Brace yourself

so I still need to catch up, but didn't want to forget the details on this one. Cole has extra teeth. He has two permanent teeth in and has not lost one tooth yet. So for whatever reason his dentist referred him to an orthodontist. I guess to see how necessary removal of the teeth would be. Anyways, we go there and I'm taking Hannah with our Sunday bag for entertainment and I wondered if they would have something for little kids to play with, cause really 8 year olds should not be visiting the orthodontists. We get there and the place is beautiful, very eclectic. They have a computer screen with kid's names and photos for them to touch and check themselves in. They have small chairs with disney playing at their eye level, little adirondack chairs and a sitting area with a full length beach mural on the wall. They have complimentary juices, hot choc/coffee, cookies and of course the good ole fish aquarium. That was just the beginning. The gave us color print outs of Cole's mouth and his xrays (very alienesque). After Cole got his xrays done he was hanging out in the game room (pinball machine, couple of gaming stations. She said he could have a gameboy while he waited as well. Then we saw an even bigger aquarium and then we saw they have aviaries on either side of the big room where the kids can watch the birds while they're getting the teeth done. They gave him a tshirt that advertises their office and if he wears it to his appointments he gets a token and gets more tokens for being on time, clean teeth, etc and the kids get to spend it at the ortho store. All this and no charge...until he gets braces which I'm sure will require it's on mortgage. I was very impressed. Although I kept waiting for someone to come take me away for a massage during the appointment and it didn't happen, all of my kids would have braces at the age of 8 and keep them through high school if that were added in. Of course the dr. just said yes we need to take the teeth out, huge surprise which our dentist will do and then we got back to see the ortho in eight months. I mentioned I took Hannah with me and the dr. said come back anytime and then actually looked at me and said it's okay if they come it gets them used to coming! Starting to early is not a problem I suppose. So i don't like that I'm now going to have to fight that battle or cancel all appointments but it was so nice I can't wait to get back there. Smart business I say :)!