Big Boy Teeth

The time has come to deal with Talmage's big boy teeth.  He has a small mouth and doesn't have room for his adult teeth to come in.  We were faced with a few options.  Do nothing now and let the teeth come down and have to extract 4 teeth to make room to straighten it all out as a teenager... or, start with expanders and braces now to make room for those adult teeth so hopefully no extractions.  We went with the treatment now, even though he may have to be retreated once his teeth all come in.  

Here are the before pictures to see some of the issues with his bite.  

The upper teeth completely cover the lower teeth when he smiles... not good.  This creates a closed bite.

Here you can see the deep bite that his uppers are covering the lowers.  You can also see the crowding with the turned top tooth.

His lower adult teeth don't even have room to come up because there is just not enough space.

After he got all of the appliances put in I took pictures to see what he gets to enjoy for the next year or so.  

Here is his lower expander.  It's removable and I adjust it every week to keep his mouth moving. 

Here is the upper expander on the roof of his mouth.  The Dr. adjusts this one.  You can also see the braces on his front four teeth. 

He was such a good sport about it all and he hasn't even been in much pain.  Let's just hope this year goes by fast and that he doesn't have to be retreated.  

The sad part about this whole thing is that Talmage had no idea that his mouth had problems before we took him in and explained why he needs braces.  Then he stopped smiling with his teeth for pictures (not that he did that much anyway) and he thinks it's about his crooked teeth.  Yes, it is, but just to be sure there is room for all the adult teeth, not just to fix the ones he has now.  Oh the joy of understanding our bodies and how to help them while they are young and moldable.  

I'm sure he will thank us later, even if he thought a year was a long time to have braces ;)

4 Month Cuteness

Little Lorna just keeps growing!  She will have her check up next week, but for now here are some fun highlights: 

She does really well under the play gym: 

She even has started to wiggle sideways

She loves to take baths and is super smiley!

She likes to lay on her tummy.  She can even push up on her hands now!

Oh and we all just love her... here is Daddy doing some loving with our love bug!

Happy 4 Months our little Lorna bug!

Our Big Dog

Clark has had many nicknames throughout his 2 years, but it seems Jeff has settled with "dog."  It is strange, but works for now.  He is growing up so much and is so fun!  Here are some highlights over the last couple of weeks.  

A year or so ago I made the kids these hats.  Clark is now big enough that the big boy's hat fits his head!

Such a cutie!

Clark really likes to color and will hang out with the girls when they are doing their art projects.  I think it is cute, yet he has colored on himself as well as the counter... he certainly is 2.  The other day Mhari was set to go color and Clark went up to join her. I had something really quick to do with Mhari and didn't think much about Clark alone with the markers until it was too late...

He got his arms really good, his face a little, and then there was the surprise:

His tummy!  Let's just say it took a little while to find this one.  I figured that was very fitting and actually really cute.  I am just afraid that every time he is left by markers he will decorate himself.  What a silly boy!

So Clark has graduated to a big bed.  Well, we finally figured out how we are going to fit three boys into their small room.  Clark inherited Grant's bottom bunk.  The other night Clark was in the room while we were out in the living room.  It had been a while so I went to find him.  His bed was empty: 

But his sister's bed was not :).  Yep, he put himself to bed in her bed.  So silly.  I don't know why he loves his sisters so much, but it sure is cute!

Another look at my discovery

He is loving being big and getting to sit up to the counter like the big kids too.  He has really enjoyed being the big brother to little Lorna too.  They grow up so fast!

Another school year begins

The boys started school again at the end of August.  We met their teachers the week before and they were both very excited.  Grant has the same teacher as last year, Mrs. Wallis.  We really like her!  It is hard to believe that Grant is in 3rd grade now!

Talmage has two teachers in his classroom, Mrs. Sliva and Mrs. Farley.  We have had Mrs. Sliva as a long term sub for Sandra last year so it was fun to see another familiar face.  He is now a big 4th grader!  Crazy how big that seems!  

They are both loving school and doing really well... it seems like no big deal to start back to school these days.

Sandra started back the week before and is at a different school this year.  She is also doing really well and we are hopeful that we will have all of the kids at the same school next year, if not some joining her sooner!  Jeff takes her in the morning and I pick up in the afternoon.  She is making lots of friends and her reading is really starting to improve (that might not have anything to do with the school though ;)).

Since Jeff walked her into her class the first day we got to see her at her desk :)

Mhari was also really excited to start school.  She doesn't qualify to go to pre-k at the school so that is sad.  Instead I am working on teaching her how to read at home.  She has been doing well and really likes to call it home school.  I think she will be super ready for school next year!

Happy Back to School everyone :)

Gardens with friends

Before school started for everyone we headed out to the Botanic Gardens with some friends for one last big play date!  Sandra had already started, but everyone else had a great time (I will post Sandra's pictures soon).  Summer seemed to drag on and ended feeling like we saw lots of different doctors... tonsillectomy will do that to you I guess.  By the time summer break was over I was sad to have to get back to the morning grind, but ready for the kids to get back to their schedule and learning ;)

Here are some pictures of the kids enjoying their friends:

Aftyn and Hadley

Mhari is talking to Aftyn through the "telephone" tubes :)

Doing a bird egg quiz

Bird song game

We ate lunch on the lawn and the kids enjoyed some soccer while we rested from the heat.  Clark got a turn with the soccer ball too... he was very happy!

Little Lorna just keeps getting bigger!  So pretty!

Enjoying the pond.  I was a little nervous that Clark was going to go swimming, but he stayed on dry ground thankfully!

There were coy fish in the pond as well as lot of turtles.  The kids never wanted to leave!

We had a great day and now it's back to the school routine!