Open Wide Like An Alligator

I don’t believe I have ever laughed so hard at the dentist as I did today!!  Dr. Reid knew how badly Abigail wanted up in the dentist chair and to feel like one of the “big” kids, so after Cody, Anna, and Dylan were done with their check-ups, he took Abigail into the next room to “examine” her teeth.  He laughed as Abigail climbed up into the huge dental chair and assured me he wasn’t going to charge me for the exam!  Ha!  He talked with her for a bit about her teeth.  Oh, how she listened to him so intently, eyes wide and earnest!  Then he told her to open her mouth as wide as an alligator.  Oh, boy, she stretched it WIDE open, her little eyes still peering at Dr. Reid very intently!  He checked her teeth carefully and then told her she could close her mouth, but, for some reason, she seemed to be trying very hard to be the best patient for him and kept her mouth as wide open as ever.  I wish you could have seen those eyes…oh, those eyes!!  She so tenderly and earnestly looked at Dr. Reid to be sure she was doing everything perfectly.  Dr. Reid gently told her again that she could close her mouth now, but it seemed frozen.  He sweetly tapped her chin and reiterated to her to close her mouth, but there she sat, mouth wide open, not taking one eye off of him.  At this point, Dr. Reid turns to me, laughing, as he says he has never had this problem before.  He said most kids don’t open wide enough, yet he can’t get this little two year old (she looked so itty-bitty in that big dental chair) to end the alligator face!  We were all laughing so hard as nothing seemed to work.  I don’t know what was going through Abigail’s sweet mind, but it was hilarious!  I don’t know what eventually made her budge, but something eventually did.  I caught myself at various times today laughing out loud as images of her in that chair flitted through my mind!  Dr. Reid made her a balloon from his surgical glove, and she picked out a princess toothbrush and a dinosaur toy which she proudly showed Daddy when he got home.  Dylan wanted me back in the room with him for his appointment.  Anna and I laughed over Dylan and the straw/tube that the dentists use to clear the water from the patient’s mouth.  Dylan didn’t realize when they handed it to him that you vacuum around your mouth once, release, and are done.  Instead, he sucked, opened his mouth, sucked, open, sucked, open, over and over again.  The sound that it made was like listening to a rapper trying to make music, and Anna couldn’t quit giggling over this!  I thought for sure a band member from Stomp was going to be calling Dylan up this afternoon!  I didn’t have the heart to tell Dylan.  It was just so much fun to watch these ordinary experiences with these extraordinary (I think so anyways!)  kids!  Thanks guys for the laughs!