Wednesday she got her expander and braces installed. We need to fix her significant underbite before she gets much older. The expander rests in the roof of her mouth and will widen her palette, literally expanding her mouth. She has brackets on only her top middle four teeth, to pull out those teeth as her mouth widens. We need to turn a "key" in the expander every night to push the expander out. It sounds gruesome. But, Lydia has been such a trooper! She has barely complained of her mouth hurting, fully cooperates with the key turns, has been great about the additional brushing, and acted so tough during the installation at the orthodontist's office. Not only do the braces make her look older, it seems she has decided to act older as well.
Friday she participated in the homeschool spelling bee. She came in second place in her age group. Up on the stage, she was confident and beautiful. I'm so excited for her to realize that she can accomplish great things. It has to be hard for her to come behind Madeline, who excels at school and music fairly easily. But, Lydia can do it too! I'm so proud of her. (However, I will say that I'm a little concerned that Lydia's spelling bee success may hamper and not help her work ethic. My philosophy with the spelling bee is that their training is self directed. I do not drill the words with them. They need to study on their own. After suggesting numerous times that maybe Lydia should prepare for the spelling bee, she rarely looked over the words. Pair that with her "just get it done even if it is sloppy or not really complete" school philosophy, and I'm a little concerned that this only confirms her belief in not having to work at things to succeed. I don't think she is lazy. She would just rather be doing other things.)
Well done, Lydia!
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