A Glittering Smile.....

Today we made another step into pre-pubescence, adolescence, also known as THE TEENAGE YEARS.  How is this possible (I know you are all asking) since Miss Julia just turned 10 and Mr. Colin is a mere 8 years of age...

Well.... see.... our kids have always been rather advanced.  Julia especially.  I mean really...  she arrived on the planet 3 weeks ahead of schedule.  And even if you ignore that rush to arrive, there are her teeth. Julia got teeth early, got teeth fast, and lost them just as quickly.

I will NEVER forget when she lost her first tooth (when she was still in preschool folks...)  She was so excited to take her tooth to school and show it off that she would not (seriously, crying fit, blubbering hysterically would not) leave the tooth for the Tooth Fairy.  Instead she wrote him a note explaining that she would leave the tooth the next night (she was really curious about how much cash she would receive), but she HAD to take her tooth to school.  All well and good, but apparently NO other child in her class had lost a tooth, and some of the parents hadn't exactly explained to their kiddos that they were GOING to lose their teeth.  Preschool teacher was LESS than thrilled when several of her students burst out crying over this little gem of information.(Leave it to my kids to ruin it for everybody else...)

I will also ALWAYS remember Julia's dentist telling me that the teeth that needed crowns (yep, my dear child got silver crowns at the age of five under general anesthesia) would (without a doubt) be in her mouth until she was at least ten.  So... those puppies fell out at age 8.  That was (a lot) of money for teeth that didn't really hang around for very long.

We've known since Julia's adult teeth started to erupt (seriously, that's the only way to describe what happened) that she would most likely need braces.  One of her front teeth came in SIDEWAYS for goodness sake!  The dentist would look at her at each appointment and tell me 'Well Mom, her mouth grew a little, so we'll wait another six months and see what happens.'  Actually, he TOLD me that, until Julia's last appointment when he smiled at me and told me that she only had four baby teeth left and that none of those teeth had any roots anymore, so... IT WAS TIME.  Julia was... shall we say, less than thrilled (I can only guess that the fact that  she threw herself on her bed and cried about how life is unfair meant that she wasn't too happy).

A few months, a visit to the very cool orthodontist office, and some good coaching from her Nana, and she was ready to go.... her only request was to have it happen AFTER Christmas.  So... Colin gave her bubblegum for her birthday (cause she should get to chew as much as she would like until she got her braces on), several pre-appointments were scheduled, and we were ready to go!  Here she is, the final shot of her (pre-braces) mouth.

After a look of disgust (and a panicked question to mom about whether or not they had clear rubber bands) six weeks ago when they showed her all of the different colored rubber bands that they had, she was quick to select blue and teal rubberbands this morning.  We had a bit of an adventure as not one, but two of her brackets popped today (one before we even left the office), but overall she seems happy.  Here's Julia sporting her NEW glittering look....

She reports that her mouth and tongue are sore.  She did however, just eat an entire can of spagehettios, edamame, an apple chopped into little pieces and some cheese balls (I know, I'm a STELLAR mom) so I think she is going to live.

In about six months, they will expand to the rest of the top teeth, and in a year or so we will enter the adventure of the bottom braces.... 
(Oh, and yeah, before you ask, of course Joe and I are now broke.  Like the Christmas bills weren't enough.... and this will be a lovely new addition to the monthly bills as well...)

As for 'being present' (remember my non-resolution resolution?) this was an awesome day of memories for Julia and I.  I don't think either one of us will ever forget this day... the nerves, the stress, the pain (and that was just how I felt!!)

Night all...
C