Brace Yourself

It seems that braces are a fact of life for many kids nowadays, assuming parents can afford the pricey procedure.

Our family is no different. Tyler and I have combined some fantastic genes to make some beautiful, intelligent girls, but our combination of mouths...leaves something to be desired. June had a small upper jaw and a gigantic lower jaw. (Hence the expander.) It looks like Ivory is headed down the same road and will need some expansion of her upper pallet, although not as much as June.

June's teeth look amazing after her first set of braces, but apparently, she will still need a full set in the future to straighten some side teeth. (Of course.)

But that is not who we are here to talk about today. Robyn has been going in for consultations for over a year and a half. Most recommendations were for baby teeth to be extracted. Now that she is out of baby teeth for us to pull out early, it was finally time for the braces.

Her lucky day fell on St. Patrick's Day. (Luck of the Irish I guess.) Here she is before a mouth full of metal.

And after.

We got a cookie as we left the office. They recommended she eat it right away before her mouth was too sore later in the day. (That sounds promising.)

She did have a rough couple of days, but now she seems to be doing fine. She is still my beautiful spunky Robyn.

Recently, she finished a journal. For any child, this is quite an accomplishment. To fill up a whole journal means capturing quite a few memories. Not only that, Robyn fills her journal with illustrations and keepsakes. I wish I had a picture here because her journal is awesome, but I'm not sure she wants her diary on display.

I did tell her that I am happy to buy her a new one when she fills up an old one. We went journal shopping. She didn't choose this one, but we had fun playing with the sunglasses.

Robyn is such a creative, fun girl. I was impressed when several mothers called up before camp registration to see when Robyn was attending. They wanted their daughters to go around the same time. Robyn will be going with a lot of friends and she'll make new ones too, because that is just the way she is.

I love my Robyn. She fills a special place in our family.