Today marked Harper’s first dentist visit! Lucky for her, she has been visiting the dentist with her sisters the last few years so the concept wasn’t foreign to her. I took all three girls by myself and they did awesome.
The girls playing in the fun playing room before being called in for their turn. 
Justin had come up with a plan the previous night for the order in which the girls would get their teeth cleaned. Avery was supposed to go first, followed by Harper, and then Emerson. That plan quickly changed as Avery decided she no longer wanted to go first. It took some coaxing but finally the promise of an extra ring, swayed Emerson to hop on into the chair. Okay so maybe hopping is a little bit of an exaggeration…I just may have had to pick her up and physically place her on the chair, but once she was on, she was pretty excited. She had a smirk but was trying very hard not to smile. She sat so still and did exactly as the dental hygienist said. She even got to wear some cool shades! 
Harper and Avery watched in anticipation.
While I had still planned on Harper going second, Avery was so excited to go after having watched Eme….although, she did insist that I hold her hand the entire time. 
She was very excited to get her pictures taken as well. Look at that smile!
Avery and Emerson love the dentist…largely in part to the treasure chest!
After each cleaning, the girls get to pick out their own treasure…something that they frequently talk about at home each night while brushing their teeth.
Finally it was Harper’s turn. She kept saying that she didn’t want to get her teeth cleaned, but she got in the chair without much hesitation. I had to hold her hand the majority of the time. She was playing games with the dental hygienist and kept turning the opposite direction of the hygienist. In the end, they counted her teeth (20 in total….the bottom molars are all the way in and the top molars are halfway through). She too did great!
Avery and Emerson both have a lot of spacing overall which is good for the permanent teeth. Emerson’s molars are very tight together and she had two pre-cavities. I generally shrug off the dentist’s recommendation to eliminate fruit snacks as I feel like you have to take it in stride. The dentist recommends cookies and ice cream over fruit snacks and gummies. Every time they say that to me, I can’t help but chuckle because different doctors all have different priorities Would a cardioologist’s recommend th same?!?! Point being, I have always felt that fruit snacks here and there are fine until the dentist said that Emerson had two pre-cavities! I head the warning! I’ve already told the girls no more and they were fine with it. Avery’s teeth showed a little bit of grinding but nothing that needs to be done to address it now. I don’t notice it during the day, so she must do it at night. Harper teeth are very tight on the bottom but the dentist didn’t seem that concerned about it. My guess is she will need braces in time to make space. Her top teeth are starting to form to the shape of her thumb, which I already knew. They said she needs to stop sucking her thumb but she is still fairly young to really understand, especially if she is doing it mostly at night. She only does it during the day when she is tired, but I’ll make an effort to do what I can to help get her to stop. On another positive note, the results of the girls initial X-rays which showed the top and bottom front four teeth, indicated that those eight permanent teeth do exist. Emerson’s permanent teeth were definitely further developed than Avery’s and I could clearly see them. Avery’s weren’t as far along but the dentist said that they were there. We’ll continue to keep our fingers crossed that they have all their permanent teeth and if not, we will address it when the time comes. But for now I am so happy to report that they all did great today….they were patient, well behaved, and I couldn’t have asked for anything more!