Big Baby

I'm the big baby this post. I went to the dentist. More on that in a bit. But first, my day! Lauren woke up at 5:30 and I convinced her to play with her toes and babble in bed until 6:15 when I finally got up with her. We went downstairs and did work email for an hour, got dressed, etc. and then drove Ryan to work in the rental car. Drove back home and stopped at Kaiser to get a flu shot. It took 16 minutes to park and walk over to the trailer where they give shots, only to discover a sign that they were closed on Mondays. I'd have known this if they ever actually updated their website. Grrr.. Anyway, hurried to get out of the place before 15 minutes passed because you have to pay to park after 15 minutes. It's only $1 but on the principle of the thing, I don't like to pay when I got zero service.

Anyway, the parking guy waived me through even though it had been about 18 minutes and we went to Enterprise to return the car. Originally, I was going to put the stroller in the car and walk home from Enterprise. It's about 1 mile. But I realized, what would I do with the car seat? Remembered their slogan "Pick Enterprise. We pick you up." and sure enough, they agreed to drive me home. Got home, made lunch and tried valiantly to get Lauren to nap. She'd just napped for 1/2 hour in the car, but not enough (according to the book I'm reading) to be of use to her. She would have none of it and wanted to play. Her new favorite playtime activity is peek-a-boo with herself in the mirror. That and clapping. It's really cute. :)

Anyway, headed out to the Ford-with-the-blown-headgasket, with 1/2 gallon of water to put in the coolant reservoir. Cautiously drove the 2 1/2 miles (which in LA, no matter where you are, works out to 20 minutes. Well, a little less. But not much!) to Lauren's doctor's office. Got her flu shot. She didn't cry a bit, didn't even pout. Nursed her in the car (the only "reward" I can give her at this age really) and then drove to our dentist, who is on our street so I usually walk there but since we were running late, I drove. Carried Lauren in her infant carrier (she will only fit in that thing for a short time longer, it's a matter of DAYS, it barely buckles anymore) and sat her down while I got my teeth cleaned. She played with her toes and her book and watched the cleaning and was very good.

Here is the big baby part: I have to go back tomorrow for a replacement filling. Wah! And the dentist referred me to an oral surgeon because I have a swollen gland along my jaw that has been big for a very long time, so I need to get it looked at and possibly biopsied. I also have this loose teeth/jaw clicking thing which she thinks is from my grinding my teeth, except I don't grind my teeth that I know of, and Ryan has never observed it when I sleep. I never even knew I had this problem. When I told her about the car accident, she said that could have loosened things up and be causing it. Great, another thing to settle with Mercury insurance. So now tomorrow I get the filling and I have to get fitted for this special $500 retainer mouth guard thing to wear at night. But I "only" have to pay $250, insurance covers the rest.

Getting old sucks.