The latest adventure

We are obviously the height of family togetherness. I mean, we have Valentine's hanging from the ceiling and all over the doors and even on the doorknobs. The love abounds! Also, the children's glue stick addiction abounds. They are nuts for crafts.

That's the good news. Don't you like how I led off with the charm and whimsy of Valentine's made by a child's hand? I'm trying to distract myself from other recent developments.

Yesterday, I took Jordan (why is it always Jordan?) to the dentist. He was a very charming little fellow. He took the whole thing like a man, even doing a fluoride treatment and then, as a coup de grace, his very first set of X-rays. And he waited patiently for the dentist to come in and show him pictures of his bones.

Alas, those bones have not one, not two, but eight frigging cavities. Eight! What six-year-old has eight cavities? Mine. Of course. The dentist tapped the celluloid with his pen. See here, said the good tooth doctor, that's a cave-in. He actually called it a cave-in. Jordan was just happy to see his teeth.

What does this mean? I asked. I did not ask, and where's the nitrous so I can snark a big hit off that thing? It seems this means that Jordan is up for, oh, three or four visits to a special child dentist. My dentist will not handle this due to Jordan's--ahem--anxiety. This is how we term his penchant for requiring four or five nurses to get through a shot. (A shot in the arm. This is to say nothing of four shots in the gums.) The child dentist will have to size him up for herself (there's one visit right there) and for each of these adventures we must cross one of the nastiest winter passes in the state.

How much does it cost? I then asked. There was much fiddling with pencils and avoidance of the question at that point, which I took to be a discouraging sign. Turns out we're staring down about $1500 in dental work. For a kid. Oh, did I mention the cavities are on teeth that won't fall out naturally for years?

Naturally, I also had to endure the lecture about how I should just stick that floss in Jordan's mouth whether he likes it or not. These people do not know my child. I was just so damn happy that he was brushing, I didn't get all excited about the floss.

So. Back to making Valentine's and trying to forget the latest health drama in the life of my oldest child. Glue stick, anyone?