Some celebrations call for ice cream, plain and simple.
Take, for instance, yesterday’s occasion.
Rooster had a very special appointment. It was one he had been looking forward to for over a year.
It was one I had been looking forward to for ten years.
What, pray, tell, could warrant such anticipation?
See if you can figure it out by looking at the picture below…
Ok…I know I live in Podunk, USA, but no, I did not let Rooster get his first goat.
teeheehee
It’s what’s ON the goat that is key.
BRACES!!
After two children, four “phases,” and ten years, Rooster, my baby, got his braces OFF!
Rooster and I did the Braces-Free Happy Dance…
Now, I am of the firm opinion that such a day had to be marked in an uber-special way…
DQ ice cream!!
Can I just say that one of my favorite ways to spend the afternoon is with my children, chomping down on a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard?
There is something about ice cream that opens up a line of dialogue between mother and child. I mean, how could you even consider arguing when spooning in some of that delicious stuff?
Rooster and I enjoyed ourselves immensely before heading home, where he donned his newly-manufactured retainer.
Meanwhile, I pondered the years gone by.
Chicky started out in Braces Land way back in the second grade. She had a severe underbite that required the use of an expander to correct it. It wasn’t the kind you had to turn with a key. We went in frequently to have her wires tightened, and oh what days of pain those were. Trips to the ice cream shop (TCBY back then) always followed the appointments, because the cold numbed her sore tooth sockets.
She had a permanent retainer put in shortly before we moved back to north Florida, and we had about six months of braceless children before Rooster got fitted for his own expander to fix a cross-bite.
A year later, he was getting his expander removed the same day that Chicky was getting Phase 2 braces put on. In fact, they sat beside each other in chairs, Rooster grinning from ear-to-ear in that annoying little brother sort of way while Chicky endured the torture of having metal cemented back to her teeth.
She exacted revenge a year and a half later when their roles were reversed, and he was enduring Phase 2 installation.
And then came yesterday, when we were done, once and for all (with the exception of retainer checks every so often).
Our visits have been so numerous over the years that I asked the receptionist if we could have the family’s last name etched in the stone that sat in front of what we called “Our Parking Spot.” It was the closest to the building and hidden by foliage. Only one time did we find someone parked in “Our Parking Spot,” that’s how well it was hidden.
Heck…might as well put up a statue in our honor. We came, we saw, we conquered.
And so, that’s why, after ten long years of having pay checks docked $200 per month to pay for said mechanics, Your’s Truly celebrates.
No more fighting insurance companies to pay the promised half of these procedures. No more emergency trips to the drug store in search of wax.
The one thing I will miss is seeing the receptionists’ smiles as they greeted us each time. Such lovely ladies. They’ve become like family. I watched one go through her own phase of braces, and now I’ve watched her prep for her daughter’s wedding. I observed as Chicky’s first orthodontist dealt with her husband’s cancer diagnosis and unfortunate death from the disease.
Oh yeah. After ten years, you become very close to these people.
Anyhoo, I’ve digressed way further than I meant. If you’re a mom, you probably understand what I’ve been talking about. If you’re not a mom but wore braces, you understand. If you’re neither, then you’re much more patient than me, barreling through the mumblings of a migraine-laden gal!
Hmmm…wonder if ice cream will fix this?
heehee
Filed under: children | Tagged: braces, teenagers | 3 Comments »
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