Dental update (or, "Take a hike, commenter")

Geeeeeeee, welcome back to the blog! *sigh*

Thanks, anonymous commenter (isn't it always!), for pointing out the buck teeth on my children. Didn't need saying, did it though? It's not like I am neglecting their dental care (as it seems implied). The photos are poor quality, translated by blogger, and do not give an accurate look at their teeth (for goodness' sake!). Three of Matthew's 4 top teeth have fallen out in the last 12 months, the middle two have grown in during that time, and one of the lateral incisors isn't even coming through yet. The other one is loose. Hello? They are settling. The dentist told me that, and told me it was normal (not that I was concerned). He does not have "buck teeth", whatever you might think you know from looking at two distant photos. He has large front teeth that are not aligned yet. He will grow into them. SMH.

Nathan's have always been a little... I HATE the term 'buck teeth', I find it insulting (which I am sure was the point), so I won't use it. A little protruding - that's just his mouth shape. He still ONLY has baby teeth, none lost at all yet. WAY WAY too early to get braces. I am sure he and some of his brothers will need them eventually, since they have Neil's jaw/head shape, and Neil needed braces in his teens, and 6 teeth removed just to fit them in his mouth properly. Neil's mum once came to see us when Nathan was 2, and made a point about his teeth, making her mouth like a rabbit's, which REALLY angered and offended me. Especially since it was her own son whose teeth Nathan's resembled!!! Urgh. Why do these things need pointing out?!! Thank God my children don't go to school, if the childish remarks I am seeing here are an indication of the treatment they might get from other children!

Yes, I am angry. Is it that obvious? Also hormonal. Waiting to take a pregnancy test, so hopefully a good excuse for the hormones, but mostly I'm just FED UP with people, and at this blog AGAIN. Ugh.

Arthur does not have protruding teeth, but he does have really crowded teeth (one of his lateral incisors is about to come in through the gum over some of other front teeth) but even so it's too early right now to get him braces. He has my jaw shape and my teeth shape. I had very crowded teeth until I was 11, and was being evaluated by an orthodontist at that age, but he said we needed to wait until the first baby molars came out and the adult ones grew in, to fit braces. So we waited, my baby molars fell out, and the adult ones that grew in turned out to be smaller than the baby ones, lol! So I don't have a perfect row of teeth (which I don't care about as that seems a bit artificial anyways), but they are straight (regardless of what you think you can translate from the poor quality photo) and I never needed braces in the end. Arthur may be the same, so we will wait and see.

Benjamin's teeth do not actually look like they do in the first photo. He doesn't have protruding teeth at all. Samuel though, maybe a tiny bit. He's 4. Should I get him fitted for braces?! *snort*

It is Way. Too. Early. for braces. Something I would obviously be considering when the time is right.

Definitely don't need someone else to point it out.

Definitely out of line to comment on someone's blog that their children have buck teeth. That's just rude. And the anonymous identity just confirms that you knew it was kind of rude.

Just saying.

Hate coming back to my blog after over a year to instantly get an unpleasant comment. *sigh* I used to have to deal with that here quite a bit, and it's boring, and unsettling, and just... haven't you ever heard the saying, "If you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all"? Don't justify the comment with, "Oh but I was just pointing it out to be helpful!" because BALONEY.

Really excited about coming back again to update on my children. I can't wait to spend the waking hours I actually can't afford to use on blogging, to write about my precious children, and sit ready for the mean, unnecessary comments to come rolling in. There's nothing like palpitations as you click the comments button when you see there are some to be read, not knowing if someone's going to call you out for being a bad mother, or pitying the children, or insulting them or me in some way. Fun fun. I see not much has changed since I used to blog here. I miss blogging about my kids and my life, but boy it has been a relief to avoid the "mean girls".

I hope you feel bad, because you should. Just like I will, probably, when I calm down, for writing while I'm angry and hormonal. *sigh*

I have further restricted comments to those with Google/Blogger accounts only (sorry if you don't!). I guess I will come back and write those updates on each of my children, but I honestly don't feel good about doing so right now. I am really put off. :(

So it has been a while...

I see that I haven't updated my blog since... November! And that was the first time since16 months earlier! :( Such a shame! I didn't even update here to say that Lydia was born in October 2013, though that much was obvious when I updated in November to say that I'd been breastfeeding for 10 years! :)

I don't get time to blog any more - well, I do keep up with my pregnancy blog, mostly just waffling about the possible prospect of having another baby (no news yet), but it does at least get more attention than this blog these days. I miss blogging here, but I keep up with mini posts at Facebook, which uses much less time. When I post here it's not really noticed any more, and I'm more motivated to post at Facebook - though I know it's really only for me that I should be blogging! :) I wish I had kept up here, because then I would have a lot more memories recorded, and things to look back on.

For a while I took some time to copy and paste my favourite (newsy, kiddie-related, or photo-laden) Facebook status updates and photo albums, into monthly posts here. I started a couple of years back and maybe got 3 or 4 months' worth uploaded here, and then ran out of time to continue and forgot about it. I still plan to do that, so I've got our "story" to read here as well as there. I like to pad out things here as well, much more wordy and newsy than at Facebook, but since I don't get chance to write here at all, backdated Facebook posts are better than nothing!

So people have asked for updates on my children, and I would like to post about them, so I'm writing this first. I am going to write a post for each of them, which I'll start in draft form and just work on whenever I get chance. It might take me a while, but I hope I will finish in the end, not too far from now! ;)

Everything is going well here. My little ones are now aged 10 down to 17 months. I adore being their mummy! It's REALLY HARD and hugely rewarding, completely overwhelming and a huge blessing, all at once. We moved away from London last year, as we couldn't afford a bigger house than the one we were living in (a tiny (600sq ft) terraced 2-bedroom house with 7 children!). Neil still has the same job in West London, so he works flexi-hours, getting up at 4.30am for a 2 hour drive to work, to start at 7.30am. He is usually there before 7am but has a little nap before he starts work. He finishes at 4 and is home between 6 and 7, depending on traffic. It's CRAZY, but it's what we have to do right now. He is in a good job with good prospects, and he can't find work that earns as much here.

We have a 4 bedroom detached house now, more than twice the square footage of our previous one, and with a garden 3x the size (ours was TINY before though!). The cul-de-sac we live on is lovely and the neighbours seem nice. The countryside around here is beautiful and it's waaaaay less polluted! :) We have some lovely country parks only 5-10 minutes away from our home, and a nice big driveway to put our huge van on! ;) We are very blessed! It has taken a while to feel settled though, and honestly I'm not there yet. That may just be because we're not really involved in the community in any way yet, since we're homeschooling and haven't found a church we're happy with yet. I have only ever lived in the same place since I was a baby, so it's REALLY WEIRD being somewhere different, lol! I am not someone who loves change. Despite all the blessings of being here, I do still really miss "home" - some of the boys are the same way, although we do love our new home! :) I'm sure we'll settle in eventually, and we ARE, it's just taking longer than I expected. We have been here 7 months now.

School is... going differently than I had originally planned! ;) We are unschooling at the moment. Makes me feel flappy, but it's working for the boys very well right now. I would MUCH prefer to be doing structured lessons, but that's for a whole 'nother post that I am sure I won't have time for. The great thing about homeschooling is flexibility! :) We can change things any time to fit. Right now, this fits. That's about all on that for now.

So, I will start some draft posts on my little ones, and in the mean time I will post a couple of family photos that were taken this month, one of which I already shared on my pregnancy blog (click to see it bigger). See that post, if you have questions about Matthew's hair being long, because I haven't got time to say it again - I must go to bed! :) The first photo doesn't have Neil in it, because he was taking the picture. Love seeing my little ones heights, and look at my baby girly growing up into a proper little girl already!! Love these precious gifts from God! :)