Yesterday evening, OmegaDotter came dashing in to ask me, "Is this right?"  She showed me some writing.

P...N...Y

It was, of course, "pony".  I was busting a gut, I was so proud!  So, okay, there's a little "o" missing, but, hey.  Steps.

She has taken to going to bed with books.  I read her something, then she snuggles down in her little nest, opens up a book, and "reads" it.  Either she recites as much as she can remember from memory, or she whispers a story she is making up.

We went in for her first dentist's visit this morning.  Yes, yes, I know, wisdom is that three years old is the time for that first visit.  But the dotter has issues about her mouth, and even trying for last year would have been a disaster, and left her with a miserable feeling about dentists in general.  Either due to maturing or due to OT or due to goodness-knows-what, though, she is now at a stage when doctors and dentists can poke around in her mouth and she won't throw a conniption fit.

(Trust me:  this child has had a mouth issue since she arrived.  Getting her to open her mouth so you can look take a quick look, or--god forbid--brush her teeth has been an ordeal for years.)

Unfortunately, that extra year may be the reason she now has a big honking cavity on top of one of her molars.  The x-ray implies, and the dentist says, that her adult tooth in that area won't come in for five to seven years.

When the dentist showed me, my first thought was, "How did I miss that?!"  My second thought was, "Kate, you didn't miss that.  But every time you saw it was right after she ate chocolate or oreos, and you just figured it was food."  I am now officially V-8 bopping my head.

Soooo.  My poor darling girl is going to have to have a crown.

Yes, a crown.  Sigh.

The good news is that she has only two other cavities, and they're in her front teeth, which the dentist says are very likely to fall out within the year, so we're not going to do anything about them except keep an eye on them.

The other bad news is that dotter's lovely teeth--they really are!--are too close together, and she has a small jaw/mouth (we knew that one), and she will very definitely need orthodontics at about mid-point in getting her adult teeth.

Sigh.  We knew that, but it's no fun to actually hear it.

Our little Chinese New Year celebration was a success, though I think the lady who owns the restaurant never wants to see us again as a group.