Friday, October 24, 2008

Suck It, Orthodontist



So, as you may know, I have braces. I have had them since January of 2007. I hate them. I hate the fact that I am 30-years old and sleep with a bag of mini rubber bands on my bedside table. I hate the fact that I am paying $5000 to having something done that my parents paid several thousands of dollars to have done once already. I hate the fact that all the family pictures of the first year of Katie's life will feature me with more hardware than your local Home Depot. I hate having lunch with someone and wondering not if I have food stuck in my teeth, but just how noticeable the food stuck in my teeth is.

But what I hate most, as of late, anyway, is the incompetence I encounter at the orthodontist. In Maryland I had a great ortho. He was young, funny, creative in his orthodontic assessments, smart, took time to explain the mechanics of what he was doing, had hired talented assistants, and was not bad looking. I looked forward to going to his office because everyone was so nice and I left feeling like we were making progress.

Then, we moved to Georgia. I was limited in my options as to whom I would choose as my doctor due to the fact that my MD orthodontist had used a new style of braces that most orthodontists aren't familiar with. (Despite being new, they still leave me with the opportunity to be called "metal mouth".) Thus, I am stuck with the doctor I have. The doctor himself is not so bad. I have toenail clippings that have more personality than he does, but he does seem to know what he is doing and that is more important than his ability to entertain me. However, the hygienist I have been assigned to over these last few months, frankly, SUCKS! I have had three regular appointments. For two of them I have had to go back for "emergency" care. Now, none of it was a particularly big deal, but when I am paying someone that much money, they should know what the hell they are doing. At my most recent visit, the woman replace the old wire with a new wire, adjusted it and we were good to go...when I pointed out to her that she had failed to put a necessary coil back on. Thus, we had to start all over. Why do I know this woman's job better than she does?

Perhaps this is a minor thing to gripe about. However, scheduling appointments requires a little more forethought and planning than it previously did. And if every time I go to the orthodontist ends up creating another appointment that we have to schedule, and one that has to happen immediately because something is poking me or falling off, then it makes life more complicated than it needs to be.

So, on Monday I go back to have something fixed that the woman didn't do correctly this past Monday. I have asked for another hygienist....surely that can't all be that incompetent!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Perhaps My Mothering Skills Need Some Work

Today's signs that I am in fact the world's best mom:

1) While fixing and eating my lunch, my lovely daughter spit-up. She doesn't really spit-up that much, so I am not usually on the look-out for it. So, I finished eating and sat back down on the floor to play with her. The poor child had spit-up all over her face, up her nose, and rubbed into her ear. Good parenting!

2) While feeding her a bottle this afternoon, Katie was apparently spilling some milk out of her mouth on the side opposite me (so that I couldn't see it). So, after she finished eating I sat her up to burp her and the back of her hair was soaked with milk. Maybe we can consider it a spa treatment?

3) During our car ride this afternoon, Katie managed to get a diaper wedgie of sorts. When we got home I hooked my finger in her diaper to un-wedge. I came out with a finger covered in poo. I'm not sure how to spin this one...

Ahhh, motherhood. You are the best!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Did You Miss Me?

So, after a 4 month hiatus, which included having a baby, moving to GA, buying a house (almost), and getting more familiar with my breasts than I thought possible, I'm back.

The husband mentioned in the previous post is still with me, too, which may surprise you considering the behavior described. I figure I have punished him long enough for his less than loving comments. Maybe now that he knows I am back in the blog world he'll do something so absurdly sweet I simply couldn't not blog about it, thus proving my previous characterization of him wrong....

Well, the battery is dying on both the computer and the author, so I will make this entry a mere toe in the water and leave you waiting for the cannonball that my writing normally is!

Glad to be back!