InvisAlign and Cuddles

Yep, I got 'em!

Above is a weird-angled photo in the dentist's office bathroom.

What you see are called attachments, and they are little tooth-colored rectangles glued onto my teeth.

Over the two-week timespan that I wear each aligner (clear plastic retainer-like thing that fits tightly to my teeth), my teeth will move slightly until the space created for the attachments in the aligner matches up to the attachments on my teeth.  It's quite ingenious!

It hasn't been as painful as I expected, though it's inconvenient (can't eat or drink anything except water while they're in and ideally they'd be in 22 or so hours per day).

They are minimally noticeable from a distance.

Most people don't have as many attachments as I do, and most of mine are right across the front where they are easy to see.

I have 12 attachements altogether, and I think Greg had maybe half that many.

It just depends on how they want the teeth to move.

I've been coming into the great room to find Allistair's favorite toy, Wanda the Whale, "sleeping" on the couch.  He likes to carry her around and sleep near her or eat near her.

Sometimes she ends up in the food bowl.

Or sometimes he brings this little blue mousie to "help" him!

Because of this study and some other scientific stuff I've been reading, I decided to limit animal products a little further from my diet for awhile to see if it is difficult and if I notice a difference in how I feel.  This means that what I eat will be mostly plants (not meat or dairy or eggs).  Lots of fruit, veggies, nuts, and rice.

This cookbook is a great one and I've gotten some excellent ideas from it.

This book is interesting if you like learning about nutrition and why certain ideas are widely known (even if they're wrong!) and other ideas aren't (even if they're right!)

Whole by T Colin Campbell available here

I made a smoothie with these ingredients . . . 

and it didn't sit well.  I think it was the kale and the PB.

I need to be careful with peanut butter because the high fat content can bother my digestive system.

I also don't typically do well with kale - it has a pretty strong taste.  I can handle spinach better.

Today, I made another smoothie following a recipe from this doctor who recommends a plant-based whole foods diet, and it was delicious!

To try it, blend up:

1 cup soy or nut milk (I used half hemp milk, half water)

1/2 cup frozen fruit (I used blueberries)

2 T ground flax seeds (full of omega 3s!)

and

1 banana

YUM!

We're glad to be back to our snuggly babies.

And we got a storm already!

Though most of it seemed to go around us . . . 

we did get some good thunder and lightning!

Stephen was watching, but he had his security mousie nearby.

We cuddled and watched the wind and listened to the thunder.

It was cozy.

And then we went to sleep!!!

Lovely!