Had a crazy day today taking August to the dentist and to get an x-ray. August has an extra baby tooth and it has started to bother him. He talks about it being itchy and puffy, and he’s chewing on everything: bracelets, his sunglasses, the edges of tables. It seems like the extra tooth above it is coming in early. He has hated the idea of the dentist in general, but about a week ago I asked if he wanted a dentist to help with the tooth. He said yes.
Anyway, he was up at 7:24. A faster wake up today. We read a couple of Skybrary books, What does It Mean to be Kind? and Keep Your Distance! (Which we’ve read before and is about math). Had some breakfast, then got going for his apppointment. Outside, he got to watch the claw truck for the first time since we got back.
Carly set up the appointment. Day before I figured out she had NOT called the place right in town, which I have pointed out and mentioned multiple times as the place we should go to the dentist. Instead, she had called some woman a few blocks away who has a dental practice in her home. We arrive, 8:30.
August got stressed as I parked the car, but then handled it very well once we were to the house. We followed the signs to the left around to the side of the house. Turns out it is just the one woman, no assistants.
She took us to the exam room and suggested he sit on my lap. This worked well. I lay back in the dentist chair and he la back on my stomach. I couldn’t see what was going on, but he seemed to open his mouth when she asked.
She inspected his teeth and told me his teeth looked good. No cavities or problems. And she said the extra tooth was fine and not a problem. I was confused and told her it was a problem. She said it wasn’t. This went back and forth a few times. Her English was good, but I think we were hung up on what she meant by ‘bothering’ him. She meant it wasn’t causing problems with the shape of his teeth and didn’t realize that August was uncomfortable.
Then, August did a great job of explaining it himself, pointing to where he said it felt itchy and puffy, and describing a pushing sensation. So she referred us for an x-ray machine. No assistants, and no x-ray machine. She gave me a list of places called, in Hebrew, ‘Tooth Light’. She suggested the one in Pardesiya, about a 15 minute drive to a mall up north.
August and I made it there and parked at the east end of the mall, then walked and walked, exploring every crook and cranny, trying to find the place. August herd kids playing and it led to a korean-style indoor play area in the basement of one building. We found a dental clinic, but the receptionist took a look at our flyer and claimed to not know anything about it. A customer, however, jumped up and told us it was downstairs. I thought she also said something about statues, but that didn’t end up being helpful.
We kept looking, and found anther hallway we hadn’t seen before. Turned out to be wrong, but a guy walking by saw the flyer in my hand. “X-ray?” he said. I said yes, and he pointed me downstairs and told me it was around the corner and down more stairs. Finally, we found it. There wasn’t a sign for it until you got to the actual door of the office.
We went in, and there was just one x-ray technician running the place and she had another customer. They phone kept ringing and ringing, and August didn’t like it: “Stop ringing!” He didn’t like the waiting, and told me that he had liked the running around the mall part, searching, better: “It’s more fun when we aren’t getting help.” To fill the time, we started playing Polytopia, the game he had found on my phone.
When it was our turn, it turned out the woman only spoke Hebrew. Another customer, however, translated for us and was nice enough to stay and help. The technician, on hearing that the x-ray was for August, immediately said she couldn’t do it, that the machine was too big for him. We talked her into trying. It looked like it would go well, and August stood on a stool to fit his head in the machine. When she tried to get me out of the room though he didn’t like that. So I stood in the room and held my hand on the back of his head.
She went and pressed the button, and it started turning around his head. When it went to turn all the way around I had to remove my hand. At that point August moved. The technician stopped and told us he had moved too much. August complained about the plastic thing in his mouth, saying he didn’t like how it was mushy. The woman translating and I tried to get August to try again. What’s more, the technician was against it. I thanked the translator for her help and August and I left.
We sat on a low wall and discussed it. August was pensive, sitting with his hands on his knees and his chin in his hands. He didn’t want to, but I said we’d head over to another location and that maybe the person there would be more helpful. I also explained that we now knew what to expect and the instructions wouldn’t take as long. And that he could pretend to be a statue and I’d count out loud and knew to switch hands when the machine went around.
The next closest location was in a mall directly west, closer to Netanya. It was where August and I had gone to eat at McDonald’s the one time. We found this location much more quickly and it was also much nicer. But best of all was the technician. She spoke English and was much nicer about it, although she was still surprised about a 4-year old getting an x-ray.
We went in and nailed it on the first try. August held still and I counted to about 20. When she said it was good I gave him a high five and congratulated him. Back in the car, August asked to see the x-ray. I showed him how you could see the extra adult tooth up in his gum, and how it is lower than all the other adult teeth.
I figured after dental appointments is no time to skimp on treats, so we decided to go to a coffee shop and get him a hot chocolate. We drove into Even Yehuda and parked in the dirt lot in the center of town. We walked over to Malkin, our usual coffee shop, only to find it closed. It was still mostly intact, the tables, etc., but there was dishwasher sitting in the middle of the floor inside and it had a sense of being completely closed.
So we walked to Gutale, the other cafe. I ws carrying August as we walked by the bank, and August grabbed my head and turned it to the left. There was our neighbor, David. We talked to him for a minute. August was trying to tell him “I’ve got an extra tooth!” and we had to get David to stop talking so August could explain.
We continued on to Gutale. Quite nice inside. The only time we’ve been there since its remodel we sat outside. We sat inside at a table for two. We ordered a hot chocolate, a latte, and their green shakshuka. The brought out bread with butter and what I think was date jam and August ate some of that. We finished most of our first game of Polytopia. He came and sat on my lap while we played on the phone. The food was good, and he ate a good amount of the egg. The root salad was mainly cucumber and tomato though, and not nearly to my liking like Malkin’s.
We headed to the car, but then realized we should get cash at the bank. August helped with the ATM. Back at the car, I realized we didn’t have his water bottle. So back to Gutale. I asked about a water bottle, and at first she thought I wanted to buy one. We straightened that out, and there it was, sitting in lost and found.
We went home and had some water drink, finished the game of Polytopia, and as he sat on the couch he asked “Is there any viruses on Mama’s computer?” We briefly talked about viruses while at the new exhibit at Madatech, as there was a screen with live monitoring of virus attacks. Probably also on a Magic School Bus episode or something. August had seen Gutale’s water meter as we were walking to the car, and he wanted to see ours, which he’s never seen. We got the keys and took a look at it in the driveway, t
hen left at 2:30 for school.
He wanted to use Siri in the car, but it doesn’t pick up his voice/from the back seat well. So when we stopped he climbed up and tried until he got it to play the Chemical Brothers. On our way into school he wanted me to carry him. At first he said it was hotter up high, but then he said “Because of the flowers. The bees make heat, you know.”
We went to the preschool and did our indoor portion of the scavenger hunt. Carly had also met with Anna and Marion today about ways to make him comfortable about school. We saw Andrea and Marion rearranging PKA, then in PKB he talked to Anna and Marion about the changes they’ve made (light table in forest, kitchen down where it had been). He asked Vicky the question for his scavenger hunt, and when she asked what he had done this summer he said “Nothing” and then stuck to it. He had a good argument with her and Anna over whether ‘nothing’ was ‘something’, and when Vicky kept asking him different questions to try to trick him into saying something he had done this summer he caught on and stuck with “Nothing”.
We finished the rest of the indoor scavenger hunt (he found a closet of toys up in PKC that he’d like to play with, Brown Bear Brown Bear for a book he’s read before). And he spotted the Knuffle Bunny book in PKC and said he remembered watching it in PKB – one of those story videos they would watch.
We went to the bathroom, then went to Carly’s room at 3:30 and we headed to the pool. Played there until close to 5. Carly talked about her meeting with Anna and Marion and mentioned that only two of the kids in his class had moved way. August immediately said “Blanka!” And then added “Emmitt.”
We changed in the bathroom and he washed his hands. He told me “Did you know foamy soap means you can get a lot of it? Ms. Anna said that. So you need to let me do that.” I had tried to limit how much of the foamy soap he put on his hands the other day and he gave me that argument then as well.
As we walked to the car he wanted me to pick him up and said “Say fine”. He said it a few times today and is something he used to do a long time ago. He also got into a who-loves-who more competition with Carly, except this time he said they could tie – something he’s never done before, as he always has had to win. He said I could tie as well.
We drove to Sushi Ishimoto and picked up food to go. August didn’t like not eating there, so I took him out to the car to wait. August ordered, through Carly, “Our usual”, that is the pad thai with shrimp, and Carly got us an order of sushi and tofu noodle dish. While we waited in the car he told me “Did you know I can actually touch the pedal now?” He was playing with Siri and said “poop”. She responded with “let’s keep it clean here.”
At home we ate dinner outside. He said “Did you know that flubong can cool off the sun in two seconds?” He hasn’t talked about flubong recently. I told him about how it would take 6 minutes to go dark. I used scissors to cut up all the shrimp for him, and he inhaled most of the sushi.
Played some Dragonbox Big Numbers, then we read The Butter Battle Book. I went for a run and when I got back they were finishing up his bath. they went in and read the gravity book and brushed his teeth. He then requested me. We read the cat mystery book and I told an August story, where he and Teegan get the tools. He remembered that it was Carly’s turn to actually put him to sleep though and requested her. She came up and he was asleep at 9.
Dentist’s chair:
Getting a sticker:
X-ray:
