a trip to the dentist

griffin has been suffering through the weekend with a toothache.  it was a tooth that we had already had filled once, but i suspected that the filling had come out.  he woke up screaming friday night, saying his cheek hurt.  i knew by the look of the tooth it wasn’t good.  but it was the weekend....all i could do was try to numb the pain until we could get to a dentist.  we have a dentist here that does ok work for simple things...but this wasn’t looking especially simple, and the work they had done before was clearly not working out to his advantage.  

so, tuesday morning around 8:30 am....i finally got an appointment with a dentist in south africa that could see him that day...at noon.  we are 2 1/2 hours from the dentist...and we have to cross the border...which can take 15 minutes or it can take an hour.  one never knows these things.  when i made the appointment i was still in my work out clothes, no make up, the little ones didn’t have their hair fixed, and the school day had just gotten in session about a half hour earlier.  we left the house and 8:50.  we have all looked better, but i had on makeup and the kids were wearing shoes, it was a success really...

the border went great.  there weren’t a bunch of slow cars on the road.  things were looking up.  until badplass that is..... i didn’t see a speed limit sign....but the police saw me.  i was unable to talk my way out of it.  although he did ask me to be his mom.  i’m not sure what that meant...and quite honestly i found it awkward.  i laughed nervously...he didn’t.  what  on earth did he mean?  did he want me to take him to the dentist like i took my son?  he was younger than me, but good grief!  he was no where near young enough to be my son!  anyway, from there on there were slow cars, slow trucks, road construction, finding private places to let children use the restroom in the great outdoors.  (public restrooms do no exist from swaziland to nelspruit south africa) we ended up parking the car in the dentist’s parking lot 3 minutes till our appointment time.  i felt good about my accomplishment.  minus the speeding ticket.  

once inside the doctor’s office, i met the dentist.  i don’t think he was actually old enough to be a dentist.  however, he didn’t ask me to be his mom, so i felt less weird about the situation.  griffin laid there like such a good boy.  that’s when i realized he had his shorts on backwards.  i’m such a good mom.  he is the best little dental patient i have ever seen...too bad he has had so much practice at it. :(  

griffin received a root canal and another giant filling.  he told me he was happy happy happy!  he felt better almost immediately....and so we went to mcdonalds.  

i’m not a huge fan of mcdonalds, but it is nice to have a large coke from time to time, so i ordered that, fries, and an apple pie.  they still fry the pies here.  i don’t think i like them fried as well as baked...but whatever.  they never have them ready to eat.  they always cook them after they are ordered.  every time.  no matter what, if you order one, they look at you all sad like and say, “it’s going to be 8 minutes.” almost trying to talk you out of it.  to which i always reply, “it’s ok, i will wait.”  i have nothing better to do after all.  so the kids ate, and then i sent hudson to get mine and olivia’s apple pies and order he and the little kids a mcflurry.  unfortunately for us, they had sold one of my pies, and the ice cream machine was broken.  this is typical.  and exhausting.  oddly enough, they told him it was going to take 10 minutes for the next apple pie.  i thought maybe it was going to be bigger since it was going to take longer....but it wasn’t.  and, since the ice cream machine was broken, my pie became even smaller when i had to share it with griffin and ella.  they got it all over themselves.  i may have yelled a little.  we were in the car by that point.....so while no one could hear me, i’m pretty sure they saw me raising my arms and opening my mouth really big.  i wasn’t mad because the kids got the pie all over them, i was mad because olivia was mad that i gave them pie.  and i was mad because hudson was mad that i gave them the pie.  it would be a lot easier to be a mom if i didn’t have other people telling me what to do all the time.  especially people who have no parenting experience.  

this brings me to something i need to get off my chest.  it is so much harder to parent little kids when older kids live in the same house!  glad i could get that out.  

anyway, while we were out and about doing this nonsense, randy was in johannesburg picking up a team.  we all made it back to swaziland in time for dinner together.  griffin is still happy happy happy, and his shorts are on the right way today.  all is well.