"Say, Ah."

I was absolutely dreading this milestone in Keilana's life considering her personality of being reserved and terrified in trying new things, although, she is getting much better about that. Yesterday was her FIRST visit to the dentist and I was on pins and needles the whole morning. I thought she would fight me on having her teeth cleaned, kicking and screaming the whole way. I even had back up there for support if I needed because Jon was working and there was no way that I was going to take on that task by myself. Auntie Kellie had been staying with us since December 5th so she was there helping out and my mom was so kind to drive the 15 minutes to be with me and Keilana.

HOWEVER, Keilana was AWESOME! I couldn't believe it! I was so surprised and so incredibly proud that the assistants there probably thought I was going to pee in my pants. They agreed with how well she did, and informed me that she was better than some of their older children patients and certainly better than any 3 year old that had come through their office. Keilana and I had a talk that morning about what was going to happen and she said she didn't want to go. I simply told her that it was important that we had our teeth cleaned at the dentist so that we didn't get any monsters in them and that she didn't have a choice. Sounded a little harsh at the time, I realize; but she's at a very independent age and I wanted to stress the importance to her of taking care of our teeth. Also having her realize this wasn't something she was able to choose whether or not happened. To help ease the fear I told her I would be right with her and if she wanted, I would go first and she could watch me get mine cleaned. She agreed. I was seriously ecstatic when she let them get an x-ray of her teeth. I was at the front desk and she walked down the hallway, away from me, by herself with the assistant to get the x-ray done. A perfect picture of her little teeth too! I could see the ones underneath that were developing and even her 6 year molars. As a reward for being such a good girl, she was able to pick out a movie at the store where used DVDs are sold. She actually picked a sweet deal because we found a brand new, still wrapped up, Little Mermaid 2: Ariel's New Beginning for only $10.00!

They, at the dentist office, wanted to give Lana a flouride treatment but after being worked on for 30 minutes she was completely done. She was being brave the whole time and then right at the end, when the Doc came into the room to take a look at her teeth, she refused to lie back in the chair and shed a silent tear. I almost died! I tried to push her a little more to let him double check for cavities but when she started crying aloud, we all agreed that it could wait 6 months at her next cleaning. Results of her first dental visit: an x-ray, clean teeth, a toothbrush, a treasure from "the tooth box" and NO CAVITIES! I don't think that I could have been any more proud of my little girl at that point. Next major feat for me and Keilana, kindergarten.

Check out the big girl. Can you believe it?! She did all of this voluntarily, well, at least she did it on her own. I guess she figured she didn't have a choice.

Feeling a little uncomfortable but still acting brave. Poor Judy, I captured her at an awkward time.

Checking for cavities


The final touches, a nice clean polish.