Too much excitement for one day!

We had the girls first dentist appointment this morning at 9:30, so my plan was to be out of the house by 8:45 since the dentist office is 30 minutes away. The girls were up, fed, had clean diapers and clean clothes on by 8:30. Finally, I'm getting good at this.

I go into the garage and open the garage door, put the strollers in the back of the Tahoe, close the garage and come inside to pack the diaper bag. Luckily, I have help with the girls during the summer, so our wonderful nanny, Mariya, arrives at 8:30 to help with the dentist appointment.

But there's one problem....

Mariya informs me that the garage door is broken. I walk into the garage.....and the top panel has fallen off the track on the left side. Great. I have a small panic attack as I realize that the car is trapped in the garage. Steve has already left for work and we have to be out of the house in 10 minutes. Must find a man! Surely, they instinctively know what to do right?

I have no luck tracking down a capable man to help me out of my situation...all of the neighbor's husbands have left for work. Best friend Jessica comes over to try and help because 3 women are better than 2 in this situation. I call Steve and he tells me I can pull on the red rope that is hanging down, which will take the door off of the electrical track. Then we can manually open it up. Then he starts rattling off instructions of who I need to call to get it fixed because he won't be home tonight. Staying overnight for a work project remember? UGHHHH.

So that's what I did. Pulled on the red rope. Best friend Jessica, Nanny Mariya and me. We made it to the dentist in time and below is a picture of our broken garage door.

Best friend Jessica's hubby came over tonight and put the door back on it's track. BF Jess kept bragging about how handy her hubby is. Says he can fix anything. He is now called "Bob the Builder." Lucky for me that "Bob" got here first, since my brother was on his way over and since I'm his sister, I can say that he is not very handy. Probably doesn't know where his dipstick is in his car. He pulled up right when "Bob the Builder" was done. I could see the relief in his eyes. He admitted that he probably would have taken a hammer to the door to get it back on the track. Note to self...always call "Bob the Builder" first, not-so-handy brother last.
(Dad, stop laughing)

Now to the dentist. My first fear for this visit--being told that we had to get rid of the binkys. I was gearing up for a schpiel about how bad pacifiers were for their teeth...yada,yada,yada. In our situation, our girls have atleast 2 strikes against them teethwise. With daddy's bad teeth genes and their premature birth, which included ventilator support for several weeks, I KNOW we have orthodontist bills in our future. Throwing in a severe addiction to the binky can't make this situation any worse.

Dr. Vicki was great. She gave me no grief about the binkys. She has no problem with them and believes they are a great self-soothing tool for little ones. She's my new best friend.

The girls each had their turn letting Dr. Vicki look in their mouths. Makena was up first, but by the death grip she had on me, I knew this wasn't going to go well. Girlfriend was holding on for dear life and clearly wasn't going to set a good example for her younger sisters.

I swapped her out for Alyssa and she did great. No crying, but still a little apprehensive.

Riley was up next. We had some crying and I had to hold her arms down so that she didn't grab Dr. Vicki by the bangs and show her who's boss. Riley was able to bite her a few times though, so she probably felt vindicated in some small way.

Makena lived through her exam, although she wasn't too happy about it. We all broke out in song singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and she seemed to enjoy that. The assistant blowing bubbles helped distract her also.

All 3 of the girls have high, narrow palates. Although this happens in children who are "term" babies, the fact that they were on the ventilator didn't help. Their palates most likely formed around the ventilator tube, so now they will need a palate expander to help widen their mouth. We have a few years to go before that happens...around 6 years old. Dr. Vicki also believes they will need braces (big surprise). Two of them have scissor bites, which means their upper jaw fits inside of their lower jaw when they bite down.

Our parting instructions were to continue brushing their teeth (darn, thought I might get out of that one). This has become part of our bedtime routine, although the girls go from cooperative to downright testy some nights. We have to start flossing, ideally every day, but Dr. Vicki, bless her heart, realizes that our house is very busy and she's happy with 1-2 times a week in the beginning.

Did I tell you she's my new best friend? Hopefully, she doesn't lower the boom on me in 6 months when we go back for our next visit.

Makena(in purple), Alyssa(in pink), and Riley(in blue)