Smile!

Anybody remember this?    She was keeping a secret...26 months ago.

She did it!  26 months, almost to the day!   Can you believe how much she's grown in two years?

The braces are gone! 

She is so excited!

She did so well through the entire process of orthodontia. Hannah was a trooper--from oral surgery to ulcers from the wires, she rarely complained. She was a terrific patient.  I used to go back with her to for her adjustments, but about 8 months ago she told me to stay in the waiting room. She wanted to go independently. Today I had to ask her permission to go back with her to take a picture. She was reluctant to admit me, but Dr. B. convinced her that I should be able to come.  Such a teenager.

We celebrated this evening with popcorn and a DVD.  But she nixed the popcorn.  After two years, she wasn't interested!   Instead, she asked for a dill pickle!   (At least she didn't put a pickle on that breakfast toast this morning....)

 

I've got a secret....

And I won't tell.

No.

Not even if you make me giggle.

My lips are sealed.

And I won't listen to you.

You can't make me spill the beans!

Well.

Maybe.

If you say "Pretty Please" and promise to buy me a chocolate milk shake.

Alright.

You win.

My secret is......

I've got a new smile!

My doctor said I was the best kid he had all day! I was worried a little bit, but it wasn't so bad! It only took 35 minutes, and it didn't hurt at all.

My lips and cheeks are a little tender now. But that just means I get to have more raspberry sherbet. Thank you very much.

Today was Hannah's first orthodontic appointment. They needed to get records, so she had x-rays, photographs, and finally molds of her teeth. She was cheerful through all of it until the molds. The tech surprised her with the cold mucky putty. Hannah immediately teared up. She did NOT like it. Fortunately it didn't take long for the mold to set, so she had some time to recover before they did the upper teeth.

I think she didn't like it because it had a minty scent/taste. She can't stand mint at all. (I get to eat all the Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies!)

She cried through the upper teeth mold too, but settled down with a little distraction with a Rainbow Fairies book.

Here's the finished product:

She goes back in a few weeks to get braces on her upper teeth. They'll add the lower braces in a few months.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We've been raising some caterpillars from our garden. I had been waiting and waiting for them to show up on our parsley, but I never saw them. I figured that the butterflies just missed us this year. Then I decided to clear out the carrot patch, and midway through I discovered a couple dozen caterpillars on the carrot tops! I never grew carrots in the summer before (and won't again--too bitter from the heat), so it didn't occur to me that they were also good nursery for black swallowtail butterflies.

We gave some to friends, and the rest we brought in to grow and transform in an aquarium.

Here is a picture of three chrysalides on a stick. It's interesting that two of them turned brown to match the stick, but the lower one remained green.

Today we had three butterflies emerge! It's so much fun to set them free!

Listen carefully--Hannah whispers to the butterfly, "You're beautiful."

And today I found tiny baby caterpillars on my parsley!! So we'll have another round of caterpillar daycare. (Any locals who would like to have some bugs, just let me know!)

The Last Baby Tooth

Surgery went well. She's still a little loopy from the Versed, and doesn't understand why her mouth isn't working right (novocaine--or whatever derivative they are using these days). She was great for the doctor. It was short and sweet.

Of course, Hannah likes to wear her scrubs and lab coat when she has any kind of "procedure". She likes to blend in with the staff I guess!

I didn't take an "after" picture, but she looked about the same, except for being pale and having gauze hanging out of her mouth! And maybe no smile.

Anticipating a quiet day at home. I've got a 1/2 bushel of peaches to slice and dice for the freezer. I guess I'll do that in front of the TV while Hannah watches Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Thanks for your well wishes!

One post, two post, red post, blue post

I'm sorry I've been AWOL for a while! We've had a whirlwind of revolving houseguests and activities that have kept me from getting much of anything done other than wash sheets, cook and drive around.

Here is the run down of the successes of the past 10 days or so:

IEP Mediation: I went to Macey's mediation and pretty much kicked butt. It took a lot of arguing, but finally, after a few calls to the VA State DOE to clarify the law regarding age of compulsory schooling, Macey will be able to attend an extra year of inclusive preschool at her local elementary school. The school system was trying to force her into Kindergarten and she is just plain not ready for that. (Background story: Macey was adopted from Ukraine almost two years ago and is doing her best to catch-up, but it's hard when you have Down syndrome and significant hearing loss.)

Chris and High School Graduation: My parents came to visit over the weekend and we took the opportunity to finally celebrate Christian's graduation. A delicious (and I mean DELICIOUS) meal at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse was lots of fun. The graduation included a lovely presentation of a crayon-made diploma, a song, and no wild dancing. Toasts, humorous stories and huge desserts filled out the evening.

AnnaJoy: A newly minted American, AnnaJoy was recently adopted by dear friends of ours. They have been living in China for several years and have come home to finalize AnnaJoy's adoption and have some respite from their work in China. They traveled from Oklahoma to visit, and we were all thrilled to meet this spunky three-year old!

Chris and College: He has his roommate information, and is in one of his first choice dorms! We went to the campus last week and ironed out some things at the Registrar's office, and now he is officially an academic Junior (though still a social Freshman). Now the shopping begins! Only three weeks before launch!!

And a run down of the not-so-successes of the past 10 days:

Bike Camp Take 2: Soon after we returned from the Charlotte Lose The Training Wheels camp, we realized that there was going to be a session of the same camp here in Richmond. I signed her up after realizing that she still needed some "tweaking" with her balance and awareness of her surroundings. The first two days were great, but today she crashed a few times and is now not wanting anything to do with her bike or camp. I am wiped out from running and cajoling. She is SO close to becoming an independent rider, but she's scared to maintain the speed she needs to balance well, so she ends up fishtailing and loses control. The "professional opinion" is that if she cannot maintain a fast enough speed, she will not be able to ride independently. We'll try again tomorrow, with elbow and knee pads to help cushion the pavement. After that, we'll have to make a decision about whether to keep trying, or give her a different option for riding. We're not quitting. Through tears, Hannah says, "Bike riders never give up."

(If you missed the first version of bike camp, click here)

2, 548 shards of glass: A microburst storm lifted up our glass patio table and smashed it over our deck. Now we have to pick up all the pieces to save gentle paws. I've heard that a shopvac might help the clean up! I was wishing that glass was magnetic.

$5853.00: Cost of Hannah's orthodontics. This doesn't include the oral surgery she is having on Tuesday. We do love the doctor, but were hoping that an office without all the Playstations and computers would have been less expensive than the swanky Hug-o-rama office.

Still waiting: Kate has not heard much from the Peace Corps. Everything is fine, but it sure would be nice to know what kind of timeline to anticipate, and what preparations need to be made.

We've had no real disasters or disappointments, just regular ol' life, coming in above the regular speed limit.

Orthodontist

When Hannah was little she detested the dentist. We worked very hard with "playing dentist" to get her more comfortable with strange masked people and power tools in her mouth. It was a resounding success, and now she loves the dentist--she even wanted me to make a movie of her recent dental visit.  I'll spare you that, only giving you a quick visual aid.

It kind of looks like she's got wide scared eyes, 

but really she's concentrating on listening to what they hygenist is telling her.

Last week we had a regular dental check-up and discovered several things about her mouth. The first, and most surprising to me, was that all four of her 12 year molars have erupted. She just turned 11!

The second is that she is missing 3 adult teeth, all are premolars, two bottom ones and the upper right. (James is also missing some of these permanent teeth, but his baby teeth are still doing the job.) (So I'm blaming him.) (And he's just glad to see that she's following in his footsteps. A proud moment in every parent's life.)

The third is that her left canine and premolar are impacted. She had her upper canines pulled when she was 7 or 8 to reduce crowding, and the left one has never come in. That's because it's sideways, laying flat on top of her bicuspid. And so is the premolar.

I'm a little miffed that we didn't know this earlier....it's not like the girl hasn't been to the dentist and had x-rays before. It's not this dentist's fault, this was only our 2nd visit with him (and I don't really know if it's anyone's fault, but I think someone could have noticed missing tooth development from bitewing x-rays). I had been asking about this canine tooth for a few years now (don't forget, we move frequently, so I've had plenty of opportunity to get varying opinions). I've also been asking about braces for a while. The answer always was, "After she's done loosing teeth." Of course, she wasn't loosing teeth because there aren't any to push the deciduous teeth out!

Anyhow, off we are sent for an orthodontist consultation. Yesterday was the day. I've had two kids with braces already, so I know the drill pretty well. And Hannah had two ortho consults before they pulled the upper canines years ago due to crowding.

I should have known--the warning signs were there. When I called to set the appointment I asked if Dr K. had many patients with special needs. The answer was, "Umm, no, not too many, really." So I went on to mention that Hannah has Down syndrome, but she would be a cooperative patient.

So we arrived, and I signed her in while she was looking at the elaborate patient-funded salt water aquarium and computer gaming set-up in the waiting room (Playstation, X-Box, and something else....I don't know because we have never touched those). Can you believe there was not a single book or child-appropriate magazine in the whole place?   The receptionist got up from her post and came around to personally meet Hannah. With a hug. Ewww. That always creeps me out. Then, said receptionist turned to me and syrupily said, "She's just precious." (Don't forget we live in the South, and depending on inflection "precious" does not necessarily mean "precious". This particular "precious" had ambiguous inflection. I chose to interpret the entire thing as a woman thinking this was the right thing to do with a "retarded child". She must have seen footage of the Special Olympics in the late 1970s or something.)  I gave her a blank stare and asked if there was paperwork to fill out.

**An aside--as if you're not used to me going off on a tangent**
We have always stopped Hannah from inappropriately hugging people--those who are not close friends or family. It was difficult when she was an adorable toddler who would latch on to anyone's pants' leg if they so much as stood near her. It was awkward for all involved when I'd stop her in mid-hug and say, "Hannah, loook up at this person. Do you know this person? No. He is a stranger. You cannot hug strangers." Of course the person would say, "Oh no, she's just fine--she's adorable." Then I'd have to nicely say, "Thank you, I'm sorry, but she needs to learn proper social boundaries."

Also, our kids with Ds spend a lot of time in physical and occupational therapy. This means that adults are touching their bodies, in many places, on a regular basis, generally without asking permission. It is hard to learn what is an appropriate touch and what is not when there are mixed messages about who can touch and who can't.

**End of tangent**

So, I figured that if we were going to use this orthodonist I'd need to do some educating of the staff. Especially when the assistant also hugged Hannah on the way back to get pictures of her mouth.

At least the doctor did not hug her, but maybe that was because Hannah was reclining in the chair by then. It was all high tech, and gave me the feeling that they were trying to entertain us, rather than getting to know us.

Omitting boring details of the exam, Dr. K's opinion was that we could leave in the baby teeth and she'd probably need oral surgery to extract a tooth or two so they could access the impacted teeth. Braces now, as well, and we can take the molds right now too! All for the affordable sum of $4900! What a deal! I could have my child's personal space invaded as a bonus! And a free t-shirt! Throw in some condescension, and it seems to be a bargain I can resist.

I was not feelin' the love nor liking the sales technique. We're not going back. It's time for a second, third or fourth opinion. I don't disagree with the plan of care, but we need an office that understands that Hannah just needs a little more time and patience--not a circus of revolving faces and equipment.

I've asked for recommendations from our local Down syndrome goup, and hopefully we'll find a good match--someone who will take the time to explain things to Hannah.   I want someone who will respect Hannah.  And respect my input.

***ADDENDUM***

I called our dentist and said that I didn't think Dr K was a good fit for us.  He gave me two more names, one he highly recommended.  He didn't give me this name at first because the office is about 20-25 minutes away (near Courthouse and Midlo, for the local among you), and he didn't want to make us drive extra distance.   I am hopeful about this one--he's had oral surgery training as well, plus he did extra training for special needs individuals.