Rachael's braces come off

Rachael's orthodontia journey has been a long strange one and we were happy to reach an end to a huge part of the process. She got her braces off! She is happy to have moved to this point. There is still a lot of uncertainty as she is missing 3 of her adult top teeth. One of the baby teeth fell out a few years ago but the other 2 baby teeth are still holding on and we are going to try to keep them there as long as possible.

We have had many conversations with dentists about what to do or how to plan for the future and those conversations have revealed some discrepancies in values. There have been assumptions over and over again that Rachael would be self conscientious about her missing tooth. And a projection that of course she would want this fixed or hidden. The problem is that the fix offered is implants which involves screwing fake teeth into her jaw bone. I remember the look on Rachael's face when the orthodontist mentioned this 3 years ago. It was an immediate no and Rachael was not comfortable when they brought it up on subsequent visits. Finally the dentists stopped bringing it up.

Rachael now has retainers that she has to wear for a decent amount of time each day in order to keep her teeth from moving. The orthodontist made a comment when we picked up the retainer that obviously Rachael would wear it during the day. Rachael did not feel that this was obvious and it bothered her that other peoples presumed negative perception of her smile and how that would make her feel was given such importance. Rachael is more focused on the ease of eating and talking. She decided to wear the retainers at night. She is of course aware of her appearance and wears makeup and has curated outfits that she likes. She has an aesthetic. But function and comfort play a much larger role in her sense of beauty. Rae isn't phased by her missing tooth and she has options open to her in the future to keep her teeth accomplishing their purpose.

 I am glad she has self confidence in her physical self. She is beautiful, now just with less metal.

Bridget's Party

This year for her 10th birthday Bridget asked if she could have friends over to play games and do a scavenger hunt. So we got to work preparing. Bridget had a sense of what she wanted but also wanted to be able to fully participate, so she left the clue writing and implementation up to the rest of us. 

The sisters all pitched in to clean up and decorate. Bridget worked on the food list and color scheme, and gave us idea on the games she wanted to play. With violet decorations, strawberries, carrots, sour cream and onion chips, cheese-its and Oreos in hand we were ready for the creation of the scavenger hunt. I enlisted the help of Emma and Claire to help me come up with rhyming clues, as I worked on icing the birthday cake. 

Bridget's friends arrived and we started with a game of hangman. Megan and I put this into action and we had a big laugh that both she and I made spelling mistakes. Luckily we were able to make edits before there was a negative impact on the game itself.  After the phrase was uncovered the group got their first clue. Each clue had to be deciphered to figure out where they needed to go for the next activity. They moved around the house playing pictionary, solving mason cyphers, doing word scrambles, and (I think everyone's favorite) moving a cookie from the forehead to the mouth. 

Bridget has a such a nice group of friends, and they worked well together. The last clue lead them to the oven where they found Bridget's birthday cake. Bridget wanted to be surprised. She had asked for a light purple cake with tiers, decorated with a sheep on it. Megan helped place the candles and we lit all ten and moved to the living to room to sing. Bridget was happy.

After cake and ice cream the girls went downstairs and played charades. There was laughing and smiling and a special day for Bridget.