Braces!

Avery finally got her braces! Almost a full year after Morgan got hers put on. She went with the bright pin rubber bands - looks cute!

Before

Check out whose name she's standing under! :)

After

Popsicle from the orthodontist!

Orthodontist

Avery FINALLY lost her last baby tooth! It's been such a long process for her! Now that she lost all her baby teeth, it's time to start her second round of braces. So, we went to the orthodontist to get her "internal headgear" installed. She's about a year behind Morgan!

Orthodontist Check-Up

No pictures, but both girls had orthodontist appointments on Monday. 

Morgan got new rubber bands and was happy to not have to get the rubber band chain again! She's making great progress already!

Avery was going for the annual check-up to see when we can get started on her round #2 braces. She's going to have the same basic process as Morgan with the carrier and then braces after that. Avery still has two baby teeth to lose - one on the top and one on the bottom. They need the one on the top to fall out so they can get started. So, he told her to wiggle it a bunch and get it out of there! As soon as it falls out, we are going in to get the carrier. We have a tentative appointment in December at Morgan's next appointment, but hoping she can go in earlier than that. We'll see!

Frequent Flyers at the Orthodontist

Poor Morgan is having a rough go of it with her braces! We had to make another trip back to the orthodontist for a broken bracket. We walked in and the orthodontist just looked at us like "you guys, again???" Ha! We think she's having issues with the brackets because she grinds her teeth in her sleep. They added some more "bite block" to her top and bottom teeth (basically builds up your teeth so that when you bite down, your mouth doesn't fully close). He said he could tell that the old bite block had already been worn down from the teeth grinding. Once her teeth move and her bite is better, this shouldn't happen (hopefully!) I'm glad they don't charge by the visit!

Another trip to the orthodontist

The last time we were at the orthodontist, they weren't able to fully fix everything for Morgan. Our orthodontist was on vacation, so his staff was just fixing as much as they could so we could manage until he was back. In the meantime, she also broke loose a bracket on a bottom front tooth (she says due to a super crunchy french fry). We went back today to get things back in order! They replaced a few brackets, left a few off for now and then upgraded her rubber band usage on the bottom to pull from the farthest back teeth. Since they had to do the rubber bands on the bottom again, she chose a light blue color for those. So, her mouth is two-toned right now! :)

Here's to hoping we are free from the orthodontist until our next scheduled visit in July!

Last day of 6th grade!

We made it! The last day of 6th grade is a big deal at our school... because it means you are heading to middle school next year! They have a nice breakfast for the kids and parents in the morning. And they do a "clap-out" after school (they clap the kids in when they start kindergarten, so we clap them out when they finish 6th grade). After school, some of the parents held a lunch picnic for the kids at a nearby park. So many fun activities!

The 6th graders wear their Hawaiian shirts one more time!

At the breakfast, they handed out pins to all the 6th graders.

They also did a slide show. Each parent sent in three pictures.

The school put together these placemats with pictures from kindergarten on. So fun to see how much they've changed over the years! We also got a picture of the school as a "send-off" since we are leaving Whittier for good.

They had a selfie station for the kids to take pictures. They also brought this to the picnic afterwards.

Mrs. Zagorski's class

 

Morgan is SO sad to be leaving Mrs. Zagorski - she loves her!

Avery and her teacher Mrs. Miller

Playing at the park after school

Zagorski vs Miller tug of war

It's kind of hard to see, but Morgan got totally knocked over in the tug of war! She's the one in the blue shorts sprawled out in the grass!

It was such a fun day! Oh and we had to make an impromptu visit to the orthodontist again today! Morgan lost a few brackets in the back of her mouth thanks to some peanut M&Ms! She actually swallowed two of them... oops!

Back at the orthodontist already!

Well, that was quick! Already broke off a bracket, so we went back to the orthodontist about 24 hours later. Turns out, it wasn't her fault. A bottom bracket broke off because the top teeth were hitting it, so they had to put more "bite block" on her back teeth so her mouth wouldn't close all the way. "Bite block" is this blue stuff kind of like composite that they put on the teeth. It takes some getting used to.

While we were there, they also found 4 other brackets in a row on the top that were loose and falling off! The orthodontist said something must have gone wrong in the bonding process for all of those to fall off. That wasn't typical. Awesome.

We spent longer than expected getting all this fixed up, but fingers crossed we are good now!

Braces

Morgan got her braces on Monday! It took a couple of hours, but we finally made it out of there! SHe got the dark blue rubber bands to start with. She requested ice cream, so we stopped off at Dairy Queen on the way home. :) Let's hope the next few days aren't too painful!

Ortho visit

Morgan had an orthodontist appointment on Thursday after school. Everything is going as planned. She got the next step up in strength of rubber bands. Looks like she'll be getting the full braces sometime this summer. Our goal is to get them on and off before high school. Fingers crossed!

Orthodontist check-up

Our next appointment on our day off was to the orthodontist. Both girls got pictures and x-rays taken and then we talked with Dr. Neal about next steps. The girls always get a kick out of looking at their pictures throughout the years we've been going to the orthodontist.

Avery still has six baby teeth to lose! So, she's got at least another year before getting full braces. She already had an expander and the first round of braces. They basically gave her an overbite to make space for all of her teeth to come in. So, she has to deal with the big overbite for another year. I don't think she loves that, but I think she's a little happy to not have to get braces yet. I told her the sooner you get them, the sooner you get them off!

Morgan has lost all of her baby teeth and her permanent teeth are in. So, she's ready to start the process. She hasn't had any work done yet since her mouth was already wide enough for her teeth to come in. She has a small overbite, but her teeth came in pretty straight. She's going to start out with the new version of headgear, which is basically a bar in your mouth on the top that connects to a brace on the bottom by a rubber band to move the teeth back. She'll wear that for 3-6 months, then get full braces. She should be all done within two years, so hopefully before high school starts.