Doctors and Dentists and Driving...Oh My....

......and now add a vet to the list :) More on that in a minute!

My summer thus far can be summed up with those three words! Trips to the doctor, the dentist and more time driving in the van than I ever thought I could do in a few months. The doctor visits are obviously mostly Lauran. She has had several transfusions, blood draws, an EKG and Echo, an eye exam and will soon have a hearing test. Recently though, she has had her 1st dentist appt. I definitely had concern about her teeth from the get go. The 1st brushing in China was not pretty. So last week she had her first dental exam. She was not interested in letting them in her mouth. I am sure she thought they were going to do something painful and horrible....and really they just wanted to look around. They managed to get in there long enough to determine she has at least 12 cavities and some are so decayed they may need capping. In order to evaluate her completely, and do all the work with out traumatizing her, they are going to send her to Children's to go under. They will do all the x-rays and the work all at once. It will probably wait till the fall...they have to coordinate everything with Insurance first.

Pretty soon she will have pearly whites to match her beautiful bright smile.....that she was so kind to show off for me on my birthday yesterday :)

Other Dentist visits are for Ryan, who got his 1st set of braces on his top teeth today. He also needed something called a crib...which almost looks like a metal gate hanging from the roof of his mouth. The crib is to correct something called tongue thrusting. He apparently has to wear it with the braces for 12 months. It really impairs his ability to talk and chew and I am having a hard time figuring out how he will get used to it(which they say he will). He is not too thrilled to say the least and is very worried about the kids teasing him....once school starts. You can definitely see it and he is very aware that his speech sounds very different. He will have to have another full set at some point, once these are off too..poor guy! He has a pretty complicated mouth.....with some major bite issues that could actually need surgery when he is older. I feel so bad for him.

But he did let me get a cute picture of him sporting his red and blue braces...and said yes I can put it on my blog:)




As far as the vet goes...well we got a puppy today! Unfortunately that made Ryan's day even worse..since he really doesn't like dogs at all...and is pretty scared of bigger dogs(due to some bad incidents when he was younger. This one should only get to about 15lbs. and is so laid back and completely mellow though....I told him God knew what kind of dog he needed, so we will see...hopefully he will learn to like her...cuz she is so cute and she really is sweet. The other 3 are thrilled though!! She sort of came along unexpected and Nathan has really been wanting a dog!! I said what the heck...the house is already a zoo what can one little dog do :)

Megan came up with her name. She named her after a Backyardigan character from Nick JR TV :)
So here is Tasha..the newest member of the family!














She is 4 months old...and crawls right up to Nate to cuddle!! She is Lhasa apso and Bishon mix!

And the driving of course come along with all the appts. and activities. It is way more crazy busy this summer than I had imagined. I struggle to keep things balanced..but who doesn't..right! God has been teaching me a lot about cherishing the moment in front of me with my kids. I have watched all 3 kids really bond with Lauran and it is amazing to see that happen. The boys are great big brothers to both girls and Megan has started to come out of her shell this summer. Lauran has become a Daddy's girl ...which is not only adorable, but very helpful to have her want to go to Todd. She still calls him Ba Ba....which is Chinese for Daddy. Anyways...that sums up my summer thus far. Doctors, Dentists and Driving...Oh My! Oh and now vets!