Whilst facing our fears on Monday, one scare source which didn't enter the conversation was the dentist. That's because Amelie had been for a check-up that afternoon, and was given a sticker. Frankly if spiders could hand out badges, she wouldn't have a problem.

You might expect the sticker in question to look like this one, but in reality it just featured a picture of Tinkerbell sitting on a toadstool. Or "a fairy on a mushroom" as Amelie put it. I think it had been sourced from the local pound shop, but either way it was enough to persuade Amelie to open her mouth. Not that she normally needs an excuse. Frankly the only time she stops talking is when she's eating. So she doesn’t say much.

As it happens though, this is the first time she's opened wide for a dentist. Lisa took her last June, but Amelie gritted her teeth and burst into tears, so they didn't get very far. Lisa's usual dentist has just gone off on maternity leave, however, so this time they saw a replacement. You might say he's just filling in.

Anyhoo, the man bridging the gap for the next few months is Mr O'Keefe, who featured on this blog last July when he won Lisa's heart by drilling down into the root of her problems, and making her feel a lot better. This time he worked his magic on Amelie, who let him examine her teeth (of which there are twenty), before announcing that his chair made her dizzy, and accepting a sticker as compensation.

On the downside, we were advised to stop Amelie sucking her thumb, as he felt that her front teeth were beginning to protrude a little. It's a real shame. She loves her sucky thumb (as she calls it), and having tasted it myself, I can see why. So we've spent the past couple of days formulating a cunning and dastardly plan to wean her off it. And we've come up with...

The Thumb Fairy. Obviously the Potty Fairy is still legendary in this house, but we weren't sure how to translate that concept to thumbs without the need for amputation. So in the end we've told Amelie that rather than removing her thumb in the dead of night and replacing it with a bubble machine, the Thumb Fairy will bring her a soft toy that she can cuddle every time she wants her sucky thumb. Lisa's helping her write a letter to Fairy HQ, requesting the toy of her dreams.

At the moment she's gone for a tiger. And the Thumb Fairy will be bringing her one, just as soon as Daddy can get to Toys R Us. It's a plan with no drawbacks. Until three years from now, when we have to invent the Cat Fairy just to wean her off the tiger.