Blue skies, sunshine on your face, the smell of suncream & cut grass, buzzy bees & butterflies, strawberries & cream, going on bear hunts through long wavy grass, sticky drippy homemade ice lollies, humming lawnmowers, making daisy chains & blowing dandelion clocks, getting wrinkly-toed in the paddling pool, running through the sprinklers & slipping on the lawn, picking home grown pea pods and eating them striaght away, picnics in the park, going to the beach loaded up with deckchairs & windbreakers & buckets & spades, tea in the garden, light mornings & evenings, BBQ's & bouncy castles, camping trips with campfires, drinking homemade lemonade with a mini umbrella in it, trying to get to the mirage and watching baby birds learning to fly.
A trip to the dentist
It was time for my 3 year old daughter to go to the dentist for the first time recently. We spent the two weeks before:
- reading books about going to the dentist
- watching the episode of Peppa Pig where she goes to the dentist
- playing dentists (I was the frightened little girl who didn't want to open her mouth, she was the dentist complete with two chopstick tools trying to persuade me)
- talking about the great things about going to the dentist such as the special seat that goes up and down when he/she presses the button, the pink drink that you swish & spit but don't swallow and the fact that you might get a balloon or a sticker if you let the dentist count your teeth.
I felt she was prepared for the day. We arrived at the dentist (the smell knocked me sick but no sign of this was shown) and she was as good as gold, only concerned about whether the balloon would be pink or not because pink is her favourite colour. She sat in the chair nicely, let the dentist count her teeth and was duely rewarded with a pink balloon, her very own toothpaste and a sticker. It was big smiles all round.
I on the other hand was not prepared to be told that she is going to need a filling in the front. I felt I had failed as her mother. I was completely floored as the dentist went on to ask me if I ever read food labels and monitored the amount of sugar she had. He informed me that the decay was most likely due to holding & swishing her watered down apple juice in her mouth, asked me if I knew that childrens cereals & yoghurts contain whole bags of sugar and told me that food after 6pm at night was an absolute no no. Well, I could hardly speak. I wanted to tell him that I've spent the last three years worrying about what she eats (is she eating enough?, has she had a balanced meal with all the food groups covered?, is she getting her five a day). I wanted to say that there is no such thing as a quick trip to the supermarket because I carefully read all the food labels trying to make sure they don't contain artifical additives. I wanted to say that she's never been allowed to have coke or fizzy drinks except for a really special treat maybe for a birthday party, that her teeth have been brushed morning and night since they came through and that I thought giving her watered down apple juice was a nice healthy drink. I didn't say anything though, I doubt he cared about the constant worry a mother goes through and I feel lucky we even have an NHS dentist. Just when you start to feel like you know what you're doing and you've got this mothering lark sussed. Bam, something like this happens and you feel like you're just tredding water to keep afloat. The first few days after that I only gave her water to drink, gave her weetabix (low in sugar but becomes thick sludge if played with and not eaten immediately) for breakfast and brushed her teeth after every meal. Since then I've chilled out a bit. I went to the supermarket and checked out all the childrens cereals. I managed to find one that is still appealing to her -Chocolate hoops but that contains a respectable amount of sugar. I still give her watered down apple juice with her breakfast and her tea but only water the rest of the day. I gave myself a good talking to. I said you have done your best and that some people just have more susceptible teeth than others. Now, I just have to get through actually going for the filling. I can feel the worry building up in the pit of my stomach already. How will I explain it to her? How can I make it as stress free as possible and make sure she's doesn't develop a phobia about dentists? I'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it. Another day, another mum dilemma!!
Making orange juice lollies
It was a beautiful summers day today - cracking the flags! So our special activity was to make our own orange juice lollies. I already had some organic sicilian red blood oranges in, perfect for the occasion. We squeezed out the juice, made funny talking mouths with the orange skin halves, picked out the pips with a spoon, licked our fingers and watched in amazement as the spilt juice soaked up through a piece of kitchen towel until the whole thing was red. Then we washed the plastic ice lolly makers in the sink ending up with more soap suds than is needed for a weeks worth of washing up and water sloshed all over the floor (good for doing skids). My daughter carefully poured the orange juice into the lolly maker making me smile at the way she points her lips when she's concentrating so hard and was holding one arm with her other hand to keep it steady. We topped them up with water, stuck the top bit with the stick in and then had to re-arrange the contents of the freezer so that they could be placed in upright and the drawer still be shut. We waited and waited and waited for the lollies to freeze with at least ten checks in between just to see if they were ready yet. Finally, our sticky drippy lollies were ready to suck sitting in the sunshine. They tasted so good we had two. I gave myself a pat on the back for that one!
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