Category — Family Moments

Well I have been feeling like a bit of a soccer mom.  Mind you it wasn’t soccer and last time I checked, I was the Dad .  It was the Canadian Improv Games, which DS took part in last week.  They came in 6th place out of 11.  Not bad for a first year team.

They’ll be back, most likeky with a very similar team next year.  The teacher, a real enthusiastic about theatre and drama made a goal of being in the top ranking.  The top ranking  schools participating this year have 2 or 3 teams.  So team number 1 is made from the cream of the crop.

According to her calculations, the team received over 240 hours of training for this competition.  Not school time, this is an after school activity. 

We started Wednesday night, by the end of the first night, we were in second place out of 3.  In the end it was also the winning team that came in first for the provincial finalists.  We missed the second night showed up on the third night and attended the finals.   We were there three out of four.

The winners went onto Ottawa for the finals.

I made a little web page which explains our participation in our competing evening.  Not my best work, but I threw it together over night, so kids would have something to look at on Monday morning. 

Very functional.  Check it out!  Click on the picture on the right.

So for those 3 nights, the drill was to come home from work, grab a quick bite, pick up the friends and drive some 30 kilometres (18 miles) out of town.  Get through the 2 1/2 hour evening and drop everyone off after.  So leave the house at 7.00pm and come home shortly before midnight.  Now you know why I felt like a soccer mom!

What fun!  I’ll certainly do it again next year given the involvement I see from DS.  Theatre Arts appear to be in his lign of forte…Career maybe?  We’ll see. 

Yes, you may have guessed, this is a story about teeth.  Meant to act as a log of events but it may also help others understand the procedures relevant to our situation.  Given that each mouth is unique, there are only so many orthodontic combinations and roads back to getting a set of straight teeth.  The rate of success is usually more than satisfactory due to the inevitable improvement.

First Diagnose April 2006

The orthodontist, states that part of the problem is an under bite.  The Jay Leno, Brian Mulroney diagnostic.  Long term, a protruding lower jaw.  Along with the inability to align the teeth properly and of course, eat properly. 

The visit to the Ortho Surgeon took place, as requested by the Orthodontist.   (yes, at that price, they deserve capital letters)

Follow up December 2006 

Recommendations…

Break the jaw, wire it for 6 weeks and feed through liquids… not too cool for anyone to go through, yet you meet people who do go through it.  A bit of a problem with an asthmatic person to have the mouth wired shut.  

That is only part of the solution.  The upper mouth referred to as the pallet, is too narrow.  So we’ll need an expander.  It will also create space for the teeth to align properly after the braces are in place. 

Aside 

It’s nice to see that Ortho procedures and braces are now seen as an positive thing.  When I was in school, they were railroad tracks that belonged on the most unfortunate kids.  Now a days, everybody has them.  They’re a sign that you look after yourself.  You care.  You see adults, going for the first time, or even better for a second time for adjustments.

Still, not too many teens relish the idea.  Conscious about dating and what not.  The more have them, the less of a concern it is.   That’s the way it is. 

Being Ready

Having the will and commitment to go through it is key.  It is the unknown.  Once you start, there shouldn’t be any second guessing.  That period for us, was probably six months. 

The Time Table

It’s now  three months DS is going through the procedure.  Sometimes twice a week for a follow up or an adjustment at the ortho.  Two to three hour sessions and other days, ten minutes.  No one complains about early class dismissal usually, but for this type of appointement, it’s not too glamourous.

It interferes with after school activities as well as creates a whole bunch of extra luggage mentally to cope with.  Fortunately, our DS is equipped to deal with it.  As a parent, you just know the extra real estate or luggage is present.  (should you ever read this, you’ve handled the whole thing so well)

The long term is minimum two years, so, if you start the treatment at fourteen years old, your guaranteed to get them off before your seventeenth birthday.  That doesn’t mean  permanently.

The Signatures 

Kind of funny…When you sign the contract and the payment schedule it comes along some side documents.  One is a no guarantee that the crack between your two front teeth will align properly with the centre of your face.  Another was  a statement that the word of either parent was as valid as the other’s.  Probably pretty handy for divorce family cases.

We Begin…

Braces and wires go on as well as spacers (thick elastics creating a space between the molars).  two or three sessions.

Wire comes off.  Mouth imprint is taken to build the pallet expander.

The expander gets fitted.

Parents must accompany DS to make sure they know how to assist with the expander.

The expander will remain for a minimum of six months with the first month expanding twice a day. 

Some Humour 

After assisting to the "How do you crank the expander" lesson, we found that none of us could do it.  I had my knee on my son’s chest the first morning with a flashlight in his mouth looking for a whole about the size of a pin.  Oh I found it!  I just couldn’t get the right motion to crank it, nor could DW or DS.  That was good for a trip back after school.  We never touched it again.  DS walked up to the mirror and cranked twice a day. 

What a difference the expander made, day by day.  You can see the results within three weeks in the photo.  A couple of days after this shot was taken, he could actually fit his tongue right through or dangle his headphones in there.  I’ll post that later.

 Just as the cranking period was finished, the Ortho went on vacation, I guess so.  He could certainly afford it!

This entry was started March 3rd, 2007 and will periodically be updated until we’re done. 

Camping was the theme for DS and my self this week end.  DW, will have nothing to do with it.  So, boys week end!

Well, first off, it was our first camping, ever.  Needless to say, you hope it will go well.  So I had been preparing.  Last week we bought the tent.  This week, an air mattress.  We settled for a disposable Styrofoam cooler.

I took a 4 day week end, linking into Canada Day.  The idea, was to spend at least 2 nights out.  I figured first time out, we’d hang with the camping park people, rather than head out into the wilderness and just shit in the woods.

A real experience it was!  I like to people watch!…Sorry to report, I couldn’t very well pictures of them, still it was fun. 

We signed in on a day where France was playing Brazil…  Our host was French, she was all painted up, waiting to cheer on her friend.  That put a smile on my face!  I booked two nights with her.  The terrain, came with running water and electricity + Yes, there were flush toilets and a shower in the bloque sanitaire.  

Now I hadn’t really bargained for any of this.  Kind of takes the fun out of camping, no?

We awkwardly set up the tent, but successfully, may I add.  1.00 Pm and all was going according to plan.  We weighed the corners down as the wind was near violent.  I was delighted to see it held very well.

While DS manually filled the air mattress, I ventured to discover the grounds, mountain trails and the "sanitary block"!  I came back with a bag full of small twigs and branches to start dinner and and evening campfire. 

To my surprise, DS had also completed his task.  Proudly lying back on his achievement, he liked at me all proud.  To my surprise, he’d also set up his Zen(mp3 player) with the computer speakers.  The French groundskeeper came around to ask if I’d be joining in to the target shooting at 2.30Pm.  I told her I’d be happy to watch. 

First we had lunch, Smoked turkey sandwiches and nibbles.  The country air had already worked an appetite for both of us.

We walked over and watched for a good half hour of target shooting, ’till a champion was declared.  We then continued up the hill where DS broke out his sling shot with anticipation. 

Setting up an empty Coke can on a stump he went at it.  Not bad either, on the first shot he hit the stump, but just below the can.  The second shot had the sound of a bull’s eye.  Sure enough, I gladly walked over to set it up for him.

I continued to pick up wood and twigs, knowing that if we intended to sit up around the fire, we’d need a lot more.  We found our way back to the camp site and broke out the soft drinks. 

Across from us, was a young couple, maybe in their late 20’s.  Pretty girl, with a four year old running around.  Breast feeding a rather recent one and I would have bet probably pregnant with the next one.  Huge tent, a cord of wood and lots of camping goodies lying around.

They made quite a sight.  Mini-Van, at this point I calculated perhaps dad works in the city and comes up on week ends.  Discreetly watching them became my pastime. 

Mister camping ground host came around, with a buddy,  in his fancy ATV , tugging a flatbed of wood.  I didn’t know!  Otherwise I wouldn’t have made 3 trips to the mountain picking up twigs and stuff!  I bought in.  $10.00 bought us a nice pile of wood.  Enough to cook our dogs and keep it going. 

After packing back a few dogs and some chips, we decided to do more exploring and walked the road around the lake.  I had brought fire crackers, which I had confiscated about 2 years ago and we let them off by the lake.

Back at the camp-site, I stirred up the fire and we settled to some card playing.  Right about that time, it started raining lightly, so we took our game into the tent with some cookies and music!

At 10.00Pm, fireworks were being set off by the lake so we put on our rain gear and went  to see the show.  Not bad at all.  Still the rain kept coming and it wasn’t long before we were back in our tent.

We woke up several times during the night to hear the rain just pounding the tent.  I was rather pleased we were totally dry.  My previous experiences with camping and rain didn’t exactly keep  me dry.  Still we managed to sleep ’till about 7.30am the next morning.

When I opened the tent, we had something else waiting for us.  Right outside our tent entrance was a puddle, about 2" (5cm) deep.  As I looked at the rest of our terrain, the balance wasn’t much better.

With not much else to do but wait and see if this would dry up, I looked at my son, showed him the wet pile of wood and suggested we put aside campfire breakfast and head out for a drive.

The Laurentians is my stomping ground, growing up.  So off we went to visit other mountains and lakes.  A 4 hour drive and we were back at camp checking it out.

Not much improvement, so we re-visited the trail so he could get the sling shot out of his system, packed up and headed back for the city.

Despite our little misfortune with mother nature, DS loved the experience and is willing to repeat it soon.  What 14 year old boy wouldn’t.  Of course I had a great time too and was pleased more than anything to discover the ease and quality of our equipment.