Braces

Ryan got his braces today! He's pretty excited about it and smiling a lot (when he can get his lips to go up over his teeth). He looks about 3 or 4 years older than he did this morning.

Mira went for a teeth cleaning while Ryan had his braces put on. She was nervous. Ryan has had a lot of teeth pulled and is now getting braces, so she's afraid that's going to happen to her too. The hygenist, who was a man, took her x-rays. When he left the room, Mira told me she didn't like him. He came back in and asked if I'd taken Mira to an orthodontist. Uh...she has exactly two permanent teeth. Uh...no. So then he starts in on "well, not all 7 year olds are good candidates for braces, but I think we can get her started right away on a four phase, blah, blah, blah." I could see Mira getting upset, so I said "can you talk to me about this on the phone?" He didn't undestand, so I rephrased and repeated. He said "OK, but I'll go ahead and send the orthodontist in to take a look at her." Mira started crying as soon as he left the room. I told her we were absolutely not going to be listening to anyone tell us she needs to have braces, and she repeated that she didn't like the guy and that he gave her the creeps. Well, that's all I needed to hear. I immediately picked her up and took her out of there, telling her she always needs to listen to that voice telling her someone is creepy. She asked if I thought he was creepy, and I said "yes, you know why? Because you think he's creepy. That's enough. Don't ever ignore that." She was really happy about that, though still pretty upset by the whole experience.

This evening the kids had a great time with their friends while Jay and I looked at houses. I found one I really love. I'm planning to take the kids to see it tomorrow and will probably make an offer on it right away.