Simply Mother

I’m just going to have to tell myself No More, one of these days. No more site tinkering, it’s fine, now just write.

Right. My hosting company fixed my font display issue–I guess it was a problem encountered on the server move, I don’t know, but it’s all better now. I just hope most of you have javascript enabled because if you can’t see the pretty cursive font, what you’re seeing is huge and hideous and I’m sorry.

Also, if you’re one of those who insists on using Internet Explorer . . . all I can say to you is is, the web would be prettier if you would just download this. ;)

Today was a great day. My kids are fun and awesome and I really just enjoy being with them.

My 5-year-old got glasses this morning and she couldn’t be happier. They aren’t for her vision (which is fine) but for strengthening one of her eyes which tends to relax too much and sometimes not point exactly in the same direction as the other. It’s not extremely noticeable–mostly just when she’s tired, but I’ve also seen in in the occasional picture of her. Her eyes are big and blue and they just strike you with their gorgeousness, it’s hard to notice anything else is off.

But sometimes it is, and the doctor thinks wearing these lenses for a couple years, combined with vision therapy when she’s a bit older, will correct it and she won’t have to wear glasses anymore. I hope so. (Although she is cute in her glasses.)

The first doc we went to was abrupt, and rather rude to my daughter (instead of warning her about the stinging eye drops that make her pupils dilate, he just told her to hold a tissue and while she was still comprehending his demand, he shoved her head back, forcing them in!) and he insisted that surgery was the only possibility. When I questioned him further, he appeared annoyed that I wasn’t just signing right up to put my 5-year-old under his knife, and dismissed vision therapy as “European.”

(To which my husband muses, “So what, it only works on Europeans?”)

Fortunately I got a recommendation for a much more friendly, and from my meek observations, much more skilled doctor. He spent far more time examining Sarah, and where the first doc pretty much just relied on his fancy machines to tell him what was wrong, the second one used only one machine, and then when one of its readings didn’t measure up to his own careful examination, he dismissed the machine’s readings in favor of actual human interaction. Imagine that.

He also listened to my 5-year-old tell about how sometimes, when she’s reading a book at night, it gets blurry, and then she looks at the huge window, and, no! It’s not blurry. But then she looks back at her book, and Yes! Blurry! And then she looks at her window again and, No, not blurry! But not all the time. (I guess you had to hear it in her cute voice to really get the effect, huh?) Anyway, he listened patiently to her details and even had an explanation for it that made sense to me, that fit with his diagnosis.

I was really happy with him, and so was my daughter. We’ll see him in a month to to reevaluate the prescription.

Goodness, me, Christmas is really sneaking up on us, isn’t it? I think it’s pretty safe to say we are NOT ready, nor do we have much hope of ever being ready this year, but . . . It’s okay. We’ll have something, even if it’s not extravagant.

I am making the girls’ some soft dolls, which I might even photograph for this blog one day. I’m even learning (mostly through trial and error, as seems to be my only style) to embroider for the occassion. I guess you’d call it embroidering. I’m sewing on the face, anyway. Without a machine. And with embroidery floss. So there.

I’m also helping them make gifts for each other. I’ve taught Sarah how to handsew/embroider and she enjoys doing that alongside me. I’ll show you what we come up with.

Filed in: family • health | December 19, 2008