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smile please.

Baby carries, cavities, tooth rot.... call it what you will, we have it and it's not pretty.

Whenever I'm home, away from the outside world, my sons smile and their beautiful faces beam and I am so thankful they are alive and well.  The house can be a terrible mess with yesterday's food... or the day before yesterday's food caked to the floor and last week's laundry still unfolded, and my boys smile and laugh (or cry, whatever) and I am so thankful they are alive and well.

Whenever I'm in public and Ray smiles, a part of me cringes.  Inside I pray they don't ask about his teeth.  Kids are smart.  Ray would know right away if someone was talking about him.  I took him to the dentist about two weeks ago.  Later that night Greg told him that his teeth were, "looking so good!" Ray got very serious and said, "No, Daddy.  My teeth are very sick."

I never told him that.  I thought that was a brilliant way to word it though.

Ray's going to have extensive dental work done over the next few weeks.  His front four teeth will be gone and his two first year molars will be capped with some high tech stainless steel stuff.

Now Jimmy's showing early signs of it.

Why does this happen? I could give you every potential reason I've heard, but it doesn't matter. I really don't know why. It feels like it all boils down to I didn't do a good enough job. I wasn't as careful as I should have been.  I feel like it's my fault and it breaks my heart.  It breaks Greg's heart.

Jimmy has a lip tie that never interfered with nursing, so we never needed to get it fixed.  Now that the carries are starting to appear I know it's not a factor that I will let slide.  Thursday I am taking him to a consult with a dentist and (hopefully) get a frenectomy. I pray that will be the end of his dental issues.

The kids are thriving.  Jimmy is running around and Ray is such a wonderful big brother.  He takes good care of Jimmy and they've been enjoying a playhouse and scooter we found on the side of the road yesterday (yay for free toys!).  I had lots of teeth pulled when I was little because my roots never dissolved.  I didn't know that kids pulled their own teeth out.  I thought everyone got teeth pulled each time they went to the dentist.  I wasn't even scared of the dentist.  I know the kids will be fine.  I just needed to get this off my chest.

Thanks for "listening". I'm smiling again :)
I'll leave you with our family's favorite verse.
"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them." 
Matthew 6:25-26

goofy Jimmy running blind due to bowl in mouth, 
Ray chasing him
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