Olivia\'s Big Day

Last Thursday was a big day for Olivia, as she took two significant steps in growing up.

The first thing was an appointment with the orthodontist.  One of her baby teeth had fallen out which finally gave the orthodontist the opening he needed to give her a retainer to try to straighten out some of her teeth and improve her bite.  We had created the mold two weeks earlier and Thursday was the day she received her first retainer.

Thankfully it is one that is not very noticeable, although it does affect Olivia's speech which she'll have to work at.  She also has to wear it 24 hours a day, except when she brushes her teeth.  As someone who spent my share of time with braces, I told her that she'd never really get used to her retainer and would be happy when it's gone, but that it's important to do everything she's supposed to do to try to get her teeth fixed now rather than later.

Later we went to Karate where Olivia currently is a purple belt.  On Thursday's she does sparring where she dresses up in a padded helmet, hand and foot gloves, chest protector, shin guards etc. and somehow through all of it tries to hit an opponent without being hit herself.  I was glad she didn't have to wear anything outside her mouth (like other retainers I remember seeing from my days growing up) because I don't think she would have been able to put on her helmet.  The only question involved her mouthpiece, which was solved when one of the instructors gave her a larger sized one which seemed to fit.

As we were leaving the Karate place, Olivia suggested that she get her hair cut at the store next door.  Getting her hair cut short for summer was something that we had discussed but had never really decided when or where to do.  We were considering donating her hair to Locks of Love (a charity that takes strands of hair and uses them to create wigs for cancer patients and others who have lost their hair), but weren't really sure who in the area supported this charity.

Since Olivia seemed to be up for it, we decided to go ahead and get it done.  As it turned out, the salon did support Locks of Love and suggested it to us since she was going to get 8-10 inches cut off.  (I believe Olivia will get a free haircut the next time she returns.)  Unfortunately because we hadn't planned on doing it that day, I didn't have the camera handy to get a before and after photo.

Olivia got a shoulder length haircut which was layered in the back.  We all like it including her but it does make her look older. Especially with her height, she now really looks like a teenager.