Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Bugs n Braces

Yea, I know those two don’t actually go together… or at least not in the normal world but, as you all know by now, I am far from normal (and loving it!).

Seriously, though, the two have been topics that I have discussed with others lately.

So here goes….

Bugs…. I can’t stand them but since I’m the mom, I have to step in (pun intended) and send the little critters off to their next lives. 

Sean used to have an intense fear of bugs.  In fact, one summer he saw some creature outside and never stepped foot in the backyard again until the following summer!  I couldn’t believe it.  He was fairly young at the time – maybe 5 or 6 years old.  His resolve was rock solid.

The worst part of it all was that I never knew what freaked him out that year.  Was it a spider?  Was it an ant?  I didn’t know so I had no starting point from which to try and help him get over his fear.

Of course I tried bribery – as any good, self-respecting mother would.  I also tried to reason with him.  Yep, reason with a 5 year old… you know how well that goes!

I mourned the loss of an entire summer due to a phase that Sean was going through.  And I worried that it would never end…

How would I manage a child who refuses to go outside when I have two other children who need their daily vitamin D? 

What would I do?

Luckily, either the passage of time or the winter snow eventually eased Sean to the outdoors.

Ironically, now at 13 years old, he’s the “bug whisperer” and can’t keep away from them.

“No, Sean.  Please don’t catch the wasp in a paper towel.”

“Please don’t smush the fly with your bare hand.”

“Put the firefly down!”

Sean has also come up with a coping mechanism for when that fear creeps back into his brain.  He’ll get the hose out and douse everything in sight.  It doesn’t matter if it’s inside the screenhouse or in the backyard… everything gets soaked.

Hey, at least he’s outside once again.

Now if only I could get the children to actually play out there….

I swear electronics have sucked the “childhood” out of children.

Now onto braces…

Sean is doing pretty well with them.  The first few days were horrendous but eventually he figured out that he could still eat his crunchy granola bars if he put them in a bag and smashed them to smithereens.

But today’s comments are more geared towards the “pre-braces” Sean got back in January.  They were actually called “spacers” and he had either six or eight of them in at any given time.

The tiny pieces of metal were placed in between his teeth and were supposed to help push his teeth far enough apart in order to place a “cap” over his teeth.  This cap was attached to yet another piece of metal that would push all of his teeth around.

I know that all sounds dull… and a little painful… but I getting to some kind of point.

So these spacers are placed in there and, if you leave them alone, they do their job.

For a kid who is extremely texture sensitive when it comes to things in his mouth… well, let’s just say he didn’t leave them alone.

Thankfully, he did no damage as he pulled them out again and again, week after week.

It did drag out the procedure for spacing his teeth apart though, as some would last only hours before Sean claimed that they had fallen out.

Surely, it was frustrating for me.  I can only fathom what the poor orthodontist was thinking each appointment.

Oh, Sean….

Finally, after a few months, enough space was available and the caps with the retainer attached were firmly stuck onto his teeth.

It looked so painful as the orthodontist pushed (and pushed) those caps on.  I felt bad for Sean but, in a way, was it a lessoned learned?  The caps would have gone on easier had the spacers been left alone.  Did Sean get that?  I’m not sure…

Now, as we end Week 1 of braces on his bottom teeth, Sean has stopped smacking and licking his lips so much.  He keeps a Chapstic nearby. 

I can’t say for sure that he’s NOT playing with them, but so far things seem to be OK.

As for food, we are still in the soft food phase but progressing.  I have extra mac and cheese on hand and spaghetti has once again made its way onto this week’s menu.

Time will tell…

But I do know one thing for sure…

If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

And that, my friends, will never change.

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