First dentist appointment

Let's just say this was a first that I have been dreading for quite some time.  For the most part Hayden is a very happy go lucky child with a zest for life that is actually a bit contagious.  However she also has fairly severe stranger anxiety and we deal with it fairly regularly....sometimes she is completely unaffected by strangers and other times you would think they were strangers from the dark....however I should point out that if they are male with any sort of facial hair Hayden will pretty much decide from the first moment that she will have NOTHING to do with them, as well as probably scream her head off!!  Nothing personal, and for all you men out there with facial hair you are in good company because Hayden does not have any appreciation for Santa or Jesus either!!    So while this child has major love of taking ritualistic care of her teeth and the fact that we have been talking about going to the dentist for months; I finally broke down and bit the bullet and made the appointment even though I was pretty certain it was going to be a terrible experience and probably a waste of money.
I went with a pediatric dentist that had been recommended over and over again and everyone assured me that Hayden would do great and totally surprise me.  I talked with her everyday for a week about the appointment, I guaranteed her that she would walk away with a brand new toothbrush, paste and FLOSS(her favorite part) she wanted to know if she would also get some new rinse because she wanted to make sure they knew she doesn't really like the mint kind:) 
So on the drive there we talked about how great it was going to be, and what to expect, and how mama would be RIGHT there with her the whole time.  We went over the dentist's name about 20 times(Hayden's must know every ones name)  I thought for sure we would walk in and she would melt down.  Well when we walked into the COOLEST office I have ever seen she was intrigued.  The staff was so warm and friendly and spoke directly to Hayden.  They had an awesome tree that played never ending cartoons, there were video games mounted to the wall, as well as plenty of other kids waiting for their turn.  So far so good.....then a sweet girl with a big bow in her hair called our name and she introduced herself to Hayden and said "let's go pick a movie to watch" (hayden wanted to know if they had Stuart Little...they didn't, so she chose Babe) Miss Karen took us back to the "orange room" and yes everything was orange, she got H settled in the chair(still doing great) she showed her how to put the earphones on and Hayden sat back and said "are you going to give me a new toothbrush"??  Miss Karen told Hayden exactly what she was going to do and she told me that we would just do what Hayden would let her....they like the first visit to be as positive as possible. 

Well Let me just tell you my rock star dental obsessed kid let her do EVERYTHING that she needed and wanted.  So once that part was finished Miss Karen said that Dr. Chris would be looking at her teeth too and he would be there shortly.  Well Dr. Chris was working on a child in the next chair(about 10 feet away) and Hayden took off her earphones and said "mommy is is that Dr. Chris"?  and while I was hesitant to answer I had to say yes and you guessed it.....while we knew he was a man; he also had facial hair.  Hayden looked at Miss Karen and bluntly said "I do not like facial hair....is there another dr here"?  DEAD serious look on her face!!  Miss Karen and I almost dropped to the floor because it was so funny that something like that would come out of a 2 year old.  Miss Karen asked me again "how old is she" ?  Miss Karen then assured H that there was someone else and that Dr. Julie could come look at her teeth. 

Well Dr. Julie could not have been better.  She LOVED H from the moment she met her and was blown away with her language and her description of her oral hygiene, she had to laugh when Hayden asked her if it would be okay for her to also look at her friend Stuart's teeth while we were there(I had to point out that Stuart Little is Hayden's imaginary friend and goes EVERYWHERE with us)  Dr. Julie agreed that checking his teeth would be a great idea.   She told us that only one of her 2 yr molars have come in, but that we will check again in December to see how many have some in....Hayden didn't get her first tooth until she was 11 months old, so she said that is not uncommon that these molars have not come in then.   She talked to Hayden about the fact that fruit snacks are not a good idea for her teeth that they leave sugar bugs on there.  They talked about juice(we do very little juice, but we do it in a sippy cup and that is a big NO NO....puts the juice right up to their teeth) and they talked about the "pink one" aka the pacifier.  We are down to just having it in bed(which she said was not a big deal until after age 3) but she told Hayden that lots of babies don't have pink ones...which is exactly what Hayden and I talk about everything she owns including her pink one.  So before Dr. Julie could go further Hayden told her that when she is big and doesn't need her pink ones anymore that she is going to tie them to a balloon and send them to Taiwan to Mrs. Chen's babies so they too can have a pink one.  I thought Dr. Julie was going to start crying.  She said that is the sweetest thing she has ever heard!!!  I told her we have had that conversation a few times before.  BTW Hayden has retracted her statement and said that she will send all of them but one because she thinks she will like having just one in her bed even when she is big!!  LOL  So we finished up and they let her pick out her new toothbrush and some other dental treats, she got a sticker and got to pull a toy from the treasure drawer and she was given a coupon for a free scoop of ice cream from across the street!!!  So it went great and I was so pleased with the outcome.  We are having to do a fluoride treatment at night.  It is precautionary since we don't know her birth families dental history and dental issues appearently are hereditary and plus she said we have no idea if H's first few months of life included water that would have contained fluoride. 

To conclude our visit to the dentist we then had gymnastics..... I always bring a bag of fruit snacks for H and other girls in her class(this day was no different other than I knew it would be the last time I brought them after the sugar bug talk)  We have done this for well over a year and all the girls know that fruit snacks and stamps come at the end of class.  Well everyone got their stamps and then Hayden announced to her friends*even though I had the snacks and had not told her it was the last time,  She tells them that my mom can't bring fruit snacks anymore....they leave sugar bugs on your teeth, but she will bring us goldfish instead(again she made this part up)  Her friends looked so sad and all of the moms just started laughing!!!!  Oh Hayden you are a hot Atlanta mess!!!! but with clean teeth!!

Tree with cartoons and can you see the video games mounted on the wall to the left?? 

sorry these are with my iphone.....I forgot my camera at home and because I was so stunned at how well she did I forgot to take many pics.