whew.

Today Megan needed to get her teeth cleaned, AGAIN. So because we've switched to a pediatric dentist located right downtown, we all trooped into the city and hung around while she got her cleaning. This was definitely the most thorough cleaning she's ever had; in fact, the hygienist went over time and made the person behind us wait 20 minutes so that she could ensure Megan left there with very clean teeth and thorough instruction in how to brush and floss around her braces. It was great, and I appreciated it (especially since our dental plan has paid out all it's gonna pay for Megan's teeth till January, so I had to pay out of pocket for this). I am not sure how much Megan appreciated an hour and a half of such painstaking, close attention to her teeth, but the good news is that she has no new cavities at this time and that she was almost 100% cooperative.

After the dental appointment, we visited one of the gluten-free bakeries that we like to give great gobs of our money to, ate a yummy gluten-free lunch and headed over to Stanley Park. As part of my grand plan to make this family be more physically active, I suggested that instead of our usual sedentary type of family outing we could rent some bikes and ride around the Stanley Park seawall. It was pricey, but fun and rewarding. We found a place that had special tandem attachments you could stick onto the back of a regular bike, so Calum rode behind Jeff while I helped Megan overcome her nervousness at riding an unfamiliar bicycle in a high-traffic location with a few hills. She did really well, and I managed to stay patient during the first half hour when she wanted to stop the bike over and over again and complain about this, that and the other thing. Eventually she settled into it and actually had fun.

Now we're all home feeling very tired and happy, and Jeff is insisting we spend our evening watching the first of the original Star Wars trilogy DVDs. After many years of despairing that we'd ever be able to own the unadulterated "Greedo shoots second" versions, Jeff happily invested in the special edition discs that came out earlier this month. Time to go veg out with Luke, Leia and Han.