Graham’s First Dentist Appointment (2 years, 4 months, 22 days old)

On May 15th, Graham had his first dentist appointment!  After polling my mommy friends, I settled on Dr. Annie (a well known pediatric dentist in town).  Several weeks before the appointment, Graham received his personalized Dentasaurus book, so we had been reading up about who he was going to meet at the office, what he was going to see, and what was going to happen. 
When we arrived, Graham was instantly enthralled with the toys in the waiting room:

Next, he got to meet Salina, pick a brand new toothbrush, and show off how good he has gotten at brushing his teeth:

Salina had a kangaroo set up on the chair and she explained/demonstrated everything that was going to happen (and showed all the equipment that she was going to be using) before Graham actually got into the chair:

Once Graham had his very own mirror in hand, it was time to get started:

Salina began by pointing out the big light overhead:

Next, she asked Graham to give her a smile so she could check out his pearly whites:

Graham wasn’t quite sure what he thought of the suction device:

The last step before Dr. Annie arrived was to paint Graham’s teeth and search for plaque.  Graham had a lot of fun being the detective and helping Salina check if they had found any plaque.  They found a little bit (where the front teeth are covered by the lip and where the back bottom inside teeth are covered by the tongue), but Salina said she was very impressed with how clean Graham’s teeth were, overall:

Finally, the moment we were all waiting for, Dr. Annie arrived!  Graham loved her Curious George shirt:

Graham was really good and sat very still while Dr. Annie was examining his teeth:

When it was time to use the poker, Dr. Annie showed it to Graham first and let him test out its sharp tip on his finger:

Next up was flossing:

High Five!  All done big boy:

All that was left was picking out a prize:

Dr. Annie left us with some great ‘take-away’ advice.  We will continue to let Graham ‘practice’ brushing his teeth, but do the bulk of the work ourselves.  He got a new cavity fighting (but still no fluoride) toothpaste.  Dr. Annie encouraged us to manipulate his mouth (example: pulling up his lip while brushing) as much as possible to help him continue to be comfortable with the dentist visits and she suggested that we practice flossing once a week until his teeth grow closer together and flossing actually becomes necessary. 
After the appointment, we had time for a quick trip to the grocery store/pet shop and I surprised Graham with his very own Blenders for the first time.  He loved it:

After Graham’s nap, he got his final surprise of the day.  His new summer shoes had arrived in the mail.  I ordered two sizes.  The smaller size looked like it may slightly be cramping Graham’s big toe, so he ended up with the HUGE pair.  I was worried that he would trip because the shoes looked so big, so we headed out for a mile ‘test’ run/walk (Graham wanted to run, but pregnant Mommy couldn’t quite keep up).  The huge shoes passed the test and Graham paused just long enough for Mommy to get a picture of those cute new big boy shoes:

What a fun day, full of lots of firsts :)