Adventures of Em

Emmy had her first trip to the dentist last week...we went to the dental clinic at the local hospital. I was nervous about how it might go, so I scheduled my own appointment first so she could watch everything before her turn came. As it turned out, I needn't have worried about how she would do, because the pediatric dentist had a secret weapon, a TV screen on the chair. As you might imagine, Emmy sat, transfixed by the escapades of Tom and Jerry, while the dentist rooted in her mouth at will. The good news is, everything looked great, and Emmy looks forward with anticipation to her next cartoon session in the dental chair. I just love this picture, because, as you can see, she dutifully smiled for the camera, but her mind and her eyes stayed behind with Tom and Jerry.

And here's the happy girl afterward, playing on the playground in the hospital. One of the fun things about going to the doctor here; they provide an indoor playground to amuse the children while they wait!

Last night, we went to Emmy's first birthday party in our neighborhood. We had been told that it began at 5:00, so we did the American thing and went on time. Actually, we were 20 minutes late, but we were the first to arrive. Thankfully, a couple of other children came not too long after we did, but most of the families came almost 2 hours later. Cultural differences in action! Tim took Asa home about 6:30 for bed, so I was left for two more hours to my own devices in a large group of people speaking Thai...not extremely comfortable, but good for me. Much of the conversation went over my head, but I did get some of it and was able to participate, though minimally. Hopefully they didn't all think I was a complete ninny. I smiled and nodded a lot, ninny-like.

The only unfortunate thing about the evening was that they turned on cartoons. Many of you may know that we're not big TV watchers at home, so, as might be expected, Emmy becomes mesmerized when the TV is on. Other children have the ability to dance and play in the presence of a television, but not our girl. If it's on, she's watching. This is why the dentist was such a pleasant experience for her! So she watched Cartoon Network for a good portion of the evening, but thankfully was persuaded to play some, too. One of the other mothers commented that she was "riaprooy". I knew I had encountered that word in my studies, but couldn't remember what it meant. I hoped it didn't mean "zombie TV-watcher". When I looked it up at home, I was relieved to find that it means, "tidy, in order, nicely finished off".