Laughing

Tonight my son and I stopped putting off taking photos for the orthodontist. We both kept forgetting to get things submitted for his virtual appointment. I blame fatigue. We are all so tired lately. 

But tonight was the night. We had never gotten all the way to the photo portion of the virtual appointment, but I knew there were photos. He needed good lighting and some spoons. 

Okay, so here is where things got real. It starts with a simple profile picture: regular toothy smile, relaxed jaw, easy peasy. Then, left bite--use the spoon to pull your cheek back, revealing all your teeth. Sure, no problem. We sailed through that one. We even made it through the right bite. As we began the roof of the mouth photo, a bit of a chuckle emerged. I knew we needed to act fast. 

See--my son has the ability to make me laugh. I mean, like, ridiculous laughter. He barely even needs to work at it, and at times even he is surprised by my response. 

We had two photos to go. The bottom teeth with open mouth, and the last one was a two spooner. It was over before we got to it. I started laughing. Like insane laughing that didn't even sound like laughing.

 At one point, Elliot said, "What even was that sound?" 

Which, of course, made me laugh harder. Did I mention we are in the bathroom because--good lighting--so I can see myself laughing, which also makes me laugh harder. So counterproductive. 

Eventually, we got through the photos with lots of deep breaths and pretend serious faces. That self-service appointment was exhausting.