Trip to the dentist.

I've been meaning for a while to book the kids in for a  dental check.  Mainly to get them used to it, but also to double check that their teeth brushing vigilance was not all in vain. 

Getting an email from the Uni to say that children could book in for a free (love it!) check-up, scale and clean was enough motivation for me to sign them up!  Ah, the perks of being a poor uni student.





Grace was quite excited about going and even decided herself that she'd go first to show Xav how much fun it was.  Xav was quite adamant that he wasn't going to the dentist, and he was in no way going to open his mouth.  I was banking on him watching Grace have "so much fun" and not being able to contain himself from jumping into the chair himself.  I was also hoping that the lure of the mechanical chair would make the visit all the more appealing.

Grace was still excited, well until we walked into the room and then she went to tears.  She starting screaming and crying, saying she didn't want to have a turn and that she wanted Xavier to go first.  Xavier, meanwhile was huddled up to me whispering in my ear that he was not going first, and didn't even want a turn at all.  Crap.  My free dental visit was going to be wasted!

After some coaxing and calming, Grace agreed to laying on the chair with Duane.  It took another 5 minutes of the very patient dentist mucking around with a stuffed crocodile before she calmed down and agreed to open her mouth.  Once she was over the initial drama, it all went perfectly.  The dentist said that her teeth are beautifully spaced, which is a good sign for when her adult teeth come through and also congratulated her on her great brushing abilities - her pearly whites are in perfect condition!  He was actually quite surprised that she brushed and flossed all by herself, and told her to keep doing whatever she is doing as her teeth are wonderful.

Xav was next, and he was not a problem at all.  He played there with his mouth open wide whilst the dentist poked and prodded around, after a bit the dentist said he just wanted to double check something.  He called over the supervisor who had a look in, then laughed.  Seems what the first dentist had thought was a potential cavity, was in actual fact a piece black food.  Xav's teeth were also given the tick of perfection, and both kids were sent on their way with a new toothbrush and toothpaste each.

It's starting to look like the kids have got their fathers beautiful, strong teeth and not my dodgy ones - which I am over the moon about!

There are some things best left to the experts....

And it seems waxing is one of them.

Yes, I had an incident last weekend that will hopefully squash all future intentions of messing with stuff I have no idea about.

I had just got out of the shower and was doing my usual 10 second morning routine - moisturiser, deodorant and brush hair.  Just as I was putting the brush away I noticed a strip of wax shoved up the back of the cupboard.  Now, I can't ever remember buying this, so I'm guessing it come free somehow - maybe stuck in a magazine.  Right about now I should have realised that I was way out of my depth even contemplating using this, but my cockiness just shrugged - "Pfft, can't be that hard"

I had a quick rub between my eyebrows and felt fluff, so figured I may as well get rid of it with my new found beauty product.  There were no instructions, but I figured you put it on and rip it off - simple. 

I roughly cut out a shape that I guessed would fit between my eyebrows, peeled it apart and whacked it on.  After rubbing it a bit, to make sure it stuck, I then pulled the skin taut and ripped.  By now, I figured I must be amazing at this beauty business as it hadn't hurt at all.  BUT then I realised that all the green, gooey wax was still in a mound between my eyebrows.  I rubbed it a bit, but that just managed to smear it further over my face.

A quick rack through my brain as I tried to remember if wax comes off with hot or cold?  I justified hot as that would melt it, so I grabbed a face washer, heated it up and scrubbed.  It stayed there, except now it was smudged further and all over my fingers.  Right so hot didn't work, must be cold that you use.

I ran out to the kitchen and grabbed some ice, thinking for sure that would harden it up and it would fall off.  Meanwhile the kids are asking what's happening and Xav wanting to know why my face was covered in green bits.  I kept the ice on for a few minutes and then tried again to peel it off.  No luck.

So I then resorted to good 'ol Google.  BUT I had to type with my left little finger as that was the only one not covered in sticky, green wax.  After finally typing in "Removing wax strips"  I came across the wonderful advice to remove it with sesame oil.  I didn't have any of that, but figured olive oil would do the job just as well.

About now, the damn toxic wax had been right in the middle of my face for 15 minutes, so I was half expecting chunks of skin to come off as well.   A tissue soaked in olive oil did the job, and apart from some redness and the original eyebrow hair, all was good underneath.  Thank goodness for Google.

The bonus was, later in the afternoon, the eyebrow hair started falling out.  So I think maybe I'm a genius, I've created a pain-free way to wax!

But if I ever again have to urge to tidy up my eyebrows (and I probably won't, considering it's only the 2nd time ever I've bothered) I'll be paying for it.

They want a pony.

I was driving the 2 little darlings up to school this morning, when Grace spotted some new horses in one of the paddocks.

Grace:  "Look Mum, those horses are so beauuutiful!  I love horses as they are so kind and lovely.  Everyone must love horses"

Xavier: "I like horses, but ponies are better.  I want a pony.  Can we have a pony Mum"

Me: "Ponies need lots of room Xav, and our yard wouldn't be big enough for them"

Xavier: "Well, why don't we just get a bigger house then?  One with lots of room and THEN we can have a pony.  Muuuuummmmmm......CAN we have a pony?  I really like ponies."

Grace: "Yeah, that's a good idea Xav, we'll just get a HHHUUUGGGEEEE house, with a big paddock and we can maybe have a pony AND a horse.  "

Me: "Well, it costs a lot more to have a bigger house and paddocks for horses.  Mummy would have to go back to work all the time, and Daddy would have to work longer hours.  Then the kids would have to be in childcare EVERY day - for a really long time. " 

Grace: "That's ok.  We'd have SO much fun every day if we were at childcare.  We could do so many things, AND have a horse."

Me: "Right.  So you'd prefer to NOT spend lots of time with Mummy and Daddy, just so you could have a pony/horse?  Imagine every day not seeing Mummy or Daddy from early in the morning until dinner time at night.  That's a really long time.  Plus, Mummy and Daddy would really miss seeing you both."

Xavier: "But I'd really love a pony.  I don't mind not seeing you or Daddy.  You could have fun at work all the time and me and Grace could be at school all day.  I really like ponies. I WANT A PONY!!!" 

So, it seems they don't really give 2 hoots about our efforts to have 1 parent with them most of the time. 

It's a shame I'm only finding out about this now, I could put Grace in full time childcare and started my degree 4 year and 10 months ago.....