Brackets & Wires, oh boy!

I picked Samuel up from school at 12:00 & we drove through McDonald's for lunch on the way to his orthodontist appointment. Today was the big day....braces! I allowed Sam to pick out any lunch from any place (within reason of course). He wanted a chocolate milkshake, cheeseburger & fries from McDonald's. We ate in the van on the way. He admitted that he was a little excited, but nervous about his mouth hurting afterward. I gave him Ibuprofen before we left the school, however, to try to dull the pain a little bit.

Here are his teeth before we went into the doctor's office. As you can see, his bottom teeth are all jacked up. At he has an upper tooth on the side that hasn't come in right because it has no place to go. Plus his midline is all screwed up. (See how his upper & lower center line don't match up?) Braces for this kiddo weren't just cosmetic, but really necessary to make his mouth work right.

I'm really not a mean mom like this next picture seems. I have a picture that my mother took of me getting braces, laying in a chair with the cheek spreader thing in my mouth. I took one of Savannah when she got braces, too. And now we have one of Samuel. So you see, it's sort of a family tradition if you get braces to have this nice, embarassing picture. Hee hee!

And once it was all said & done, he looked like this. Quite the cutie, don't you think?

Fortunately, his mouth didn't hurt for several hours after getting his braces. Unfortunately, that hit right about dinnertime. We went to the store this afternoon & stocked up on pudding, jello & yogurt, so supper was pudding & mashed potatoes tonight. I'm hoping that by Sunday or Monday, his mouth will feel better. 'Til then, I see a lot of soft, pureed meals in his future.