Samantha's first blog

pamelamyers | October 1, 2012

Oh, Doc Bressler, how Sammy hates you so.  You may be cavity busters, but you are NOT on my little girl’s top 10 list.  Today I took Sam for her 6 month checkup at the dentist. This was only her third visit.  As the last two were disastrous, full of screaming and crying, I had hoped this time would go better.  Wishful thinking. Sam and I had a long talk in the car about where we were going.  I explained what would happen, that I know it is weird having someone look in your mouth, but it doesn’t hurt, it will only take a few minutes, then you can have stickers and little toys, etc. etc.  She seemed ok with the concept and promised me she would not cry, and that she would let them look in her mouth and brush her teeth.  Ha!

I guess I should preface the story by saying that Sam is not a fan of anyone poking around in her mouth.  Not even me.  And she is not a fan of having her teeth brushed.  She endures it for about 30 seconds.  With no toothpaste. God, no toothpaste!  You would think it was rat poison the way she acts…So, having a stranger do these things to her, well, it does not go well.

We went in and she sat in the exam chair.  This is a huge thing.  She actually SAT in the chair.  She wanted me to hold her hand, but ok.  That’s fine.  And she let the hygienist recline the chair.  So far so good.   She took her stickers happily, she opened her mouth when asked!  Whoo hoo!  We are home free!  Yeah, not so fast.  The hygienist came at her with the toothbrush (yes, a TOOTHBRUSH not the instruments of torture that adults usually see) and she cringed away.  She looked like she was going to cry.  The little bottom lip came out and everything.  So I hugged her for a minute then we tried again.  No go. She wanted Mommy to hold her.  Which is fine, but at this dentist at least, my holding her involves me sitting knee to knee with the hygienist, Sam on my lap facing me, and my tipping Sam backward so her head is in the hygienist’s lap.  Oh, the screaming!  The agony!  You would have thought so anyway.  Sam flipped out the entire time she had her teeth brushed and flossed and given fluoride treatment.  It took all of 5 minutes but felt like an eternity.

When it was done and I hugged her for a minute, she was totally fine.  And demanded her little toys.  Of course.  Despite the fact that said toys were supposed to be a reward (bribe) for behaving.  Ah, well, little plastic dinosaur, Sam wants you so Sam will have you.  But on an up note, her teeth look great!  They are getting a little close together so they want us to floss (ha!) and said if orthodontics come into play we will probably be having that discussion at about age 10.  Her 2 year molars are fully in and she is healthy as can be, toothwise.

We stopped at my mom’s before coming home and she relaxed at bit. I thought she was ok.  She had eaten a piece of toast and was happily watching tv.  My mom and I were in the dining room having tea and Sam came in to get us.  The poor little bunny had thrown up all over the couch, the living room floor, and herself.  I don’t think she really knew what was going on.  She only threw up one other time in her life, when she was only an infant and I am sure she doesn’t remember that at all.  A few minutes before this all happened, I noticed her come in and grab some tissues and I did think, “what is she cleaning up now?” because she often grabs tissues or napkins to clean up the tiniest smudges of dirt on the floor.  Later, when I found them wadded up in a ball shoved between the cushions I felt so bad for her!  The poor baby tried to clean up the mess all by herself. 🙁  I changed her clothes and asked her repeatedly if her tummy hurt or if she felt sick and she kept telling me no, so I honestly think it was nerves.  The whole day was so scary for her that it just overwhelmed her.  Friday is her 3 year checkup at the doctor (who she doesn’t usually mind at all).  Let’s hope that day goes better than this one!

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pamelamyers | October 1, 2012

Sam has been SO into drawing recently.  It is a never ending thing in our house, and also at my mom’s.  We blow through paper like crazy now.  She can easily use 30 pieces of paper in about 15 minutes.  I find it interesting that she prefers plain, blank paper to coloring books.  I think she likes the freedom of the blank page, which I can appreciate.  It is always interesting to watch her draw especially how her drawing has changed.  It used to be that she would scrawl line after line on the page seemingly just fascinated by her ability to make color.  When she first started using crayons, it took time for her to learn that she had to press on the page to make a mark.  Now she has progressed to what I would call actually drawing.  Whether it is on paper or on the driveway with her sidewalk chalk (which Sam also loves) she has an intent in mind as to what she is drawing. She always tells you what she is making and she is very specific about the color she wants to use.

She asks us quite frequently to draw as well.  It started out that I think she just liked our pictures, but now, most of the time, when she asks me to draw a playground or a cat or whatever, she usually winds up helping me finish the picture in her own way.  I think she wants us to draw because she is trying to figure out how to draw these things on her own.  We started asking her to make circles and she is getting rather good.  I don’t know if she should be able to draw shapes or not at her age, but I am proud of what she can do.  Her circles are pretty well circular and they are definitely connected. If we draw three sides of a square, she draws the fourth line and really connects the box, and stops her line in the appropriate places.  She is learning.

This weekend, she was drawing at the table and kept asking me to rip the paper off the book when she was done.  Each time I did so, I would ask her what she drew.  I was very shocked to see what she did and her explanation of what things were.  Not everything is clear, by any means, but you can really see, in some pictures, what she was trying to do.  Here are some of her creations.

This one is a thunderstorm.  All of the color in the main portion of the page is the storm.  The orange blob in the lower right corner is the rain coming in the house (this was part of a Peppa Pig episode called “Thunderstorm”).  I asked her what all the little orange squiggles were along the right margin and the top and she said, “the flamingos!” (This was NOT part of the Peppa episode…)  I found that not only funny, because, flamingos?  but also because when I first looked I thought they looked a little like crudely drawn approximations of birds.

This next one is supposed to be a farm.  I dunno.  Just what she said.  I didn’t ask her to elaborate.

This one I love.  The first figure from the top is an airplane (not bad, huh?), below it to the right is a car (again, not bad!) and the last shape near the bottom right, sort of roundish, is a truck.  I asked her what all the vertical squiggles were under the truck and the car and she looked at me like I was crazy and said, “the road!” The very bottom horizontal line is the road that the truck is fixing.

This one is Doc McStuffins, Stuffy, Hallie, and Chilly (who is jumping on the bubble wrap — part of an episode she likes).  Not a great likeness of the characters, true, but I love how definite she is that her drawing is those specific things.

This last one is one of her favorite things — a rainbow.

She is getting better and better all the time, and so imaginative. I am so proud of her and am really trying to nurture her artistic side.  I would love for her to have an artistic talent, whether it is art, or music, or dance.  She is a rather sensitive little soul, so who knows?  Maybe that will be her path.  Whatever she chooses though, I just want her to be happy (and to make a living, let’s not kid ourselves here!)  In all seriousness, though, I would like to think that I will be supportive of her choices, no matter what they turn out to be, in what she wants to do with her life. I can only hope that Mark and I do a good job in steering her toward a path that will be fulfilling for her and give her the life she wants.  It sounds a bit cliche, but truly, I think all you ever really want is for your kids to be happy, and that is certainly true for our Sam.

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