Oh, what a week it's Been

I feel like I must have stepped on a time-machine. 

I also feel like I have done so much and yet all the regular stuff I usually do sits undone, along with a list of unexpected additions.  I kind of feel like a robot, just going through motions of do this and do that.  Some of it has been fun, some monotonous, and then add a little chaotic, and top it off with a heap of, yep I just made my life more difficult.  Where would the real fun be if we didn't add a little more difficult.  :) 

So guess what I did that made my life harder? 
I decided Yesterday that I should get braces, and then got them on TODAY.  We finally got down to just one child with a metal mouth after 4 years.  Back to 2 metal mouths in the family.  Woo Hoo!  I feel oddly like an awkward teenager.  This was a very impromptu decision, (something I try to avoid at all costs) one that will certainly make me question my judgment off and on for the next 12 months.  Anyway, this will be an interesting adventure for me.  I will now fully understand the cries and frustrations of my kids when they whined that, "Mom, my mouth hurts".  Only I don't have anyone who will want to hear me whine that "my" mouth hurts.  :) 

I actually feel terrible for Emma right now, and no matter how sore my mouth gets, it won't even come close to comparing to the pain she must be feeling.  Yesterday, she had an adjustment, along with some little curved spikes added to the backs of her top teeth, and some hooks that span the entire front of her mouth top and bottom.  We have been working to get her open bite closed so we can get these braces off of her.  The purpose of the curvy spikes is to make her use her tongue differently, (to not push it on her teeth to swallow and talk) and the hooks were added to aid in rubber bands going across the front of her bite, looking much like a spider had gone zig-zagging across her mouth.  Think Hanibal Lecter, and you get the picture.  This poor girl cannot open her mouth today and cried this morning that, "it hurts so bad", as she talked without opening her mouth.  So, so sad!  It breaks my heart. 

Anyway, that is just a little taste of the last 2 days for us.  I have some fun pictures to put up later from our field trip to the Wild Animal Park in San Diego, and a stop at the beach on a very, very cold and drizzly day.  This was the really fun part of the week.  :) 

Hope this week finds you all doing well!