DAFO Casting

Natalee and I headed to our local orthitist yesterday to get casted for her DAFO's.  We are really fortunate to have an orthitist so nearby (30 minutes away) - the second closest is an hour and a half away.  (These are things I never realized until I needed them!)
She will only wear these in the house when she's stationary to stretch out her ankles and hopefully gain a greater range of motion, which will alleviate pain (that's the plan!).

Natalee was pretty stoic throughout the casting process.  The orthitist was so nice and did his best to help her accept and maybe even enjoy herself.  It's hard when you're 10 and all of these things seem to be coming so quickly.  It's hard for mom, too.

Two of our favorite mantras are

I can do hard things.

and

This girl CAN.

We were surprised that Natalee got to choose designs for her braces!  That made it maybe just a little bit more exciting and will hopefully make them easier to tolerate wearing.

Here is what they should look like.

After the two hour long process, we decided that a new experience like that earned ice cream and, since it was just the 2 of us, we headed to DQ.