Orthodontics

Emma got braces!

I picked Emma up at school to take her to the orthodontist.  As we drove, I asked her how her school day had been thus far.  She had a quiz back from algebra.  She was not happy with her score.  Laid back Braeden would have been unfazed. "Meh...I passed."

Not Emma.  She doesn't get poor grades.  She doesn't miss answers.  She was distraught.  I told her it would be OK.  I told her it was just one quiz.  I said, "Lucky for you, you have a mother that is a brilliant algebra teacher."  (Sometimes I express disproportionate amounts of self-confidence in the face of my children's faltering confidence.)

Emma could not be comforted.  She dug the quiz out of her backpack and started telling me what she had missed and demanding to know why each was wrong.

Finally as we were nearing the orthodontist, I told her we were almost there so let's drop it for now.  I told her we'd look at the quiz later.  I said (again) that everything would be fine.   She sat up straight and swiped away her tears and took a deep breath.

"You're right," she said, "Orthodontics and algebra do not go well together."

While Emma was getting her teeth accessorized Mark and I went to the grocery store and got things that do go well with orthodontics:

soft food to subsist on for the next few days

Braces, algebra quizzes, middle school...raise your hand if you're glad you are no longer 12.