Brace yourself

Zoe's overbite will soon be a thing of the past.

In a mere 18-20 months -- and several thousand dollars of payments later -- she will be the proud owner of a beautiful set of straight choppers, courtesy of the fine folks at Carmel Orthodontics.

We went for "installation" yesterday morning. There was two weeks worth of pent up anxiety and fear and dread brewing in my short co-hort, and as she plopped down in the orthodontist's chair to begin her transformation, the big, fat, wet tears finally fell.

It's scary stuff for an 11-year-old girl nearing puberty to think about a 20-month commitment like braces. But she eventually dried her eyes and settled in for the two hours it took for bracket fitting.

She even let me document the process by taking some photos that, a year or so from now, I'm sure she'll regret having posed for. But nonetheless, here they are.

Before:

During:

After:

I think they look beautiful.

When did they all grow up?

Who is it that sings that song ... Don't Blink? Kenny Chesney?

Whoever sings it knows of what he croons. Because I had that "blink" moment all through the pre-Christmas, post-Christmas, Zoe-birthday season this year.

It started with the Christmas program at school. The one where Zoe sang a short solo and almost made me gasp out loud with her voice.

The dress, the hair style, the voice ... the rest of the kids lined up behind her. It all combined for one of those moments that all parents must have at some point.



You look up. The baby in front of you is now a pre-teen, and wow, where did all that time go? Who is that child on stage in front of hundreds of people, singing like that?



A month later, she delivered another figurative punch to the "mother gut" when she and a few friends posed for a birthday photo before devouring cake and ice cream to celebrate Z's 11th.


I took the pic and then got tears in my eyes when reviewing it. These kids have been coming to my house for 6-7 years now.

I remember when they were little sweaty balls of princess puffs, decked out in pink boas and sparkly hair ribbons.



What happened to the baby fat? The gaps from missing teeth? Ponytails? Playing "makeup" with each other with enough glittery crap to kill a cat?



I blinked. And then they all grew up. Including my own.