Some Fav's

Is there anything sweeter than a sleeping baby?!

Rhyan's first official ponytail!

Um, nice smile, Rhy!... heading to awanas where she's a "puggle"!

At our church's 30 year anniversary celebration!

Rhyan looooves to "help" give Mack a bath! love my babies :-)

Helpful Hygiene Tips: Brushing (plus, send me your suggestions!)

First off, I'd like to thank you all for the comments and questions. And for next week's post I'd very much like to address Kristin's request to give tips on getting a toddler/child to participate (or even let mom/dad) brush their teeth. But seeing as how each child is soooo different and all of us Mom's has had to deal with this in different ways, I'd like to hear from YOU! So would you take a moment and email me and share with me how you've gotten your kids to brush. What worked? What didnt? Are you still struggling or have you settled into a good brushing routine? You can leave a comment here but i'd prefer that you just email me your suggestions to: forddygirl@yahoo.com
Thanks in advance!!! I'll be posting on this next saturday so please try to get suggestions in by then!

Ok, my fellow flossing friends! If you're coming back each week looking to continue to improve on your oral health, I must say, I'm proud! Or if this is your first week, keep coming back. I guarantee that your hygienist will be proud at your next cleaning visit and you may even earn a trip to the treasure box or a "most improved" sticker :-)

The second most often piece of advice that i give patients is this: you must brush your gums!

As i said in the "flossing... the why" post, plaque accumulates at the gumline.

The problem is that most people bite their teeth together and make an attempt to brush both top and bottom teeth at once by scrubbing back and forth. But we dont ever really get to the gumline... so we dont remove the plaque. So, then when we head to our every six month hygiene visit and we're all proud that we've been brushing twice a day but still get "fussed at" by our hygienist, we're discouraged. And rightfully so!

I could write for days about brushing. Seriously. But i'll give the most important tip right here.

Angle your bristles towards your gumline. So for the top teeth, you'll angle the bristles just slightly up. Not straight in on your teeth and not straight up. Split the difference... approximately a 45 degree angle. Then brush in small circles focusing on brushing EACH tooth for 2-3 seconds.

Think of your gum tissue as a nice ripe tomato that you just picked from the garden. It may have a little dirt on it that you'd like to get off, but you certainly need to be gentle. But thorough. You dont want to bruise the tomato or cut the skin, but you do want to remove all the dirt. So you clean it gently and take as long as you need in order to get it clean.

Take the same care with your gums!

Brushing should take 2 minutes minimum in order to be thorough. But on average, people brush for 30-45 seconds. So, get out your ipod and play your favorite song and get to brushing. And dont stop till it does! (side note: if you're a rock and roller or heavy metal lover, make sure that your brushing doesnt reflect the style of music you choose! ha!)

Most people fall into the "fast and furious" category of brushing which leaves their gums abraded, swollen and a little tender. Slooooooowww down if this is you!

And then many others tell me that they NEVER see pink in the sink. But as I look at their gums and see how much inflamation they have, I can only come to one conclusion: they're not brushing the gums!

So, impress your hygienist and get those gums! Remember that you may see some bleeding for 7-10 days when you first start being a great brusher. But stick with it! And smile as you see results of all your diligent work!

Cutness!

Looks like somebody likes their thumb!

Actually, Mack has been exploring both hands for the last couple of weeks and while I thought that he had settled on sucking his right thumb, i'm staring at him right now in the video monitor as he sleeps and sucks his left one.

Y'all may think i'm crazy, but i dont care and really, i think its CUTE! Yes, i'll have to work when he's older to break him of the habit, but if you choose the right timing and are consistent, its usually not too bad. At least lets hope not! hehe :-)

Anyhoo, thought i'd share these precious pics!

Food for the Copponex's!

Hi friends! I know we're all excited to FINALLY have baby Copponex in the world! What a precious blessing!

If you would like to provide a meal for Rachael and Greg, you can sign up HERE

Recipient Last name: Copponex

Password: Brady

I know we ALL want to meet little Brady and love on the Copponex's in person, but we may want to give them a chance to get settled before we all start visiting. So if you're one of the first few to sign up, please consider a giftcard or something deliverable!

Giftcards are GREAT and keep the foods simple, please! We DO want them to eat it, right?! :-)

Thanks so much!

Kelly Ford

HE's HERE!!!!

Rachael had her baby!!!

A BEAUTIFUL baby Boy!!

Brady Dunham Copponex
7lbs 7oz
20 inches of PERFECT!

I dont know if I've ever been so excited for a baby to be born who is not my own :-)
What a beautiful story of Gods unyielding, unfailing, generous love. What a beautiful, perfect little life to remind us all that in the midst of heartache, God continues to bless. Abundantly.
And what a blessing that when Rachael and Greg could have chosen isolation and hopelessness, they chose to be confident that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ. (Phil. 1:6) AND they've chosen to allow all of us to share in their journey.

Prayers for Rachael, please!!!

Hey guys!

My sweet friend, Rachael, is being induced today with her 3rd child!

You may remember that she lost her son, Tripp, to sids last June. And God has blessed them again with another precious baby.

Would you please pray with me for her and Greg as they welcome their new baby!

• For a healthy baby and healthy mom
• For a great delivery
• For their hearts as they prepare to care for this new life!
• For their families and themselves who undoubtedly are on an emotional rollercoaster

You can read more about her progress on her blog HERE. She wrote a post last night that will give you a glimpse as to where her heart is right now!

THANKS!!!

Helpful Hygiene Tips: Floss... the "why"

By now, we've all had a full week to have that floss out on our counter tops and I just feel positive that we're all flossing before we brush once a day... right?! Perhaps not. But for those of you who have been, I bet you're wondering WHEN your gums are going to stop throbbing!

Well, in case my tips on how to remember to floss weren't enough to get you on board, I'm hoping that helping each of you understand why it's important will convince you... or at least get you one step closer to at least considering getting on the flossing bandwagon. :-)

Nobody likes fire ant's. Nobody. They bite and leave blistered bumps that itch and burn. They build massive mounds out of dirt or sand that kill off your beautiful lawn! And as soon as you go and knock one over (and run for dear life!), they start re-building their home. Annoying, right?!

Believe it or not, this is almost exactly what happens in our mouths regarding plaque. Lets first get an understanding of what plaque is.

In laymans terms, plaque is the sticky biofilm that allows bacteria to collect and live. It is the "hill" for the "ants". Its the bacteria's home. It is soft and usually white or yellowish (stained by the things we eat and drink) and is fairly easily removed at home, by you!

Most all of us remove a large part of the plaque from our mouths daily by brushing. I'll be giving brushing tips later (trust me, most people dont do that right, either!) but we're focusing on the plaque in between our teeth right now. The stuff that our toothbrush cant reach!

But then, when we DO decide to get in the trenches and get our hands dirty and remove that nasty plaque, our gums swell and throb and we think "to heck with this", right?

The issue is this: as long as plaque remains undisturbed, it doesnt seem to cause any problems. We dont feel any pain and therefore think that things are just fine. But what is really happening is that the bacteria (which, btw always collects at and under the gums because that is where it gets its nutrients from... your gum tissue!) is building its home and growing deeper and deeper and deeper under the edge of your gum and destroying the area that your gum attaches to your tooth. As this happens, it also starts to affect (destroy) the bone (because its literally living off that tissue... eating away at your gums and bone...). Our gums and bone are THE supporting structure for our teeth and without them, our teeth can be beautiful and cavity free but be sitting in a cup beside our bed!

So, when we floss we disrupt that "ant hill" and tick off the "ants". This sends our immune system into action. Basically what you need to know about this process is that the immune system is packed with little "pac-men" who go around eating up anything they view as a threat. Pac-men are fairly large and cant fit through the blood vessels naturally so the vessels dialate to allow room for them to get to the area of attack causing the swelling we are all too familiar with. And since the bacteria is attaching itself to our gum tissue, the pac-men engulf both the bacteria and a small amount of tissue, causing tenderness and bleeding.

BUT, there is hope! Just like any cut on our arm that takes time to heal, so as it with our gum tissue. But we MUST continue to clean the "wound" to keep the "ant hill" from re-establishing its home and starting the process all over again. None of us would expect a cut on our arm to heal if we didnt keep it clean, right? But if we do keep any wound clean, it will heal in 7-10 days on average.

Here's the kicker: plaque begins to re-build itself in less than 24 hours. Hence, our recommendation that you floss daily. Its to keep that ant hill on the move! The fact is, we will NEVER be sterile so we will ALWAYS fight bacteria in our mouths. The best we can do is to keep it on the move, limiting the damage it can do.

NOW are you convinced?! This is part of why flossing has been shown to lengthen your life by up to 3 YEARS! The other part of that is that the bacteria that is in your mouth can get into your bloodstream and the same bacteria that causes gum disease also causes HEART disease!

So, while many people say "yeah, my gums bleed, but thats normal" YOU know better! You know that while it may be COMMON, it is NOT normal. Thats like saying its "normal" to have heart disease or arthritis or diabetes. Yes, all of these conditions are common, but no one wants any of them.

Go my friends, and enjoy life. You're just 7-10 days away from the healthiest gums you can have. And may the floss be with you! :-)

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Mommy's little "helper"

A few weeks ago Rhyan and I made some baked chicken (cooked in ritz crackers!).

She was kind enough to taste the crackers and make sure they were ok :-)

Brownies for dessert, anyone?!

Why, "YES PREASE!", says Rhyan... as she helps herself! LOVE That kid!

Helpful Hygiene Tips: Floss

I've decided to start posting a few helpful hints about dental hygiene because, well, its just not done enough. Its amazing to me how many of my friends and family leave the dentist with very little information! So, i though i might share some from time to time! For those of you who dont know me personally, I am a dental hygienist. I have been for the last 8 years and the previous 5 years i spent as a dental assistant while going to school. I love helping people achieve a healthy smile and be proud to enjoy life without being self conscious of their teeth :-)

I'm completely open to questions, so feel free to post them and I'll answer them on the blog for us all to learn from one another :-) And dont worry, if you'd prefer that I not mention who asked the question, just say so!

SO... my first tip (this will be a shocker, i know, to everyone! HA!):

FLOSS is important! Everyone knows this, but most people just dont do it. Well, everyone except for my in-laws and cousin Tracy's family. They're some hardcore flossers! (hope you dont mind me bragging on you, family!).

Here's the problem: most people get in a hurry or just forget to floss because its not a part of the daily discipline of their life. Its not a habit!

So, how do we correct that?

First, leave your floss out on your cabinet! For any ocd clean freaks like me, this will be a difficult task for you because you want everything neatly tucked away in a drawer. But for most "normal" people, this is not a big deal. If anything, you may be thinking "it'll be lost in the clutter if its on the cabinet!". If so, no worries. The point is, put it somewhere that you will see it. Daily.

Second, floss BEFORE you brush. This is easily the most frequently given advice that I share with my patients. The reasoning is simple: if you floss first, your teeth still feel dirty enough that theres no way that most people will skip brushing. But if you brush first, you feel clean enough. A secondary benefit is that without the plaque filling the areas between your teeth, the fluoride from your toothpaste can reach these areas!

And seeing as how studies show that flossing adds 2-3 years to your life, its an easy way to try to improve your health and live to celebrate a golden anniversary with your spouse. (Well, lets face it, theres no amount of floss that will lengthen a marriage, but it can help to ensure that youre ALIVE to celebrate if you choose to stay married! HA!).

So, why not give it a try? Grab your 4 year old pack of floss out of the back of the drawer, dust it off and give it a go! Sure, your gums will throb tonight, and possibly for the next 12-24 hours, but if you keep it up, they will be as healthy as they can be in 7-10 days.

Stay posted on WHY it takes 7-10 days and WHY you SHOULD stick with it.

I'm expecting lots of people checking in on my blog b/c of these posts, now. YEAH RIGHT! :-) But you never know what little tidbit you may enjoy reading about! So, heres to flossing!

Shower for Baby Copponex!

As everyone arrived, we introduced ourselves and shared how we know Rachael. Many people knew her from work, or her sister, or mutual friend... me? Rachael and i are internet-turned-real-life friends :-) As i said to the girls last night, some couples meet on the internet, so why not friends?! ha!

Actually, it was Katie Green who turned us onto each other's blogs because our girls were almost identical in their situation with torticollis. Same physical therapist, same surgeon, same helmet... everything! What a sad thing to have in common :-( BUT, i'm so grateful that we met, regardless the circumstances!

So, we celebrated Rachael's baby last night at Fuego's at the mall of GA. I had never been there, but um... YUM! We had a great time loving on Rachael and being excited for this baby to come!

Rachael stood to share her appreciation to all of us for supporting her... what she doesnt realize is that WE are ALL so grateful for our friendship with her! We are blessed that she allows us to share in her life... good and bad. We love her!

Let the gift opening begin! She had specifically said she didnt want gifts b/c she has "everything" already... but we disagreed :-) I mean, who cant use a few more books for your brilliant kids?! And a few people got her something "extra".

Danielle had this beautiful custom hospital gown made for Rach!

She really was super excited... we just didnt catch that moment on camera. HA!
Rachael and her sweet Momma
The curious george book is a puppet, too! Cute :-)Cute outfit from Joelle, i think!

Nice, random shot :-)
More books! Whats really cool is that Rach says she doesnt have any of the ones we gave her!

3 generations :-)

Rachael with her beautiful host's, Desiree and Stephanie (who is due around Thanksgiving!)

These ladies spoiled us all with so many appetizers that we didnt even want to order dinner! YUM!

Laura, Rachael, Chelsea and Danielle

Katie, Chelsea, Rachael and Melissa

Erika, Rachael and Joelle (work friends!)

Me and Rach... LOVE her and her sweet, sweet self :-)

Random, but who the heck can really sit comfortably on a chair with a pencil as a back?!Ok, so at the end, we wanted a group shot. A nice girl who worked there offered to do it for us and i asked her to please make sure the entire "frame" (picuture) was filled with PEOPLE, not the ceiling or floor. Well, each pic got progressively WORSE with her aiming it at the ceiling. Something got lost in translation, i guess :-( Anyways, the last one she did was this! How awful!

Luckily, one was decent enough to crop. But its still 1/2 ceiling. I mean, really, i thought i was clear?! And she took it like, 5 times! :-( Oh well, this one is ok!
I had read on Rach's blog that she was craving Desiree's cupcakes which made me secretly hope that Desiree would be bringing some. Well, she did, but they all turned over in her car and the icing was all inside the box, but no longer on the cupcakes.

Well, i helped Rachael out to her car with her gifts (along w/ a few other girls) and Desiree brought the cupcakes to Rachael for her to take home. And we all insisted that we scrape some icing out of the box and indulge ourselves. And oh. my. goodness. I'm glad we did!We had a great time celebrating and i know everyone is DYING to meet baby Copponex. Does it drive ANYONE else crazy to not know the sex of this baby?! Or is it just me :-)

COME ON BABY COPPONEX! WE ARE EXCITED TO MEET YOU!!!!

Mckinnon: 3 Months

Oh my word! I could eat this baby boy up :-)

"Who is this monkey?"

At 3 months old, Mack is:

• eating 5.5-6oz at 7am, 10am, 1pm, 3pm and 7pm
• sleeping from 7:30pm-7am (yipee!)
• napping from 8-10, 11-1, 2-4 and a catnap around 5:30-6
• self soothe's beautifully with NO crying when he goes down for naps or nighttime!
• is in size 2 diapers
• in size 3-6 month tops and jammies and 0-3 month shorts/pants
• smiling a LOT
• LAUGHING!!!
• still loving bath time
• track's objects and people really well
• still loves the fan! his favorite "playmate"
• was diagnosed with reflux and is now taking zantac 3x's a day
• cooing
• being weaned from the swaddle. one arm is out right now and the other will be this weekend!
  
• sucking his hand's. he likes them both equally.
• protesting tummy time, but is super strong so idk why!?!
• being the highlight of our day, along with his big sister!

We are BLESSED!

Today... much better :-)

Today, we started fresh. Kind of. Smelling fresh, at least :-)

Mack continues to battle with the reflux so I put a call into the dr on call at PAL (pediatric associates of lawrenceville... BEST ped's ever!). I felt bad calling on a weekend, especially with it being a holiday weekend. But i really felt i needed to, and dr sheth was on call and she's awesome about being called on the weekend so that made me feel better. Side note: once, Rhyan got croup and i had to call at around 8:30pm and it was dr sheth on call. She was GREAT... went ahead and called in a steriod for rhyan even though she had not seen her in the office b/c she said croup is that serious and then gave me her cell # and asked me to text her an update if things got worse or better, either way. Super nice!

Ok, so she said for us to start giving Mack the zantac 3 times a day and that if that still didnt work we'd move to either prilosec or something else, neither of which i want to give him b/c both are a pill form that must be cut, dissolved in water and sucked up a syringe and then given to baby. Sounds like a lot of work that would be nice to avoid if possible :-)

Point being, we started zantac 3 times a day today. Hopefully that will do the trick. He didnt puke today which is pretty great progress :-)

And to celebrate being back IN diapers (haha... how many moms say that?!), I took Rhyan with me for her very first pedicure!

Truly, it was to give Jeff some time while Mack was asleep to get some work done on his masters degree math class. Thats our excuse for our little girls date, anyways!



We finished up our little date with a trip to CFA where i, once again, "splurged" on a grilled chicken sandwich, fruit cup and water. Rhyan got a chicken nuggets kids meal and i'm not ashamed to say that i may have eaten the last bite of her last nugget when she said she was "all done". And i may have about licked out the bottom of the cardboard box that held a few crumbs.

Man, i'm in need of something fried. And something chocolate. Fried chocolate? The fair IS coming, youknow... may have to explore some options there :-)

The Start of Labor Day Weekend...

was a little less than ideal.

Today started much earlier than anticipated. Mack has been waking out of habit, wanting us to come hold him and give him a paci (meaning we hold it in his mouth... otherwise it pops out, like, across the room!) and rock him for 15-30 minutes. Well, I'm tired of it and now that i feel certain that he's not waking out of discomfort from reflux, we had decided to start letting him CIO (cry it out) to get rid of this nasty habit. That was the plan as we went to bed last night.

But at 5:45am he started fussing and a glance at the way too bright video monitor showed that he had wiggled OUT of his swaddle (we dont put his feet in the miracle blanket b/c his legs are too long and it seems to bother him) and the swaddle was up around his neck. Hmmm... cant really let that go and be a responsible parent, i guess :-) So Jeff went to rescue him.

Only to return to me 5 seconds later saying he couldnt re-swaddle him b/c Mack had puked and it was sour and that his whole room WREAKED.

And it did.

So, at 5:45 am, instead of sleeping, Mack was getting one of these.... Thats how bad he smelled. Poor guy.

And he almost thought it was pretty great, except that he was still sleepy... like most normal people at 5:45am :-( Including his Momma.

Jeff started a load of laundry to take care of the sour smell. And without a swaddle blanket (the other one stays at Tracy's house for naps there), I was kind of at a loss. So i just held him. With a paci in his mouth. So it looks like he won the battle!

When Rhyan got up, she told me she wanted to go potty and wanted "panties wike Tay-yer" (panties like Taylor). OH my. Doesnt she know i'm a lazy Momma who doesnt want to deal with potty training yet?!

Apparently not. So I put her on some of these...
but she didnt "wike" them b/c they were plastic and they "hurt". Btw, i put her on regular underwear covered with the plastic stuff. So off the plastic protective cover went :-(

We had breakfast and it was time to put Mack down for a nap. His swaddle blanket still wasnt dry so i had to come up with plan B. I dont do plan b's very well. But i ended up finding a baby flannel blanket that is oversized and would wrap around him enough to make a snug swaddle blanket.

Thank goodness, it worked.

For an hour. Then he broke free 20 min. before time to eat again and lay there fussing a minute and drifting off to sleep a minute, fussing a minute, etc... until I finally went and got him at 10am to feed him.

During the amount of time that it took for me to swaddle him and lay him down, however, Rhyan had her first "Oh My Word! MESS!" moment.

Yep, she pee pee'd in her new panties. She was quite upset. I told her no big deal and we'd keep trying. She was ok with that.

By lunch there were 3 dirty panties in my sink.

Luckily, we stayed outside all morning so a jug of water washed away any "mess" :-)

Naptime. Halleujah. A diaper!

Mack and I enjoyed his 1pm bottle and time together with a few laughs, lots of smiles and some admiration of the fan and each other.

I cleaned the house before Jeff got home so he doesnt think i've done nothing all day (seriously, he wouldnt notice if a tornado came through and ripped the place apart, but i like for him to come home to a clean-ish home if i can manage it).

Mommie and Jonathan came at 3:15 to sit with the kids (who were still napping) so that Jeff and I could take the van for its 60K mile service.

Out of exhaustion, i asked him to let us waiver from our weight watchers diet and get a grilled chicken sandwich from CFA on the way home. He agreed. And then ordered NOTHING b/c he said he wont be taken down with me! grrrr. haha :-) I dont care and enjoyed my sandwich.

We got home and I headed to Target to get some thicker "training" panties.

I fed Mack, as usual, at 7pm. And right before putting him to bed, he vomited up what looked like half his bottle. The Zantac seems to be keeping him comfortable, but his puking is getting worse? How is that?! We started over with the getting ready for bed process with a new onesie, new aquaphor on all the dry spots that i just had to wipe to get the puke off.

In the meanwhile, Rhyan was peeing in another pair of panties.

I decide to hold my composure and give her yet another pair of clean panties and head outside for the rest of the evening.

As we are playing outside, she starts to come towards me with a toy in her left hand and one of these in her right...Only the one she was holding was dead. And had its guts coming out of it. When i asked her what she had she said "its sad!". And indeed it was. And gross. But apparently my compassionate little bug loving daughter didnt care that it was gross. And fyi, its quite possible that his death was at her hand. For some reason she thinks she's supposed to "STOMP IT!" on every bug but doesnt seem to put 2 and 2 together to realize that the stomp leads to the "sad" part.

Side note: one caterpillar last week got away without getting stomped. Instead she "spank him". Geez. You'd think we beat our child regularly the way she wants to spank everything. :-(

She wanted me to find it a place to live in the grass. Eww. Ok.

She peed in her panties again while i placed it in the grass. And i decided it was bedtime. Close enough. And i'm all used up :-)

So, while my hubby is off parking cars at Archer for their first homegame of the season, I'm washing some clothes with hopes for a fresh, cleaner start to tomorrow. A day that will be filled with diapers, not panties, and prayers for less puking.

And in hopes of escaping the bodily fluids from the children that i love, i picked up this on my run to target

and i plan to indulge myself in this little piece of trash for the next 30 min or so until i hit the hay... wondering what adventures tonight might bring!