The Dentist!

I took Daniel to the dentist in late February for the first time in about 18 months.  (Bad Mom!  I know.)  Of course by then, he had gone from having perfect teeth, to having 8-9 cavities that needed to be filled between his teeth.  (FLOSS, for goodness' sake!  FLOSS!)  One of his cavities actually needed to be crowned.  This was going to run us just under $800 out of pocket to do.  On his baby teeth. *sigh* We don't have that kind of money, so like any good overwhelmed mommy, I ran and hid from the mess for 3 months.  Well, the tooth that needed to be crowned really started to hurt him, so I took him in for a consultation and a second opinion from an office that came very highly recommended from a couple of individuals and a general dentist.  

After they got done looking at his teeth (and taking their own x-rays), they brought him out and told me how good he was in the back and how they had no trouble with him, and he was all smiles.  This is always nice to hear.  However, by now the verdict was even more bleak.  3 of the other cavities were now going to need to be crowned.  My bill will now be $2000.  Out. Of. Pocket.  For baby teeth.  They will fall out in about 2 years.  At this point, I start sobbing hysterically, and the poor girl going over the numbers with me doesn't know what to do with me.  She asks if I'd like to send the kids back out to the waiting room to play while we discuss our options.  The kids say they'd like to go play, so, even though normally I don't like to let them out of my sight in public, I allow it.  We discuss options, I have a chat with the dentist who tells me that they may not have to do crowns on those teeth if he doesn't hit the nerve, but he wanted to err on the side of caution.  Meanwhile, Daniel still needs to have a crown put on his hurting tooth immediately at a cost of $344.  Well, I have a Benny card, and I think there's enough left on it, so I head back out to the waiting room for them to call Daniel back again so they can do his crown.   

They have a cool safari themed waiting room.  There's a big fish tank that people can walk behind, and there's this climb-y enclosed thing the kids can play in. And there are a couple of televisions and plenty of seating.  On first glance into the waiting room, I don't see the kids, so I figure they must be in the climb-y thing, or behind the fish.  I look behind the fish.  Not there.  I look in the climb-y thing.  Not there.  Huh.  I check the bathroom.  Not there.  I go back to the climb-y thing and call for them.  Nothing.  There's nobody inside. I do another quick sweep of the waiting room, and they are clearly not there.  I tell the lady behind the desk that my kids came out to the waiting room to play, but they are not there, and would she please check the back for them.  She checks.  They are not there.  I make another sweep of the waiting room and all the nooks and crannies.  NOT.  THERE.  So I ask the lady at the desk if she will allow me to check the back and see if my kids are there.  Not knowing what else to do, she says yes.  I wander around in back looking for the kids, of course I can't see them there.  The assistants back there ask me what I'm doing, and I tell them that my kids are nowhere to be found.  So they all start the search for my kids.  

By this time, I'm starting to freak out.  There's no shouting or hysterics yet, but there is some definite desperation.  I am imagining myself having to call the police and fill out reports, and some MANIAC has just walked into a dental office and took off with my children, and I'll never see them again, and how am I supposed to live without them?  What will I say to Jeremy?  I am the only person on earth that could lose both of their children in one afternoon in a dentist's office!  What if they don't come back?  I really don't think I can survive that...

They call me from the waiting room.  They found them!  The children had been hiding in the climb-y thing, laying flat under the windows so that I couldn't see them.

...

Okay, let me just say, that as happy as I was that they were still alive, they came tremendously close to being skinned alive right then and there!  Lucky for them we had more time to wait in the waiting room, because if we had been ready to leave, we would have gone straight home, where I would have tanned both their hides so well, that they would not have been able to sit for a MONTH!  I stared them both down, and told them that that was NOT funny.  And to never, EVER do that again.  I should have used their restroom to thrash them ... everyone would have heard, but I don't think there would have been one parent there that blamed me.  *sigh*  Anyway, I don't think they will try that again, because they could tell that I was serious.  So much for "Oh, he's been so good!"  I was so embarrassed.  But at least I still have my brats.  Strangely enough, I love 'em anyway.