Lip smackin good!

Check out the lip smacking. Isn't she funny?

Today was an errand day. We actually kept the boys out of school since they had appts this afternoon, and Tess had one this morning, all half an hour away from us.

Tess had her 9 month check up. Pretty uneventful. Our wonderful pedi that I absolutely adore said she looks great, and even with all the snot she's been draining the last few nights, everything else is clear. She's 27 3/4 inches tall, but only 15.3 pounds. That puts her in about the third percentile for weight. Yeah, I have skinny kids. Don't worry. It'll wear off by the time she gets to my age. Dr L gave us the go ahead to try meat and eggs if we want. She's pretty much had everything else.

From there, we swung by the resale store and bought some summer clothes for the littlest peeps. Tess's wardrobe was getting pretty slim. She had no summer clothes, which I guess was okay since Ohio can't decide if spring means cool or warm temps. Tess is still fitting into her 6-9 month clothes. We found Teagan some new shorts, all with belt loops, thankfully. The poor little guy loses his drawers without a belt. Don't know where his tiny butt came from. Must be a recessive gene.

Then it was off to the orthodontist's office. And boy was it nice. They really cater to you there. Do you kids want some sunglasses, how about some chapstick? Here's a teddy bear for the baby (with a logo T-shirt, of course) Would you like a drink? How about some coffee or hot chocolate, or maybe a bottled water (with our strategically placed logo on it, of course)? And everyone was really nice. I loved the doctor. He was really cool and explained everything to the kids so that they could understand it. And, they get you back within 5 minutes!!!! After waiting over 20 minutes at the pediatrician's office, that was pretty darn impressive. And get this, one of the docs has 7 kids!!! So I'm not a freak.

We did wait a little bit in between taking pics and Xrays and meeting the orthodontist. It was just the boys, Tess, and I. I have to say, my boys are pretty funny. And Travis, he is a talker. He's usually off playing with his friends so it's not as noticeable, but make him sit in a room for an hour and he'll talk your ear off. Tess got a little antsy towards the end, but big brother Tanner kept her entertained. Without any prompting from me, he picked her up, then cooed and gooed in her face until she laughed at him. It was pretty cute, and tugged at my heartstrings. Sometimes having a large family is exhausting, but I'm glad that they have each other.

Like I said, the office and staff were pretty impressive. Of course, braces do cost thousands of dollars and it is a business. With 5 kids, they could conceivably make $25,000 just off of my family. Eek! That's right. $5,000 per kid. At this point, Travis just needs a few expanders to keep his teeth from "drifting". He had a few teeth pulled at the dentist for some pretty severe cavities, and the adult teeth are no where near coming in. The poor guy has a cavity every time he goes for a check up. I really don't understand it because we have to push Tanner to brush and he's never had a cavity. Travis had the spacers put in today and will go back next week to have the expanders placed, to the tune of $500. That's our part after the 60% the insurance covers.

As for Tanner, he'll be getting braces the week after school lets out. Even with a family discount, and the $1000 allowance from the insurance, it is still going to cost us close to 5K. Trying to decide how to cover that. I'd get a discount of $240 if I paid in full. But, I'd have to put it on a credit card, so by the time I paid off the balance and interest, it probably wouldn't actually save me $240. The other option is their in house financing. There is no discount, but it's 0% interest and the payments are split up over the treatment time. I think we'd be done paying off Tanner's braces about the time Travis would be ready for a set. Of course, adding a $200 monthly payment to the budget would knock my debt snow ball out of whack. How would you do it?

Ah, why can't money grow on trees?

Anyway, we were all starving after spending almost 2 hours with the orthodontist. So we headed over to Golden Corral, the one place that has food for all my picky eaters, and the last place you want to go on a diet. I suffered through though because where else can you feed a family of 7 for under $40?

I didn't do too bad though. I made myself a salad covered with veggies and a little FF ranch dressing. Hold the cheese and croutons, thank you. I had to get some of their Bourbon chicken which is one of the few things I will eat there. But I had a very small scoop, probably 1/2 cup of rice and less than 3 oz of chicken. I added some corn and a baked potato with a teensy bit of sour cream and some salsa for the topping. For dessert, strawberries with Splenda, pineapple and sugar free chocolate pudding which wasn't half bad. I did try their sugar free gelatin cake which was so-so, but I had to share it with Tess so I only had a few bites. Even with all that, I didn't go over my points for the day.