68 : It Will Make My Teeth Smell Better, Mom
THUD!
All 73 pounds of my nine year-old landed flat on top of my back as I was graciously yanked out of dreams where spiders chased me around a silo-like structure laced with serpentine trolley tracks, skyward, to a mall where a Korean boy band featuring lead singer – Tae-Hee – was currently being mobbed by adoring American fans.
“WAKE UP CALL! WAKE UP CALL! WAKE UP CALL!” Puck yelled right above my ears.
It’s certainly one way to start the day.
Several hours later, we were preparing to leave for the boys’ dental appointments.
“Mom!” Puck hollered from the other room. “Can you help me brush my teeth? This is the new order. I’m gonna brush my teeth for five minutes, then floss, then I’m going to, um, scrape my teeth with a towel, then scrape my teeth with my fingernail, then gurgle, then get a mint. And I’m just about to complete phase one.”
I could tell he was slightly concerned that a dental scolding was waiting him just around the corner.
“Can I have a mint now, Mom?” he asked after the brushing and scraping was finished.
“Are you sure you want one?”
He looked at me seriously. “It will make my teeth smell better, Mom.”
The dental hygienist greeted Puck at ten o’clock, “So how are the teeth, Puck?”
I could almost see the scales in his mind. He wanted so badly to tell the truth, but also very badly wanted to stay out of trouble. He took the diplomatic route.
“Hmm… Well, I brushed the front of my teeth better this time, but the back is badder… I mean, worse, than last time.”
He still made the cavity-free board.
Yali, on the other hand, protested and/or yelled his way through the entire process. No x-rays. No teeth cleaning. No fluoride treatments for him. Well, maybe one tooth got cleaned. He was still awarded two Batman stickers for sitting through the process.
“It’s okay,” his very patient hygienist told me. “We’ll try again next time.”
And, go figure, the kid didn’t have any cavities either, so he and Puck posed together for a photo for the cavity-free board.
It was hot. So like June to invite us to an early July. After hitting the store for new shorts for Gus – he won’t stop growing – the boys went inside to share drinks of cold water served out of Puck’s one-dollar water gun. Because I guess it’s just not interesting enough to drink out of a normal cup.