July 20, 2011 by Amy

Zoe’s Big Day

Big day for my little girl yesterday.  I took a half day (figured it was fine since I worked all weekend at a trade show downtown…three 15-hours days in a row suck, but at least that last one was capped by an awesome U2 concert!) and we did our thing.

First up: the dentist.  We took her to our dentist last year, who barely managed to get a pano x-ray before handing me a business card and saying, “Here’s a pediatric dentist.  She might do better there.”  As luck would have it, a few days later one of my preschool mommy friends sent an e-mail to the group of us asking for a pediatric dentist recommendation.  Of the five women who responded, four gave rave reviews for the same practice.  Sold.  Because they’re so popular, they book up pretty far in advance.  I was content to wait, though, and just wanted to ensure she went before she started kindergarten.

Holy crap.  This practice is extraordinary.  Every single person is friendly and happy.  They made everything insanely easy, which doesn’t seem to ever happen these days.  Zoe was sent a little activity book, “My First Dental Visit,” in advance of her appointment.  I suppose they, like us, don’t really count that first one at the grown-up dentist.  Could be the screaming involved.  Whatever.  So we read the book together and talked about it, and she talked to her friends at school who go to that practice.  She was pumped about yesterday.  Going to the dentist, miraculously, has become a thing to celebrate.

We waited for her to be called, watching “Up” on the flat panel.  The assistant came out and said her name, and Zoe hopped off her chair and took off.  I had to call her back to get a kiss.  Poof.  She was gone.  Smiling and laughing.  Forty five minutes later, I am called back to meet the dentist, where he tells me that she has no plaque, no cavities, and that there is absolutely nothing to change with her brushing habit as she’s reaching everything well.  We looked at her x-rays, which show her adult teeth coming in nicely…just about ready to start pushing out her baby teeth.  I held back the tears.  And then laughed when he said that she’ll most likely require braces.  Yep…figured that already.  Just like her mama and her dad.

Zoe was shown into the room, where she clutched her goodie bag and grinned like a maniac.  She’s big into showing off her “sparkly” teeth.  She waited patiently while I finished my conversation with the dentist, and then I thanked him and asked her if she had anything to say.  “Yes!  I love you!”  He seemed pretty surprised to hear that, and cracked up laughing.  He told me she had her mouth open before he even sat down, and she instructed him to count her teeth.  And then told him she has 20 before he could even start.  It’s the engineering genes, I think.

After the dentist, we went to the apparel store that sells school uniforms for our area.  Time to be fitted, and uniforms purchased/ordered as kindergarten is just around the corner.

Oh.  My.  Gawd.  It took everything I had to not weep through the entire experience.  My little girl…my baby…  Such a big girl now with her plaid jumper and white oxford with the Peter Pan collar.  So freakin’ adorable.  You can guess what happened next.  Since Mommy didn’t go to Catholic school, Mommy went overboard in the store and Zoe now has her official school sweatshirt, an extra jumper, five short-sleeve shirts and one long-sleeve (the other four are on order), plus a matching plaid headband, a plaid scrunchie, and a fabric headband with the name of her school embroidered on it.

From there, it was on to Wal-Mart to purchase school supplies for the charity backpack program.  Our church participates in this program every year.  We select a laminated list of school supplies (by grade) from the bulletin board, buy a backpack, then stuff it full of crayons, pencils, paper and the like.  We chose kindergarten this year, as we have our own kindergartner.  I realized as we were walking in to the store that the dress code policy sheet I had in my purse for the uniform fitting also contained her list of school supplies, so we knocked ’em both out.  Zoe thought it was pretty neat to pick out identical supplies for herself and our unknown friend.

It was an afternoon all about Zo, all for Zo.  And it was amazing.  We had such a great time together, and I’m so proud of her.

Off on the train to Chicago tomorrow, so more good memories await.  I can’t help but think that I must be the luckiest girl in the world.

#zoe