Monday, January 13, 2014

Straight Teeth and THE Worst Game Ever

 You can't blog about your braces and not have a before shot, can you?

Once upon a time, I was somewhere in my early twenties sitting in LaGuardia Airport with my boyfriend-at-the-time waiting for our flight home.  I don’t remember how it came up or why on Earth we thought it would be a good idea, but we decided to play a game of “Tell Me My Worst Physical Feature.”  I mean, really, who the hell plays this game?!  I went first and picked his feet.  Honestly, I can’t picture his feet now so couldn’t tell you if they were really his worst physical feature or not.  I think if you’re going to play this game, feet are a pretty safe answer.  They’re feet – no one expects feet to be good looking and no one really sees them anyway.  It’s the nice answer, right?  The answer that you ought to give should you ever find yourself in the middle of this horrible game!  This boyfriend clearly didn’t get that particular memo.  His answer?  My teeth.  My eyes filled with tears instantly.  My teeth!  Right in the middle of my face!!

In somewhat related news, today is my first day of a 10-week Invisalign program.  Now, I’m not saying that it’s all because of a conversation I had with a boyfriend fifteen years ago but I’m not exactly saying it isn’t either.  I’ve always been self-conscious of my teeth.  I had braces in my early teens and for a while they were pretty straight but with no permanent retainers they’ve shifted quite a bit and the shifting just got worse during my two pregnancies.* That airport conversation turned my self-consciousness from I’m-the-only-one-noticing-my-crooked-teeth-so-it-doesn’t-matter to oh-my-god-every-one-hates-my-teeth-just-as-much-as-I-do and I never got over it.

My husband says my teeth are perfectly cute now and that I don’t need to change them.  Maybe he’s right and maybe the biggest change will just be in how I see myself when I look in the mirror.  I'm okay with that.  I'll be posting my progress regularly.    
You can't see the Invisaligns, can you?!  They're pretty awesome.
*As if pregnancy doesn’t change your physical appearance enough already, it has to go and shift your teeth around, too?!  That’s just not fair. 

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Slumber Party Forever

Over the holidays, my daughter had her little bestie over for her first slumber party.  Both my kids were pretty excited to have her over so we brought the spare mattress down from the attic and put it on my daughter’s bedroom floor for all three kids to sleep on.  My two loved it so much that they have been sleeping there every night since. 
 It’s been two weeks of sleeping together and they say they don’t ever plan to sleep apart again so, instead of breaking the bad news to them now, we’re just going with it.  Today we moved both beds into one room and turned the empty bedroom into a playroom.  The kids are thrilled!  We didn’t make any permanent changes, just moved some furniture around so that if in a month from now they decide they want their own rooms again, it’s no problem to change back.

 




I actually really like this new arrangement and kind of hope that the kids want to keep it this way for a while. 
 

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes


Things have changed in the Red House.  Again.  My job needs me, so my glorious part-time work hours have moved back into full-time hours.  It’s definitely nice to be needed at work but it was really amazing to have so much more time in my day to spend with my family.  Of course, this now adds a whole other layer of worry as we prepare for yet another childcare situation.
If you’re a regular reader of Tales From the Red House, you know that we’ve tried the YMCA program offered onsite at the school and that didn’t work.  That was in the height of my son’s violent outbursts and we were getting called out of work several times a week to pick him up.  We have also tried two home daycares and they didn’t work either. 

This time, we hired someone to watch our kids, and only our kids, in our home.  She takes the kids to school, picks them up from school, makes them lunch and then spends the afternoon playing Hide & Seek, Musical Chairs and working on crafts.  This week is only the first week but it seems to be going really well so far.  Our nanny seems happy, the kids absolutely love her and that in turn, allows me to breathe the biggest sigh of relief. 
So please, wish us luck as we begin our latest installment of Adventures in Babysitting!  This will hopefully be the final episode in this seemingly never-ending series.