my girl's gonna be a brace face

my girl has been counting down the days till she finally gets braces -literally counting the days... yeah, she's THAT big of a goober! now, I don't want her to be completely disillusioned because 1) I've BTDT b) she's got a fair amount of work to be done, and 3) the word HEADGEAR has been mentioned -so I tried telling her, it might *seem* like fun but, they're really kind of a pain (pun intended)... not just because of the sore teeth after an adjustment or the raw spots from the brackets rubbing, etc... but because of all the stuff you can't (well, aren't supposed to) eat, and constantly having to worry that you have icky stuff smooshed in the brackets. *sigh* she just won't hear it - it's gonna be "so cool" and she "can't wait to pick out the rubber band colors"... whatever -just don't say I never warned ya, mmm-kay?

so, I took Kendall to the orthodontist yesterday for her preliminary visit; lots of pics, x-rays, all kinds of molds and casts of her teef -holy moses, I don't remember having to do more than bite down and grind my teef on a piece of carbon paper when I got braces -course that was 100 years ago and I've done my best to block out most of those awful memories. the staff at this office is really awesome, they do ortho work on adults but they're totally geared for working with kids and I gotta say, whoever does the hiring must do one heckuva screening job because the folks have such great temperments and bedside (chairside?) manners. they explain EVERYTHING in such a way that the kids, and even dorks like me, can clearly understand.

in between procedures, we were checking things out (ie: snooping) and found a little ring with different colored rubber strips -which, we surmised, must be the different colors for the rubber bands. Kendall's eyes lit up and she started telling me how she's already got it all figured out what her first colors are going to be (blue and pink or maybe blue and purple) and that she's definitely going to stay away from the white rubber bands because they turn yellow and then black (looovely). I asked how she knows that and she says that so and so told her... she's got a few friends who already have braces and apparently, they're her go to people. ugh, anyway, I got the royal eyeroll when I suggested that perhaps those were the bands that the doc puts on to see who actually brushes their teef and who is into growing science experiments in their moufs. *shrug* I'm just sayin... that would be a kick ass idea.

after all the fun and shenanigans, a gal from the office popped in and handed me a booklet with FAQ's, smiled warmly and said, "oh and there's a form tucked inside with the financial breakdown for PHASE I." and then beat a hasty retreat. holy crap! it's a good thing I was sitting down. I actually looked over at K and had a brief moment where I thought, 'you know, she's cute enough that a few crooked teef aren't going to matter ...much'. lol -kidding, kidding... but, thank goodness for the payment plan.

my girl was more than a little disappointed to be walking out of the office yesterday minus a mouthful of metal... I told her it wouldn't happen that fast, but eh, she's a little hardheaded -and really, what do I know (insert my own royal eye roll here)?! her next appointment will be Dec. 16, from there on out, all we'll need is a good metal detector to keep tabs on her. :D