeded to tell me she wanted me to take him to Texas Children's where they could use general anesthesia to knock him out (strike 3). I was almost in tears before I left the office from frustration and sticker shock at what this would cost. They have a whole page on their website dedicated to outlining different ways to make kids feel comfortable ranging from funny gas to general anesthesia. So WHY would they not offer me other options before jumping to the WORST possible choice?! Ugh. We're taking at least a month off from this and if anyone knows of any good dentist books for kids, I would be welcome to suggestions. There are, unfortunately, a limited number of options for pediatric dentists on our insurance and with 3 cavities to fix, we can't afford to go anywhere that isn't on our insurance. 

School... First we'll start with Kaylee. We got her class assignment in the mail from Mother's Day Out and they decided to go ahead and demote her, lol. Let me explain why this is totally cool and I was wondering if I was going to have to do this myself! When she started, she was only 10 months old and, at the time, they only accepted kids who were a year old. They made an exception because they LOVED Brendan (seriously, I think tears were shed when they realized he wouldn't be there this year!). So... technically she should've done the 1 year old class twice or something. When registration came up for last year, I went ahead and registered her for the 2 year old class cause no one told me different. And this year, the 3 year old class. Now, and I know I am biased, she's really smart, so she's been doing great! I think the first half of the first year was probably a little much for her, but ever since then she's been fine. So, she'll be in the 2 year old class again this year, and that's cool. But she'll probably be WAY advanced now :-) It is strange to think that Kaylee will have 5 years of Mother's Day Out and Brendan only had 4. 

On to Brendan. School supplies. Ugh. They want ridiculous and unrealistic things on those stupid lists. My favorite would have to be 12 - 6" plates and 12 - 9" plates. Where on Earth can you get those quantities?! No where! So I shared my Great Value (Walmart) brand plates with a friend so I don't feel so silly about buying them in much larger quantities. Here's the other odd thing... every year Walmart has the lists in a little kiosk for you to take and do your shopping with. Does Walmart have everything on the list? Of course not. No construction paper of any kind for one thing, and only one size of manila paper. And the funny thing about that? There is one company that seems to have the monopoly on construction paper, manila paper, and story tablets so you think it'd be real easy for Walmart to get all of those items in their stores. I finally finished my list at Staples which included having to order a very specific story tablet made by one brand and having it delivered to the store so I didn't have to pay shipping on a less than $2 item! Seriously, I am so over this. And next year... I'm just going to order it all on Staples site and have it delivered to the store.Cause it's cheaper than the local store that sells prepackaged school supplies. Stupid price gougers. The other school-related thing with Brendan that I'm not looking forward to is the uniform. Not that it's awfully strict, I just know we'll be fighting about it because he's really attached to his t-shirts and his light-up shoes. I'm also not looking forward to having to wake up at 6 or 6:30 to get everyone up, fed, dressed, and out the door to be at the school by 8! My kids aren't very good alarm clocks anymore and since I work from home 99.9% of the time, I've gotten REALLY lazy. It'll be good for all of us to get on a real schedule again. For one thing, I'll have more hours in the day, lol.

Potty training, take 2. So potty training Kaylee is, of course, different than potty training Brendan. With Brendan, we let him run around naked for a few days and he was done. Kaylee prefers to be naked. She did ok for part of a day with underwear but then the next day, soiled two pairs very quickly. But if you let her run around naked? No accidents, even when she's completely distracted with TV and iPod. This might take a while with her. I've heard from several moms recently about how their girls were trained and then reverted back. Gotta figure out how to avoid that!

I think that's all for now. Really hoping I'll get our family pictures soon... since we're all 6 months older now :-/ Long story... but I can't complain too much cause it was free.