A dash of them, a heaping spoonful of me

Anderson saying his ABC's....Jake video coming soon.

The boys have been making great strides lately. They soak up new information and seem to learn new things constantly. Both can count to 10 and say their ABC's. They usually leave out two or three letters but I still think that is pretty darn good. The funniest is when they get stuck on a letter and will repeat q, r, s over and over until they finally remember that t comes next.

This week they have been mastering their shapes and colors. They are able to identify a circle, square, triangle, heart and star. The colors they know are red, blue and yellow. I've lost count of the words that they say but I do know that the most popular ones this week are witch, pumpkin, pirate, spider and vampire. Anderson is stringing 2-3 words together and Jake is right on his heels. Last week at the library, Anderson told two strangers he had "poo butt". It was quite embarrassing but he really did have a "poo butt" so what is one to do?

While we were at the library, we realized just how much the boys LOVE trains. They played with the library's train set for about an hour with no sign of letting up. I once tutored this really strange boy who was obsessed with Thomas the tank engine. He was a pretty freaky kid so I always kinda associated the trains with weirdness. In fact I used to tell Kevin our kids wouldn't play with trains. Well guess what is on their x-mas list? My sister will be picking them up a huge set that Costco has right now and I guess Santa will have to pick up the odds and ends.

Santa is going to be pretty busy this year. Kevin has asked for lasik surgery and I am getting braces. Kevin eyes are pretty bad, poor guy can barely see a hand in front of his face without contacts or glasses. He will be having his surgery done after the first of the year.

My present is a bit more complicated. I'm treating myself to braces for the third time in my life. I was lucky enough during my childhood to have been privy to braces twice, three retainers, and a head gear contraption. After 8 years of that nonsense the orthodontist waved the white flag and told my parents that he couldn't do anything more for my severe overbite and underdeveloped jaw. Surgery would be the only answer. So when I was 19 I consulted with a maxillofacial surgeon but chickened out. A possible complication of corrective jaw surgery is permanent nerve damage. Picture being numbed up by the dentist for the rest of your life. Didn't sound fun to me.

Five years ago I went back to the surgeon thinking it was time to have the surgery. Long story short I decided not to do it for a second time. Last week I returned to the same surgeon for the third time in 13 years. I'm surprised he agreed to see me again, I was afraid he might have had enough of me.

The typical surgery takes around 1.5 hours, he anticipates my surgery will be about 5 hours. I need a lot of work. In layman's terms I will have my upper jaw expanded and pushed back and my lower jaw will need to be brought forward and some work on my chin will be needed as well. I'm saddened to say that I need every procedure that the man does. BUT before any of that can happen I need to get braces. My braces should be on in the next 4-6 weeks and at this point the surgeon and orthodontist believe I should be ready for surgery in about 6-10 months.

I have mentioned the surgery to a couple of people in my life and have chuckled at their reactions...."what for?" I appreciate the polite gesture but come on people. It is quite obvious "what for". So I'm excited at the prospect of throwing my insecurities out the window over my buck teeth, but I'm also scared sh!tless of not waking up from surgery. I cried today when I found out in two weeks I'll only see the boys for an hour on Nov. 13th due to parent/teacher conferences. I can't stand the thought of not seeing them for one day let alone missing out on their little lives.