Braces, part deux

It's been slightly less than two years since The Boy got his braces off. But that first set was just for practice. Well, not really. They were because the 5 baby teeth in the top front refused to leave when the adult teeth were coming, so they grew in behind the baby teeth. This resulted in my calling him, 'Shark Boy'; and also in his having those 5 baby teeth pulled, and braces put on to bring the adult teeth front and center where they belong. That whole business took only eight months, and we always knew that he'd need braces again someday. Someday was yesterday.

So far he's only got the top ones on. The bottoms will be put on in three months. And these will be on for probably two years, much longer than last time. He has somehow decided that it is his belief that he should not alter the body that God gave him (piercings, tattoos, etc - ha ha, his mom has both!) and almost did not get the braces at all. I have switched my argument encouragement from, "Think of how nice your teeth will look!" to, "You are going to avoid all jaw problems and tooth decay that comes from very crooked teeth!"

He is in some pain today. So much so that he could not do a very good job at brushing his teeth. I really hope that goes away soon. He needs to eat and to brush those teeth!

Guess I'm bored, huh?

12 of 12 - February

It's time for 12 of 12 again!

9:30 am, kitchen
Coffee!!! I slept in a bit today. The Boy was with his dad last night, so I did not need to get up early to see him off to school today.

10:28 am, kitchen
Splitting kitty's pill. She takes 1/2 in the morning and 1/2 at night.

10:29 am, kitchen
And her liquid meds. In addition to her thyroid meds, she's back on antibiotics for about 6 weeks.

11:45 am, kitchen
This is our pepper mill. During dinner, we have taken to saying, "please pass the R2".

12:30 pm, living room
My new bookcase! I received it yesterday. It's not fancy, but it's someplace to put my books.

1:05 pm, grocery store parking lot
The boy had spacers put in his mouth (again) and the pain is making it hard for him to chew. I needed to stop at the grocery store to get him some soft foods. Like oatmeal. And Jello.
And - hey! Snowbank!

1:28 pm, car
Random picture of the sky, while I'm driving.

1:33 pm my parking lot
Just a couple of bags to bring in. They're in the front of my car, because the trunk is stuck, and has been for a couple of months. :(

2:35 pm, kitchen
Fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil salad. Mmmm.

7:00 pm, kitchen
New recipe: shrimp and ginger stir-fry with mushrooms.

9:20 pm, living room
My new knitting. I just learned to cable!

11:09 pm, bedroom
"Come to bed, mommy. Now."

BONUS PIC:
February 12, 2010, 2:32 pm
The Boy arriving home from school.

February 12, 2009, 2:35 pm
The Boy arriving home from school.

Today

Today was Jake's pre-braces appointment at the orthodontist. The appointment was supposed to be at 2:30, which is what time he usually gets off the school bus. So the plan was that he would NOT take the bus, and instead I would pick him up at school at 2:05, and then we'd drive to the ortho. Yeah.

So, I left the house nice and early, because I wanted the good space in front of the school. Got there, got my space, and waited. Another car pulled up behind me, also waiting to pick up a kid. She had this huge crystal hanging from her rearview mirror, and it was constantly catching the light and throwing it in my rearview mirror, and blinding me. If you are one of those people who hang shiny, reflective things from your rearview mirror, well, I love you, but I'm sorry, you need to stop. It's annoying. It's distracting. It's not safe. But, I digress.

Anyway, I waited. Then 2:05 came, and kids started to come out of the building. And I looked for my kid, and I waited. And I thought, "Oh, please don't be on the bus!" I just had a bad feeling. I waited 15 minutes before deciding that my bad feeling was right, and my kid was on the bus. So as I started driving back home, I called the orthodontist's office and begged them to squeeze us in later in the day, because we were not going to make the 2:30 appointment. After telling me they had nothing else for today, but unable to find anything else for us before the date we're getting the actual braces on, she relented and squeezed us in for today at 4:30. As I hung up with them, my phone rang. It was The Boy. At home. He said that as soon as the bus pulled away from the school, he remembered, but then it was too late. Argh.

I went back home, gave The Boy the evil eye (but then let him know it was ok), watched General Hospital and ate a salad. I started my third attempt on a gauge square for the knitting project I want to start. And then we finally went to the orthodontist.

The first thing the doctor saw when checking The Boy's teeth was that stubborn baby molar that Would. Not. Leave. His adult tooth had grown in, and the baby tooth had tipped to the side, but was still hanging on by a good bit of gum. He had been trying to loosen it and get it out of his mouth before this appointment, but he couldn't. So the doctor put some topical numbing stuff on the gum, and got that sucker out of there. After the bleeding stopped, they took impressions, then pictures, then x-rays. Jake even got a print out of the x-rays to take home. Then they put 5 spacers in, which was painful. And it really sucks to be sitting there watching your kid be in pain and not being able to do anything about it.

On the way home I stopped to get him some ibuprofen, ice cream, and powered breakfast drink mix. He's still in some pain. Tomorrow is going to be a huge snowstorm here, so I told him he can blow off school tomorrow if he wants, since they'll probably be dismissed early anyway, and then he won't have to do his homework tonight.

He gets his braces on next week, on Thursday. Stay tuned.

12 of 12 - January

It's 12 of 12 time again! For the new year, I thought I'd try to mix it up and not start each day with pictures my coffee and end with my cat in bed. But I kind of miss it, so I can't promise they won't crop up again.

6:36 am, kitchen
Up early to get The Boy off to school.

6:40 am, kitchen
Making a ham sammich for The Boy's lunch.

11:00 am, bedroom
Kitty has a doctor's appointment. She is not happy about it.

11:14 am, my car
Waiting for the light to change, to make a left turn to the vet's office.

11:22 am, vet's office
Waiting for the doctor. Sorry this is blurry, I had to make sure kitty didn't jump off the table and couldn't give proper attention to the shot.

11:23 am, vet's office
"Can't we go home yet? I don't want to be here!"

11:54 am, my car
When I first moved to this neighborhood, there was a red dot sticker on the deer crossing sign. The sign down the street in the other direction had one, too. I was sad when they replaced both signs with new ones that of course did not have the stickers on them. But within a week, the stickers were back! I love it. :D

12:10 pm, kitchen
This is my crack.

12:15 pm, bedroom
"I'm not speaking to you!"

2:03 pm, living room
I just unpacked and assembled my new Dyson! Isn't it pretty?

2:10 pm, living room
But what's up with the instructions? It's mostly just pictures, hardly any WORDS! When did companies start assuming we couldn't read?

11:50 pm, living room
Time to shut down the laptop and go to bed.

BONUS:
Recreating a shot of my winter-wonderland. Now, with less snow! I was not able to take this at the same time as last year's shot. This one was taken at sunset, and the original was in the morning.
January 12, 2009:

12 of 12 - December

Wow, this time I made it through the full year of 12 of 12. :D Yay, me! Chad, I do hope you continue on with this; I enjoy it very much.

7:30 am, kitchen
Coffee, of course. This is my second cup. :D

9:10 am, backyard
My landlord. With a gas can and chainsaw. I don't know why.

9:12 am, my car
Frost on the windshield. Pretty!

9:45 am, my doctor's offices
I am FINALLY getting my swine-flu shot. (I have asthma, so the flu really messes me up.)

11:10 am, local nursery
Christmas tree hunting!

11:35 am, my car, parking lot of my building
We bagged one!

12:10 pm, living room
I had to remove the plastic netting right away, because the cat has pica and of course the first thing she tried to do was eat the netting. For 18+ years this cat has been trying to kill herself in one way or another. It's been a challenge to keep her alive!

1:25 pm, living room
My shiny new shirt!

1:30 pm, living room
One of my Christmas traditions is to listen to this CD while decorating the tree. :D

3:15 pm, living room
Our stockings are hung on the shelf, with care. We have no fireplace.

4:50 pm, living room
The finished tree.

10:55 pm, my bed
"Come to bed mommy. Now!"

Firefly Fever!!!!

The Boy and I (and Starshine and one of her spawn) got to go to Creation's Salute to Serenity and Firefly this past weekend in LA. :D Here are my pics. Sorry they're so craptastic, my camera is not suited for low-light indoor zoom shots. :(

We had a fantastical time! We had purchased the Gold Ticket package, which entitled us to reserved, excellent seats at all panels (third row!); the exclusive Dessert Party with Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin and Yan and Rafael Feldman; and the exclusive Sunday Brunch with Alan Tudyk, Jewel Staite and Mark Sheppard. At both of these events, the celebrities visited each table and chatted with us for a bit. And Alan totally sat between Cindy and me.

During the autograph sessions, I gave each celeb a mini knitted Jayne hat pin that I made. Morena was especially delighted with hers and put it on immediately. Then, later at the Dessert Party, she announced to everyone that she had received a mini Jayne hat and loved it! Totally made my day. And during Sunday's autograph session, I had one of the mini Jayne hats in my hand, waiting to give it to Alan. His handler saw it and asked me, "Oh, where can I get one of those! I saw them and said, 'I HAVE TO find that girl!' " So I whipped another out of my bag and gave it to her. She was very excited.

At the brunch, they held a charity auction to benefit Kids Need to Read. I won an auction for a Serenity ballcap donated by Alan. It was to include it being signed by Alan. Someone else at our table (Marc) won Alan's fleece Serenity jacket, also to be signed, and Marc's friend Monica talked to management and they agreed to let her take a picture of Alan signing it, as Marc had been the highest bidder at the auction. So then it ended up that Marc and I were waiting to have Alan sign our items, and they decided that since Monica would be taking that picture, it needed to be done in a private room. And somehow I got included, too. So I was whisked away to a private room, and Alan signed our items and posed for pictures with us and I even got to keep the Sharpie. I don't have these pictures yet but Monica promised to email them to me. I gave her a mini Jayne hat pin and everything, so I really hope she does.

ALL of the panels were excellent. They are all so funny and so nice. The twins were very charming (and boy, do they know how to drink!) and Alan is a funny, funny man. We even got a panel with Jane Espenson and Tim Minear! I got them both to sign my Dollhouse DVD, and I got to tell Tim how freaking awesome he is.

Nathan Fillion had been scheduled to be there, but had to cancel because they needed him to do some reshoots for Castle. But during Alan's panel, Alan told the audience how sorry Nathan was that he couldn't be there, and then Alan brought out some seven-layer bean dip (of the Gods) that Nathan had made, and put it into the empty chair next to him, in Nathan's place. Alan and the dip answered questions for a while, and then Nathan called Alan on the phone. Alan put him on speaker for us, and we found out that Nathan did not exactly give Alan the bean dip. Alan stole it. Oops! Then Alan auctioned the bean dip (along with some signed photos and t-shirts) for charity, and it went for $375! This included a bag of tortilla chips; Alan signed the bag and also one of the actual chips. Later, the winner of the auction was kind enough to put it out in the hotel lobby and offered it to anyone who wanted to try some. It was actually very good.

This was a really excellent trip. I think I need to go to all of these.