Dental Work vs. Childbirth: A Comparative Analysis

I went to the dentist yesterday for the first of three visits to get my mouth up to par. I toughed it out and decided against the Nitrous Oxide. Saved $50 in the process. I had a partial crown and two fillings done. This dentist has the technology in his office to make the crown there and put it in on the same visit. That was pretty nice not having to wear one of those awful temporary crowns. He took some pictures of the tooth, worked on the computer for a few minutes and "printed out" my crown. It really came from what looked like a slightly oversized paper printer. Now, when I saw him go over with a screwdriver and start messing with the printer because it sounded like it was jammed or something, that was a little disconcerting.

I brought an mp3 player with me to try to drown out the sounds. I was doing alright, the drilling wasn't too bad, and then he switched drills on me or something. It sounded like he got a drill bit 10 sizes larger than the previous and it completely drowned out my music. I scrambled for the volume, but there was no covering up that much sound. I would tense up when he went to work and then when he stopped, my whole body would relax, just in time to tense up again when he got back to it. Man, I hate that place. After about and hour and a half, they finally said the most beautiful words anyone could've said to me, "Ok, you're all done". Ahhhhhhhh.

They said, "that wasn't so bad, was it?" To which I replied, "no offense, but I'd rather give birth than do that anyday". The dentist told me I'd be surprised how often they hear that. I said, "but I didn't have an epidural". They informed me at that point that I was, in fact, crazy.

It's weird, I didn't feel much pain other than the shot, but I would still rather have a baby. I had a fairly easy, short birth, so maybe that's why. I think part of it is it's so unknown what's going on. I keep my eyes closed the whole time, because I don't want to see all the equipment, so I don't have any idea what they're doing. When you're having a baby, you're at least somewhat in control, of how you deal with the pain at least, and have some idea of what's happening to your body. Also, childbirth is a completely natural occurance. Our bodies were designed to have babies. Having someone messing around in your mouth, placing foreign objects within, not so much.

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Clara's new word is "chrosh" or trash. Even though she knows she's not supposed to get in the chrosh, she still has a difficult time keeping her hands out of the chrosh. The chrosh is sooooooo much fun! You never know what's going to be in there from one time to the next.

And she calls butterflies "na-na's". Not really sure why, but ok. We were in Target and she started pointing at the ceiling saying "na-na's, na-na's". Sure enough, I look up and there were butterflies hanging from the ceiling. I love seeing her spot things that I never would. I'm always in such a hurry, or just not paying attention, but she sees everything. It's like seeing the world from a whole new perspective.

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T minus 1 hour until Clara's Grandma and Granddad swoop in for Operation Spoil the Grandchild.

Dingle Walking

Here's Clara walking Dingle tonight. Turn up your sound to truly appreciate the level of fondness she has for dog walking. I wish I'd taken video last night because she squealed almost the entire time.

It's Potty Time!!!

I'll give you one guess who used the potty today.

No, not me. Well, I did, but I don't consider it blogworthy news. Nothing special about it at all, or weird, like, I don't know, peeing orange or something. Then, it might be something one would blog about.

Clara did! I was utterly shocked when she peed for the first time and just beside myself when she pooped in the potty. I will now recount today's events, primarily for my potty training records, but you can read if you're so inclined.

I bought some training pants a couple of weeks ago just so I'd have them handy when the time comes to start. I also bought a little potty a couple of months ago to get her used to the idea. I'd sit her on it every once in awhile, especially when I was going. After I bought the training pants, I decided to try 'em out until I had gone through the three pair I had just bought, just to see what she did. Yeah, that lasted a couple of hours, but I really wasn't trying too hard.

I consulted the potty training guru, Becky, for some tips on how to start. She should write a book, or maybe a brochure, 'cause after one day I've got a big girl potti-er on my hands. This morning I put on her training pants and took her to the potty every 15 minutes or so. She stayed dry for the first couple of hours, but never would go on the potty. Lo and behold about the 6th or 7th attempt, I'm reading her a book on the potty and I hear a glorious noise. Who knew a tinkle could elicit such enthusiasm from a mommy. And there was much rejoicing. There was clapping and cheering and 3 dogs barking at all the commotion.

I left the panties on her for her nap, knowing full well they wouldn't make it through the ordeal dry, and they didn't. She had her first accident while eating lunch. Then in the afternoon, we went to Babies R Us to get a potty seat that goes on the toilet (since I don't want to be lugging a potty up and down the stairs all day). She stayed dry during the shopping trip (I put a diaper on her just in case) and when we got home, we tried again on the new potty seat. She got her "serious" look on, but I didn't dare to hope I may hear the sound that I did in fact hear next. If I thought the sound of tinkling was awesome, I had no idea the effect that a plopping sound would have on me. I just about cried. Seriously. I have never been more excited about one of her milestones than I was at that very moment.

Throughout the day, she peed another 4 or 5 times. She did have a few accidents after Daddy got home and during dinner. I think I may have been more distracted during that time and didn't take her often enough. But one accident between 8am and 6 pm on your first day isn't bad.

I'm not going to get my hopes up here. I really wasn't expecting her to go on the first day. I especially didn't expect her to stay dry most of the day. If she has a few really bad days, we'll just wait and try again in a few weeks. I know that I'm starting this really early since she's not quite 18 months, but she does at least have the concept of going on the potty down. She's probably got a ways to go until she can hold it or tell me she needs to go, but that's ok. I'm just so stinkin' proud of her.

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I bought her a plastic juice cup a few days ago so we could practice drinking from a cup. I had been putting water in it and she wasn't doing very well. She just poured it down her front every time. Today, I realized how thick the drinkable yogurt we give her is, so I decided to try it in the cup since she'd have a little more control of the speed at which the yogurt descends the cup. Sure enough, she hardly made a mess. Her face was a bit messy, but at least it wasn't all in her lap or on her tray.

Would you say she's proud of her newly honed drinking skills?

The Damage

I survived my dental encouter this afternoon. The damage is not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Today they just did x-rays, an exam and a cleaning and came up with a game plan. I don't need a root canal after all. Woohoo! I'll go in twice. Once for a partial crown and two fillings and then again for two small fillings on the other side. One of them is a tooth that I have a filling that I got in the fifth grade that's starting to fall out.

After all that, I'll see about getting my wisdom teeth pulled. Two of them have very small cavities. Because of my apprehension and the fact that they have long roots that are very near the nerve, the dentist will probably refer me to an oral surgeon. I'm ok with that; I'd rather not remember anything at all about that experience. The hygenist was saying we want to get this other work done first because people typically don't return to the dentist until one year after having wisdom teeth pulled. Not necessarily because it hurts, just because they'd rather not have someone messing around in their mouth for awhile after. So....I'm betting on five years for me :)

This dentist's office was so nice. Nicely decorated, high tech all the way. She would take an x-ray of a tooth and it would show up on the screen in front of me. She took pictures of all of my teeth, and they came up on the screen for me to see, also. I could see just how terrible some of them looked. I'm like, "Ooooh, that one doesn't look good." And then the one of my crown came up and it looked really pretty. So I said, "But hey, that one looks nice!" All of the staff was great and so understanding about the apprehension and non-judgemental about me waiting so long to come in. That's part of the reason I put it off, I hate being lectured about it. But no more; I'm setting a good example for Clara from now on and will be a regular at the dentist office.

Brick Yard

I mentioned in a previous post that our front yard looks terrible. Well, we got yet another notice in the mail telling us to "weedeat and edge lawn" and that since we've received numerous notices and haven't complied, we now have 30 days until legal action is taken. Wonderful. Apparently, every time we've mowed and edged it wasn't to their liking. So, we've done the weed and feed and we've done the weed killer and it still isn't looking real great. I don't want to kill the whole yard trying to get rid of the weeds.

I figured I would go out this evening and dig up some of the clumps of crab grass. I think I got about 20 pulled up. It looks like it should really help the grass take over. Well, when pulling up a couple of them, I hit something hard. Chris came out and we started digging some and sure enough, this is what we pulled out.

When we got one pulled out, there was another right next to it. This all came out of a hole about 1 sq. foot! And we didn't even get it all. It started raining. There's also a huge chunk of mortar that we couldn't even find the edges of. Uh, maybe that's why our grass can't grow. This all was right underneath the sod. The stuff had to have been poking out of the ground as they were throwing the sod on.

Needless to say, we're a little ticked off at our builder, VANTAGE HOMES, for (1) putting down sod that was only 60% grass and now (2) not cleaning up their dang mess before putting our yard down. Anyone know if this is just typical of a new house? I mean, it would be a nightmare if we were to have a sprinkler system installed. Do they all do this or is VANTAGE HOMES just particularly lazy? I have a feeling that VANTAGE HOMES is just particularly lazy. I don't know what we're supposed to do. I don't think our grass will ever be really healthy with all of that right underneath it.

Singin' in the rain

Jason moved out today. He's moving back to Irving, which is where he's from. It's going to be weird not having him around. He's been here pretty much since we moved in. Clara's going to miss her J-Dog. He took my computer chair too. I guess it is technically his computer chair, but it's been in front of my computer for 9 months now. I was secretly hoping he'd forget it. I was just blogging on my knees until my wonderful husband went downstairs and found me another chair.

Today was a big day for me. I made the phone call that I'd been putting off for ages. I made a dental appointment for myself. Gulp. Tomorrow. My tooth started hurting this weekend, so I couldn't put it off any longer. Oh my gosh, I don't want to go. I know I'm gonna need so much work done. I asked if they do nitrous oxide, and they do, so I should be ok if they need to pull my wisdom teeth. I've had a root canal done without the laughing gas and it wasn't too bad, but just the thought of an extraction sends shivers up my spine. I always keep my eyes shut the entire time I'm in the chair, so I don't have to deal with the sights, but the sounds just drive me crazy. The sucking, the drilling, ahhhh!

Anyway, wish me luck. I'll be sure to update everyone with the damage.

The Latest Fashion Trend

She dressed herself in this ensemble. I hear it's all the rage in Paris. She's even giving her signature bellybutton salute. It has recently replaced the blown kiss as a favorite salutation.

"You look lovely, darling." "So do you, darling." Muah!

Happy Mother's Day

Here's a picture of us before church this morning and one at lunch. We crashed the Quinn family Mother's Day celebration at a Mexican restaurant. Then we headed home and had a lovely nap.

Clara actually smiles for pictures now. She kinda clamps her jaw tight, smiles and yells, "Cheeeeesh!" through her teeth; she just doesn't always manage to face the camera yet.

Saturday we were so lazy. I could hardly pull myself off the couch. I did manage to go to Hobby Lobby and pick up some bow making supplies. I didn't do too badly if I must say so myself. You can't look too closely at them, but from a distance, they're not bad. Actually, I made the one she has on in the pictures. It's kinda fun to make them and a whole heck of a lot cheaper than buying them! Saturday evening we invited ourselves over to Glenn and Becky's and hit them up for some of the fresh homemade strawberry pie Becky made. It was yummy. And that was about the extent of our weekend.

Oh, and we crashed the Quinn's strawberry jam making party and swam and watched a movie out at their house on Friday night. Clara was a lot better in the swimming pool this time. I think having a lot of people in the pool helped. She was able to see that they weren't sucked into oblivion once they ventured past the first step. She kept sticking her face in the water and blowing, so I think that's a good sign.

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These are a few shots from Chris' gulf coast sailing trip. The last picture is of all three boats that were on the trip. Chris' is the boat on the left.

Mercer Arboretum

Clara and I just got back from the Mercer Arboretum which is not too far from our house. I have been meaning to drop by and see what it's like for a while now. It has two parts to it separated by a main road. The main area has little paths along which are all kinds of different flowers and trees. There were wooden benches and bench swings all along the path. Off of the main brick path were small, winding paths covered in pebbles. We had to refrain from going down them because the tiny rocks were just way to tempting to sit and play with. And eat. I could have spent hours strolling around. (Without a one year old that was sans stroller that is.) It was shady and serene down the paths and very beautiful. And hot. And humid. I think next time we'll get there when they open at 8:00.







Across the road was picnic areas, playgrounds and lots of nature trails. We need to spend some time on the trails because there are several geocaches along them. Clara and I just spent a little time on the playground this time.

Let's Go Swimming!

Clara and I went to the pool today. She wasn't real fond of it when her toes hit the water, so I just let her go at her own pace. We sat on the edge and stuck our feet in and splashed, which she liked. Then we bravely ventured out onto the first step, but not much further. She went crazy if I tried to walk in while holding her or put her in her inflatable crab. I guess it'll just take some getting used to. Hopefully she's not scared of the water. That'll make it difficult for daddy to teach her how to sail.


When Clara got out of the pool, I noticed that her swimsuit looked faded. Sure enough, the entire bottom half that was submerged in water was completely faded. It was almost white. What's up with that? I guess I need to dig out the receipt. Man, I loved this swimsuit. And it's Carter's! I can't believe MY Carter's has let me down.


I found a few more of those creepy things in the yard yesterday. These were slightly different though. They were still encased in really sticky bubbles, but they were yellowish in color with red eyes. They definitely looked like insects, maybe in the larval stage or something. These were moving and when this one got pulled out of his bubbles, he started spitting more out of his bum. Weird!

Here's a picture of Clara at church yesterday. We're meeting at a high school for the time being and have been taking Clara to the nursery during church because it's so hard to deal with her in an auditorium. We decided to try it again yesterday and she did make it through the singing before being hauled off. The problem is, little ones arent' heavy enough to hold their own seat down, so you have to cram your knee between your seat and hers. She can't stand up in front of her seat and play, there's no room for her to stand in front of you; it's a nightmare. I hope she eventually learns how to sit still in church, but for now her attention span is all of about 3 minutes, tops. She is cute though. Hard to believe that this face could be such a pain in the patootie, huh?

I'm Single No Longer

My hubby just made it back safely today. He's been gone since Sunday night on a gulf coast sailing excursion with some of his sailing buddies. He wasn't supposed to be back until tomorrow or Sunday, but I guess 5 days away from his bride and baby was enough. Actually, he was kinda bummed because when they made it back to land and got to their vehicles, they had all been broken into. They pulled one of the back windows off of the jeep hardtop to get in. It didn't break at all, so hopefully it's an easy fix. I guess having one's car broken into puts a damper on one's fun. He did had fun though and there were times that they weren't able to see land, so I guess that's the mark of a good sailing outing. We're certainly glad to have him home.

When he was stepping out of the shower (his first one since Monday), I noticed his back was covered with bruises and he had a huge one on the back of his arm. I was like, "what happened to your back?", to which he responded by taking a look in the mirror and exclaiming, "cool" and "awesome, look at that one." Apparently bruises which you didn't know you had are also a mark of a good time at sea. Like a medal of honor I guess.

Chris' mom just posted the most awesome gift for Clara on her website. It's an ABC book she's put together with photographs she's taken. You have to go look, it's too cute. Just click on my link to the left that says Grandma's pics. I'm so excited; I can't wait to get the hard copy! Thank you Grandma!! Clara already loves it. She pointed at the apples and yelled "appey!" It's sure to be a hit.

That reminds me, as of the last couple of days, I have a full-fledged toddler on my hands. How do I know, you ask? She has the sixth sense that only a toddler possesses of being able to see a balloon a mile away and loudly exclaims "Buh!" Everytime we pass a car dealership now, she starts yelling "buh, buh, buh". And while blowing bubbles, she yells "bubbas" and when she sees a baby she yells "beebee". She also says "bah" (ball), "aa" (hat), "bee" (bird), "shish" (fish), "shoosh" (shoes) "joosh" (juice), "wawa" (waffle) and she'll repeat a few of her ABC's, but she gets bored with that pretty quick. We also have to remember that she can recognize words now. You don't say drink unless you plan on getting Clara one. You also don't say bow, because she'll investigate the top of her head to see if she's got one up there and then promptly pull it out. (disclaimer: this paragraph was intended for Clara's grandmothers; I know most anyone else couldn't care less)

That's it for me; I've got a movie to watch.

Favorite Pictures

Here are my favorites photos from Clara's first year. Some months were hard to decide and others, I'm ashamed to admit, I didn't really have too many to choose from.

~December~
This picture was taken on Christmas morning. Clara is wearing a dress that was given to her as a gift from a nice lady at the church in Pecos. This was Clara's first time to attend church, so we got up extra early to make sure everyone was dressed and ready to go on time. Here she's letting us know just how tired taking pictures makes a baby!

~January~
Chris's parents came to meet Clara for the first time when she was about 5 weeks old. Here she is napping with Granddad. Pure contentment.


~February~
I've just always liked her expression in this one. And the outfit (which was a gift from Glenn and Becky) is pretty darn cute too. It's got a fuzzy lamb on the front and lamb ears on the hat.



~March~
Clara and I made the trip to Pecos when she was 3 months old. Clara started teething around this time, so everything went straight in the mouth. This picture is of Clara trying to chew on Big John's hand. Big John is my grandpa and he's got workin' man's hands. Eighty plus years of workin'. That much work doesn't just wash off!

~April~
This one was taken in a patch of bluebonnets on the highway out to our house in Huntsville on Easter I believe. It was really windy out, so my hair's quite the mess, but I still love the photo. Clara's dress is yet again a gift, this time from Aunt Linsey.

~May~
Who could resist those cheeks. In this picture, Clara fell asleep on an obviously relaxing walk.

~June~
At 6 months of age, we surprised Chris' family by making the trip to Carlsbad for Chris' grandmother's 80th birthday party. This one was taken while just hanging out over at Nanny's house. Not sure what she's doing here.

~July~
Not much to choose from in July, but you gotta love the polka dot bikini Clara sported on her first trip to the beach. We just hit Galveston with my parents for the afternoon and dipped her toes in.

~August~
Again, not a good month for great photos.

~September~
Technically, this one was taken in October, but only by a couple of days and I didn't have much in the way of September. This is the first picture we got of Clara's first tooth. She finally cut the first one at 9 and a half months. That meant 7 months of constant teething with me saying "surely she'll have a tooth by morning." I don't know why, but this picture has always made me laugh and it's the one on my computer background.


~October~
This one was obviously taken at the pumpkin patch. I took a ton of photos and ended up with this one. I love digital! Isn't her expression just precious? This was during her tongue sticking out stage.

~November~
We took Clara camping for the first time at Huntsville State Park Thanksgiving weekend. She had entered the refusal to look at the camera stage, so I told her to put her hands on her head (a reference to one of her favorite songs). Sure enough, it got her attention long enough to snap a pic. She loved getting dirty; I don't think I changed her clothes the whole time we were there. This picture was taken early in the morning right by the water. It was foggy out, hence the bright white in the background.

~December~
And back around to December. I took this one in the front yard on the day of her birthday party. She's holding up a pretty weed for Mommy.

Hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane!

Creepy Amphibious Insect Thingy

Ok, can someone please tell me what the heck this thing is!?! I caught sight of it this morning, though I'm not sure how since it was so tiny. You can tell how small it is by looking at the size of those blades of grass. If you click on the picture, you can get the big version. It was surrounded by what looked like little soap bubbles. At first I thought it was a frog, but in the picture, it looks like it has grasshopperish legs. Ick!

I bought Clara an inflatable pool last month and we finally pulled it out for the first time today. It has tree trunks and on top of the trunks was supposed to be a canopy that sprinkled water from above. I got it because I thought a little shade sounded like a nice idea. Well, the trunks hardly stood up on their own and when you put the canopy on it, it just fell over (which Clara was not fond of by the way). Bummer. I hope Target will take it back even though it's out of the box.

It took me forever to blow the sucker up, so I went ahead and filled it up and let Clara play. She absolutely loved it.

I'm finally on the upswing from this pesky sinus infection. Last night was the first night I slept well and could actually breathe and I think today is the first day in over two weeks that I haven't had any sinus pain. It feels soooo good when you get over an illness that's been wearing you down. I cannot even imagine going through life in chronic pain.

Clara and I hit the mall for a little while today. I had a $10 coupon from JC Penney burning a hole in my pocket, so I got a t-shirt. We were only gone for an hour, but when we got home, CJ's bedding in his crate was wet, so I think he had another seizure :( On a positite note, Dingle behaved herself today.

Tonight, we to Lowe's and bought some weed killer for the yard and some twist tie things to train the jasmine on our back fence. We've finally gotten tired of receiving letters from our HOA requesting that we weed our lawn. It irks me because the reason our lawn needs to be weeded in the first place is because our cheap homebuilder thought it in their best interest to use sod that was only 60% St. Augustine. We found this out from a previous employer of the landscaper they used. He had just left that company to start his own and we had him sod our backyard. Lo and behold, our backyard is absolutely beautiful, lush, green, hardly any weeds because he uses 90%. And of course, ours was the last home done by this particular landscaper because the builder stopped using them they were so bad! So, now we walk by the newer homes in the neighborhood with their nice lawns and think to ourselves, "that's nice, they're not getting letters in the mail."

It's taken almost a year, but our front yard is gradually looking more presentable. We used the weed and feed on it, and it really helped in the front yard, but the side yard still looks pretty craptacular. If we could just get rid of the weeds that have little flowers, then the yard wouldn't look quite so weedy. What I hate more than weeds though is crab grass. That stuff is feisty! I don't know how the poor St. Augustine is supposed to overtake that evil crab grass. Phew, glad I got that off my chest.

And since I don't want to end this post on a negative note, here's something sweet that transpired at Clara's bedtime. We were reading Mama, Do You Love Me? (one of Clara's and my favorites right now) and when I finished, I turned to set it back on the shelf that's right next to the glider. When I turned back around, Clara had her hands clasped together and her head bowed ready to say her prayer. Ahh, how sweet is that?

Tuesday

I couldn't think of a better title for today's blog, so I figured Tuesday was as good as any. This morning poor CJ had a seizure. I feel bad because he was downstairs when it started, and I was up. I heard a bit of commotion and went downstairs to check it out. Lo and behold, he had gotten underneath some stacking chairs and was seizing when I got to him. I pulled the chairs off of him and the other dogs were all up in his business trying to see what was going on. They were like little corgi rubberneckers. So I got them in their crates and then Clara was trying to get to him. So I tell her to go read her books. I crouch down to talk to him and pet him and then hear Clara not quietly reading, but instead, pushing her corn popper right next to the poor fella! He started shaking even more then. He came out of it a minute later and has been fine ever since.

Then Clara and I met up with Lisa for a little girlfriend time at Market Street. We strolled and window shopped, enjoyed a sandwich together and had a lovely time. Lisa saved the day while we were in Kirkland's. I had a momentary lapse of reason and let Clara walk and hold my hand for a minute while in the store. She promptly headed for a little breakable thing. It was ok though, I caught her and told her not to touch. Well, she lost her balance or something and reached out for a plant stand that had a vase on top and it toppled to the ground. It happened in slow motion. I thought I had it under control, but I couldn't keep a grip on her to keep her from knocking something else over and save the vase, and then Lisa, with her lightening quick reflexes, grabbed the vase before it hit the floor! Yay Lisa!

We played out in the yard for a little while this afternoon. Clara and I pooled our spending money together for the month and went and bought a picnic table. I'm so bad. My personal spending money is always gone on the first day of the month. I think next month I'm gonna get her a sand and water table, and then a wagon. Oh, and I saw the cutest kid sized stacking lawn chairs at Target today. Maybe eventually I'll actually spend my money on myself. Eh, who am I kidding? Clara enjoyed a snack on her new picnic table while the dogs hoped with every ounce of their being to also enjoy a snack.

And these next pictures are for Leah so she can see how much fun CJ is having at our house. No, he's not having a seizure here. Just enjoying the nice weather and cool grass. And Clara is giving him plenty of hugs and dropping lots of crumbs from her high chair just for him.

Now if I can just keep the evil Dingle away from him. They got into a little scuffle tonight and then the other two jumped in. Surprisingly though, Max and Zoe were on CJ's side and were attacking Dingle. I guess they know firsthand what a bully she is. I felt bad giving our other dog Dexter away last fall because I knew that Dingle was usually the instigator when they fought, but for various reasons, Dexter was the better choice to find a new home for. Dexter is now in an assisted living facility for Alzheimers patients being loved on daily and Dingle (for whatever reason) is Clara's favorite and Dingle loves Clara too. She's the only one of the three that let Clara love on her, so I think it was the right decision. Dingle has never had a problem with Zoe and Max either. I'm assuming that since they were here first, she understood that they were the alphas. Anyway, I've removed the food issue that I think may have started the fight so we'll see if Dingle can't be nicer to our guest now.