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Today Z had a dental appointment in San Francisco. They were recommended for kids with special needs and the local ones we've been going to have not been working out for Z. He continues to refuse to get fillings that he needs. Luckily all of his cavities so far have been in his baby teeth and have eventually fallen out but Z is running out of baby teeth. That combined with a few other dental-related issues made it seem like a trip to San Francisco was well worth it, even with the $6 an hour parking fee.

Z's appointment lasted three hours. It was with a dental student (which I'm pretty sure is why we can afford it) and while she seemed very sweet, she just was not prepared for Z. When she would give Z directions like, "You have to let your mom brush your teeth for you" Z just shook his head and said matter of factly, "I'm not going to do that." The poor girl seemed shock that Z would just outright refuse, "What do you mean? I tell six year olds what to do and they do it! I'm the dentist!" She had to walk away at one point because she was so frazzled. I was ever so slightly amused because Z was actually on very good behavior but she had no idea the depths of Z.

The appointment was not a total loss at all though. Even if Z wasn't agreeing to follow all of the dentist's advice, with three hours of mostly just sitting and talking it was inevitable that Z got a few things out of it. While we were there the dentist ran a lot of tests I'd never heard of, which gave her cold hard data. Z responds well to cold, hard data and some of the tics and issues we've been battling with disappeared immediately. Z left still refusing to let me brush his teeth but he also left with some disclosing tablets that will show him which areas he has to rebrush. We have an appointment for a cleaning next week so we'll see how it goes. I definitely don't think today's appointment did any harm.

I didn't want to just go home when it was such a beautiful day so we headed down to Pier 39. I thought the kids would enjoy all of the spectacle and shops, and they did!

 Az loved the Rainforest Cafe, especially the moon mural. Az is a girl whom appreciates the moon. She even distinguishes between full moon and crescent moon. I've joked a number of times that we should have named her "Luna." (Although no one has ever laughed.) What she did not fully appreciate were the animatronics. Whenever she was brought too close to one she would cover her eyes. I finally got her to touch an elephant's foot, but she immediately covered her eyes afterwards.

Z was dying to go into the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum but at $30 a ticket I told him we were going to have to pass and look for one of the coupons I see around. Az was not thrilled to be there anyhow; there were animatronics. She just wanted to go back and look at the Rainforest Cafe moon again.

We stopped into Musee Macanique, the home to a collection of old timey (some more than others) games and dioramas. Everything was only a quarter so the the change I had already in my wallet lasted us for as long as Miguel could tolerate. He was just dying to get to the Spy Shop (where photos are not allowed, obvs.)

After dinner at Joe's Crab Shack we had to head home because my parking was about to expire. I wasn't completely ready to go but I was less ready to shell out another ten bucks to keep my car parked in the private lot for another couple hours. I told Z that next time we come he had better be ready to hike there from a cheaper place to park.