On Thursday I left work early, M&M left school early.

Not cause anyone was sick...

Not for a special spur-of-the-moment trip to the beach (we would've brought Arissa for that, of course!)...

We had our (their) first encounter with:

dunh dunh dunnnnnnnnnn....

the dentist

(picture that said in a deep, scary voice, and the text in a big green slimey font)

:o)

We waited a long time before we were seen. So long in fact, that I had just gotten up to walk out and change dentists when they finally called our names. But then they were super nice and gentle with the girls, so my anger dissipated.

Nana came along:

When the dentist walked in and looked at what was waiting for him in his patient chair, he said "I'm good, but I'm not that good"...

Guess he wasn't up to two patients at once. :o) Maybe if he WAS, the wait time would be shorter!

Anyways, yes this was M&M first dentist appt, and yes they should have gone in much sooner.

But insurance companies being what they are, it didn't happen till now.

The girls were excited. I was scared. They have very low pain-tolerance levels.

If brushing their hair causes screams of pain and torture, how well could a trip to the dentist go?

Especially when the free dental screening at school had revealed that Mallory had 8 possible cavaties in that little sassy mouth of hers.

But! Never ceasing to amaze me, they loved it.

They loved it, and they got glowing reviews from Mr. Dentist.

Mariah = 0 cavaties.

Mallory = 1.

None and only 1! I was so glad.

Mallory, however, was dissappointed. She was so looking forward to getting lots of "metals" on her teeth like her friends. :o)

Mariah thought the "chair that went up to the sky" was awesome (and quite comfortable):

Mallory was fearless (I should have known better than to worry about her).

Here she is telling Mr. Make-Us-Wait-Forever: "Come on, dentist, hit me with your best shot!":

Mallory, show Mama how pretty the dentist made your teeth:

Question: What did Mariah get for Halloween?

Answer:

.

.

.

.

.

.

All 3 girls have had slight runny noses and general malaise all week, but all 3 were feeling fairly good on Friday. Nana took them to the Halloween Dance @ school, and they danced and lived it up, had a great time.

But Saturday morning Mariah woke up vomitting, and had a horrible hacking cough. But I was sure she'd be better by trick-or-treating time...she slept all day and drank lots of water.

By evening though, she only felt worse and had a fever of 105.

Sunday morning I decided she definately had some kind of flu, but I called the doctor to see how I could tell if it was swine flu and what I'm supposed to do about it. She told me that their offices are full of people with flu, and all of it is Swine, none of it is seasonal. But she told me to treat it as if it was, and Mariah should feel better in 5 days or so. As long as she's hydrated, she'll be ok.

So we made her a little make-shift hospital bed on the couch. We've watched a lot of the Sprout channel on tv, and she has slept 80% of the day. I feel so bad to look at her, she is really really sick. My heart breaks, she look so sick and feeble.

This is about all that's gone into her mouth for the past 48 hours:

And this is the only interacting she's done in the past 48 hours:

She managed to sit up for about 5 minutes today. I miss her smile, it seems like so long since I've seen it. Arissa goes "wow, she must really be sick. She won't even laugh!".

Please keep her in your prayers. I'm sure she'll be just fine but she is really suffering through it in the meantime. And the rest of us could use your prayers too....because it's pretty impossible to quarantine her in a house this small w/ 4 other people sharing the space. So I'm hoping & praying and crossing my fingers that A&M (and me & Jesse) don't catch it next.

Sidenote: All 5 of us have had the seasonal flu shot. Jesse has had his Swine Flu shot, all 3 girls have had the first part of their Swine Flu nasal mist, and are due for the booster later this month. So how this nasty virus got ahold of sweet Mariah, I don't know.