A Day in the Life of My Little Brood: Did you say root canal??

Well, I had my appointment with the dentist today to have my cavity filled. I've really surprised myself over these last few weeks of anticipation because, even though I know I don't like going to the dentist, I didn't realize I was actually fearful. It became clear to me today though, as I sat in that chair with the headphones and music they kindly provided completely blaring so as not to hear the drill (which, by the way, does NOT work. The drilling is happening in your mouth, so the sound is coming from INSIDE YOUR HEAD....no escaping that! Nice try, though.) Anyway, I must have caught myself tensing my entire body at least ten times, and had to breath deeply and repeat to myself "You have given birth twice....you have given birth twice....you have given birth twice...." For a little while my lower lip was actually quivering uncontrollably! This all surprised me because in the past, I have to say I've felt pretty brave in the dentist's chair. Maybe it's because it was my first time having something like that done by someone other than my childhood dentist (or his son), or maybe it was because every single fear I have seems to have tripled since becoming a mom for some reason (fear of heights comes to mind)...whatever the reason, I was not comfortable, despite the novocaine and extremely kind and knowledgeable doctor and assistant. Imagine my absolute terror when the dentist muted my headphones and said "I just want to tell you what's happening. It appears that the cavity has entered the nerve tissue, and traditionally, the next step is a root canal." Wh-wh-wh-WHAT??!!! I honestly wanted to cry (and still do a little bit, to tell you the truth). Before we head down that path though, we are trying this new, (experimental?) thing called Mineral Trioxide Aggregate. Apparently some dentists have started trying it over the last few years in an effort to avoid root canals. This stuff can stop the progression of the infection or something, thus saving the tooth without totally hollowing it out. You can be sure my fingers and toes are crossed and I hope you will do the same for my sake.

As far as the kids and our life at home goes, I can tell you that Nathan and I have created a monster. Zoe is completely and utterly OBSESSED with "Annie". She saw a kid version of the play back in March and has been talking about it so much that we decided it was time to buy her her first cast album, and Grandma got her the movie. It's so funny and touching to watch and listen to her because it brings back such memories for both of us. We have been laughing about the fact that it's driving us a little crazy, hearing the songs over and over and over again because we did the exact same thing to our families when we were kids. As I watch her sit quietly, listening intently to every single song, I can't help but picture myself sitting in my old room listening to music for hours at a time, getting lost in my imagination. I also have flashbacks of buying cast albums to learn the words to shows I was in and dreaming about being a big star one day....so crazy being on this side of things now. I love hearing her little voice belt out "Tomorrow" and "It's a Hard Knocked Life", but you haven't lived until you've heard my sweet little 3 (and a half!) year old sing, in full voice, the lyrics "Today we're living in a shanty. Today we're scrounging for a meal. Today I'm stealing coal for fire...Who knew I COULD STEEEEEAL!!!", not to mention "Some women are dwippin' with diamonds. Some women are dwippin' with poles (pearls). Lucky me, lucky me, look at what I'm DA-WIPPIN' with...little goles!"

Owen is still not sleeping great, but I suppose we are getting there. He wakes up quite a bit but can sometimes get himself back to sleep, and Zoe is now a pro at just getting up and sleeping in our room on the sleeping bag on the floor without too much fuss if it bothers her. He is getting better and better at the army crawl and is trying really hard to figure out how to get on his hands and knees. We've bolted our tallest piece of furniture to the wall and have our eyes peeled for the next child-proofing project.

I made these cool t-shirts for the kids a few days ago, and briefly thought about trying to sell them on Etsy, but realized it would be really hard to make any sort of big profit on them. So I decided to keep it as a "for fun" thing...the shirts are from the craft store, and the paint is the puffy fabric paint you can get there. For his (the white one) I was playing around with the idea of tie-dying without the dye. I bunched it up like I was tie-dying it and first shook it up in a bag with a bunch of paint and then brushed the yellow and red on. It looks cool, but it's a little stiff where the paint is thicker so I think next time I'll skip the bag shaking step. For hers, I just squirted the paint onto the shirt the way I wanted it and brushed it flat with the foam craft brushes you can get at the craft store.....check it out and let me know if you'd be willing to pay $2000 for one...if so, I think I might be in business. :-)