Valium.

Not for me, but for Kaylee.  I took her for her dental checkup this morning.  She has two small cavities.  They are small enough that instead of numbing the teeth, she’ll just get Valium and laughing gas.  The dentist gave me a prescription to get filled.  We’re to give it to her the night before and again one hour before her appointment.  I had a small cavity filled without anything at all myself while I was pregnant, and it honestly hurt a lot less than most of my cleanings, so I’m sure she’ll be fine, and all she’ll need is help relaxing, but I can’t tell you how odd it felt to turn in a prescription for Valium for my almost-4-year-old.

Anyway, Kaylee did really great with her cleaning.  The only part where she got a little nervous was when they first laid the chair back.  She didn’t want to lie down.  I think she felt like she was going to fall.  But once she got comfortable, she was fine, doing exactly what she was told and even laughing and saying it tickled a few times.  She goes back for the fillings on the 22nd.

Kaylee also had her follow-up yesterday for the ear infections she had last month, and both ears are clear. :-)  Just as the nurse was getting started with us, the doctor needed her to go do something else, so he took Kaylee’s vitals himself – something he never does.  It was so funny; he was so pleased with himself when he figured out how to use the thermometer.  In his defense, they’ve only been using this particular kind a short time, and it’s an electronic one with disposable covers that pop out of the case.  He did it under Kaylee’s tongue, which she’s never done before, and it only took a few tries to get her to cooperate.  And then it came time to take her pulse.  He couldn’t find it on her wrist and ended up just using his stethoscope and listening to her chest.  Kaylee does have very small wrists, and the doctor’s hands are much bigger than the nurse’s, but it was just too funny to watch, especially the embarrassed little smile he got on his face. :-D  He joked with Kaylee about her not having a pulse, but it went right over her head.  I really, really like this doctor.  We’ve been with him most of the time since Matthew was born, only switching during our extended unemployment when our insurance ran out, and we had to put the kids in the state aid program.  He has always had kind of an odd demeanor, but I always felt that I could trust him with the health of our kids (something I never really felt confident in when we had to switch).  And now that he’s getting older, he’s developing a sense of humor too. :-D

Over the last couple of days we also worked more on the taxes, and I started work on the TAOM program stuff for Mark, which is not coming easily for me.  There was supposed to be a chairmen’s meeting tomorrow night, and he wanted a rough draft by then, but the meeting got postponed so I got a bit of a reprieve.

I haven’t smelled the smoke from the wildfire again since that first morning.  It seems it is contained now, but there is still a danger of it flaring up again.  It’s not supposed to rain until Friday at the earliest.  :-(

And I still haven’t been brave enough to try the washing machine.