~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life. ~
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| At the Orthodontist just before her braces were taken off! |
This morning Twinkle Toes told me that right before she woke up she dreamt that she heard my footsteps coming towards her bedroom and then I said “
Wake up! Today’s your lucky day, Baby!” (in the voice of the cocky rooster from one of
Chiquita’s new favorite audio books…) Yes, she was very excited about her orthodontist appointment this morning! Today her braces were scheduled to come off! Her braces
were put on during the first week of school and taken off during the last! The purpose of the braces (this was phase one of two) was to make room for her other teeth to come in naturally and avoid having oral surgery and/or permanent teeth pulled when she is older.
(This “lucky” daughter of ours inherited my teeth… I had braces for 5 years and a total of 10 teeth pulled – 2 baby teeth, 4 permanent teeth and then the 4 wisdom teeth. My husband, on the other hand, has never even had one filling! I’m hoping more of our children take after him!) She loves having the braces off, and is now adjusting to wearing a retainer!
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| Beautiful Smile!
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| Chiquita’s First Dentist Appointment & Cleaning |
Chiquita also had her very first appointment with the dentist this afternoon. The hygienist was very pleased with her brushing and said that she is doing a great job! I was so happy it was good news, especially since we had put off taking her to see the dentist for so long. I’m also so happy that we finally purchased dental insurance! After the amount of debt we wracked up last year between the braces and Rascal’s broken tooth, we couldn’t afford not to have dental insurance any longer…
{funny}
I helped the girls with their hair, but I probably should have checked Snuggles choice of clothing and shoes before heading to town! He cracks me up…
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| Still not sure what to think about seeing the Dentist for the first time… |
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It was a crazy day – with four stops at the orthodontist (Captain-wire removed, Twinkle Toes-braces off, Captain-wire replaced, and Twinkle Toes-pick up retainer) and three at the dentist (cleaning for Captain, Chiquita and Snuggles)! They were overlapping at two different places at pretty much the same time, which ended up creating about six trips for me, from one to the other, over a couple hour time period… I was ready for a nap by noon the time we made it home!
And yet I still managed to take pictures through it all, thanks to my new iPhone! I had been counting the days (all 20 months!) until I was able to upgrade my Droid cell phone and it (finally!) arrived yesterday! I didn’t waste anytime getting down to the store and picking up my new phone… I’ve been having so much fun setting up iCloud and syncing it with my computer and iPad! I’ve been reading through my copy of Paperless Home Organization: How to Create a Digital Home Management Binder (recommended by a friend) and am looking forward to (hopefully) getting a little more organized. I hope you all have a great weekend!
Prayer of Mothers
Father in heaven, grant me the grace to appreciate the dignity which you have conferred on me. Let me realize that not even the Angels have been blessed with such a privilege—to share in your creative miracle and bring new Saints to heaven. Make me a good mother to all my children after the example of Mary, the Mother of your Son. Through the intercession of Jesus and Mary I ask your continued blessings on my family. Let us all be dedicated to your service on earth and attain the eternal happiness of your kingdom in heaven. Amen.
Jessica,
I was searching the internet for an American symbols lapbook and came upon the following link. I noticed it had many pictures of your children. Not sure if there is anything you can do or not, but I thought maybe you would want to know since it is against your policies. https://www.google.com/search?q=american+symbols+lapbook&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=duGqUZ7gBOnW0gGeoYDIAg&ved=0CC0QsAQ&biw=1920&bih=955
God bless!
I remember getting my braces off and how *big* my teeth felt, lol. I also had several teeth pulled,,,and headgear, do they still do that or have they deemed it as child abuse yet? lol…
SO beautiful, all your children. I hope they are giving you a discount for the two phases of braces. We had to do this with one child because of a really unique…lol problem with his baby teeth. Anyways, I thought I'd share some information with you that may be helpful for your younger children when the time comes. Some of my children have very crowded teeth that would require the extraction of 4 adult teeth for traditional braces to work. However we did some research and discovered the Damon system which almost never ever requires extractions or painful expanders and often takes much less time than traditional braces as well. I'm on number 4 with this system now and it's absolutely amazing to watch the transformation in such a short time. No need for two phases of braces, no extractions and a beautiful smile. The longer braces are on, the more time for weakening and decay around the brackets. It's been a win win for us, so just thought I'd mention it to you since you have many children who may need braces down the road:-)
Hi, Jessica! Would you mind sharing what company you bought dental insurance through, if it wasn't through your husband's job? We are self-employed, self-insured, and don't have dental right now. Thanks!
Thank you, Christine! That is a google image search, so they will show up on that page linked directly to my blog posts. (Blogger is owned by Google.) I have the settings currently set to allow my blog to show up under web searches. It is other people taking and reposting pictures without permission that I have a problem with. Thank you for taking the time to point that out to me! I do appreciate it! 🙂
No!! Twinkle Toes didn't have to have headgear! Though the new types of braces do the same thing, but all inside the mouth. Whew!
We did purchase the dental insurance through my husband's work. It was an optional policy so we had put it off, not wanting any more money to come out of his paychecks. I hope you are able to find something that will work for your family! My dad is self employed and dental insurance was (is!) so expensive for him (It's expensive anyways!)
Yes, we were given a discount and phase 2 will be discounted as well. Our orthodontist uses the SmartClip Self-Ligating Appliance System of braces… I will have to see how that compares to the Damon system you mentioned. Thanks! I'm just so amazed at how far they have come since I had my braces nearly 20 years ago…
Jessica! I am so excited about the paperless digital binder, I bought it using your links! Evernote and Remember the Milk…so awesome and so free. Thanks for sharing! How is it working for you? God bless!
I LOVE it!! I've been having so much fun setting it all up! 🙂 I'm glad you are happy with it too! (And thanks for using my link!)
I had to have a big pile of teeth pulled too – 4 wisdom teeth, 4 pre-molars, and a lot of baby teeth that weren't falling out as quickly as the orthodontist wanted. I only had 3 years of braces, which suddenly sounds good compared to your 5.
My 9 year old had his baby canines pulled out last fall to make space for the other adult teeth for awhile. His front teeth don't cross every which way now, so it did seem to help.
My 7 year old's are even worse, but he hasn't lost many yet, so he has a temporary reprieve.
Three years is still a long time! I had braces for 2 years before we moved to a new state, and the new orthodontist was the one who decided to pull 4 of the permanent teeth so it was like starting over. 🙁