Silver Braces and Silver Bullets, Both are Beautiful

Well, the we began our slide down the slippery slope (love that alliteration). Patricia got her braces on this morning. Last week she had spacers placed between a few molars to make room for the brackets. That bothered her quite a bit; I fear today and the next few days will be even more bothersome if Margaret's experience is any indication. She'll be racked up on Advil for a while I'm afraid. But she's adorable. She told me today in the car that she is nervous about getting braces.

I told her she'll look cute, but she thinks she'll look like a dork. Then she said, "I hope I don't have to wear glasses," to which I replied, "Honey, I'm afraid you'll have to resign yourself to the reality that with Mom, Dad and all your grandparents having worn glasses, you will, too." "Then I'll REALLY look dorky," she said. I told her that by the time she has to have glasses, her braces will be long gone but she'll have a beautiful, uncrowded smile under the frames.

Brigid, meanwhile, continues to have a runny nose that started a few days ago. Yesterday she kept herself hydrated by the non-stop running that went from her nose to her mouth. I'm hoping it doesn't develop into anything more than a head cold. She slept well, though. May have been the benadryl I gave her last night. It hasn't affected her nursing, however. It's just made her sound like a suckling pig -- snork snork snork.


This weekend Brigid had her first swing in a baby swing at the park and seemed to like it very much. She was delighted because Margaret stood behind her to push and Patricia stood in front to push back. She just beamed as the swing went back and forth, back and forth. Brigid has certainly developed a love of the outdoors and one of her first, and only words so far, has been a version of "outside." It sounds like "A-siiiidddeee? A-siiiddeeeee?" And she pound on the back door. Last night, she wanted to go out so badly she started to pitch a fit. I put a sweater on her and her Old Navy baseball cap and we walked out with Daddy as he headed back to work. We walked along the sidewalk and she just wanted to take off. She was giddy with happiness, waving her arms around and babbling loudly. She didn't like having her hand held and would pull it away hard and fast. When Daddy had to take his leave, she waved and I started to turn her around to head back to the house and she dropped like a dead weight on the neighbor's lawn. She righted herself only to drop again when I tried again to direct her in the opposite direction. She finally allowed me to direct her as long as I didn't dare try to take her hand or touch her back in a herding attempt. She did let me hold her hand as we navigated our uneven unpaved driveway. We stood for a while out back and she was intrigued by Patricia's bike helmet, which was hanging from her bike handlebars. I said that's Patricia's helmet, kind of like a hat. And Brigid reached up and started to take her own hat off. She gets a lot more than you think.

And the big news is we found a new van. We'll be picking up a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan, silver, with gray interior, tomorrow. After selling the '99 Caravan, we've been down to one vehicle for a few weeks and it's been a challenge. I'm looking forward to having a second vehicle again.

Bonus Photos
Brigid and I went shopping at Sam's Club and Brigid on a feeding frenzy.