The Great Eye Report

Today we took the kids for their eye checkups.  Katie has been seeing her eye doctor since she was five weeks old; Joshua has gotten periodic checkups since birth just to ensure that his sight is fine.

Both of them got great reports today.

Katie still has astigmatism in both eyes, and is nearsighted in her right eye.  But things are looking fine, and the doctor says that her eyes seem to be more similar in color than they were before (she has had different colored irises ever since the initial bleeding in her iris at 5 weeks).  Instead of every 6 months, we've now been cleared to wait a year to see the doctor again, unless we notice something else going on.

Joshua is apparently a bit farsighted in both eyes, and has a small astigmatism in both eyes, but not enough of either for further concern.  So the doctor says he shouldn't need to see Joshua again unless we or the pediatrician notice anything else going on.

So, great news!  I love reading the Bible story of the blind beggar to Katie and explaining how God has healed her eyes just like Jesus healed the beggar's eyes.  Praise God for his healing and grace to us!

A Few Firsts This Week

Today: Joshua's first movie theatre experience, and Katie's first that she was aware of (she went along with me as a baby, but mostly slept through the movies back then). We saw "Curious George" as part of Regal Theatres' Free Family Film Festival this summer. Katie enjoyed the movie and was mostly content, esp. since I strapped her into her booster seat and plied her with snacks and drinks. Joshua slept most of the movie. Overall, a good experience.

Yesterday: Joshua's first eye appointment. We went in for Katie's eye checkup and were thrilled that the eye specialist was able to squeeze Joshua in as well. I felt too silly to schedule an appointment for him since I didn't know of anything wrong with him, but the doctor started checking Joshua's eyes without me even asking. What an answer to prayer, since John and I have been a bit paranoid about his vision after Katie's early eye problems. Apparently one of Joshua's eyes is in fact drifting a bit, but the doctor is hopeful that he'll simply outgrow it. In the meantime, we've scheduled another appointment for him a few months from now.

This weekend: The kids' first fireworks and parade. We were at the beach for the Fourth of July and enjoyed both a parade and fireworks. I find it hard to believe that we haven't taken Katie to fireworks before, but her first Fourth, when she was five weeks old, we were in the hospital realizing she had something very wrong with her eyes. And last year we just watched the fireworks on TV with our best friends (who are having their 2nd baby next Wednesday -- hooray!). I was tempted to watch them on TV again this year, especially since the Sesame Street Muppets were part of the Capitol celebration, but I'm glad we did them in person. The kids were great overall and Katie really enjoyed the music and lights.

Reflections In Her Glasses

What a blessed two days since Katie first got her glasses. Two things I'm praising God for tonight:

1. That Katie is NOT fighting me AT ALL with her glasses. So far she is wearing them contentedly at all times. The only time she takes them off is in the car, but I think it's more out of boredom and to have something to chew on than it is because they're bothering her.

2. Instead of being annoyed by strangers' questions, I'm finding that they are now a chance to tell people about how good God has been to us.

Let me explain. Up till now, the questions have been about why she had to wear a patch -- something like, "Awww! What happened to her EYE?" Such well-intentioned questions were unfortunately usually thrown at me while we were in a rush, and there really is no quick answer. “She had JXG and now has lingering vision issues” begs the question, “What is JXG?” And unless I was standing in line or otherwise chilling out somewhere, I really didn’t want to get into the long story for someone who wouldn’t understand what I was saying and who wouldn’t care five minutes later anyway. I’ve been happy to explain the story to people who love Katie and who will pray for her (in fact, I should probably post the long story on the blog for those of you who still want more background). However, I quickly tired of investing time and breath to merely satisfy others’ fleeting curiosity. I actually found it easiest when a child asked me about the patch, because I could keep the answer super-simple and avoid any second questions: “The baby has to wear a band-aid on her eye because her eye is hurt.” That has satisfied almost every kid we’ve run into.

And since questions about Katie’s patch have been constant when she’s worn it in public, I have tried hard to do her patch time only at home or with close friends and family. However, Katie now has to wear her glasses every waking moment. So unless we’re going to turn into hermits (yeah, like THAT’s going to happen with us super-extroverts!), that means Katie’s eye issues can’t be hidden from public scrutiny anymore. And you know what? It’s actually been very cool! Because now that Katie is wearing glasses, the question from strangers is no longer, “Awww, what’s wrong?” but rather an incredulous (and sometimes jealous), “How did you know something was wrong with her vision at such a young age?” And yes, the story is still a bit long, but it’s a HAPPY story and one in which I can give God all the glory for His mercy and goodness to us. It really is a MIRACLE that we found Katie’s eye issues at 5 weeks old, and that we have been under the care of the best infantile glaucoma expert ever since then. And I have been able to testify to my God’s goodness over and over again this week.

Here are a few more photos of my bespectacled baby:

This is Katie with my good friend Amy, who got her Masters in Social Work today after MANY years of hard work and while raising two kids and working as well. I admire Amy so much! Congratulations, Amy!

Amy handed her daughters' swimsuit down to Katie, and guess what? It's the exact same five colors as her glasses!

And just in case you had any doubt that Katie's mommy was raising her to be a Broadway Baby, check out the onesie that Mommy brought back for Katie the last time we were in NYC:

The Bespectacled Baby

Well, the day has finally come. Ten months after a team of great doctors miraculously discovered our five-week-old child's vision problem, Katie is old enough for glasses.

I had been both looking forward to and dreading this day. I was looking forward to being able to work toward FIXING her problem, rather than just keeping it from getting worse by using eyepatches. But I also knew that keeping glasses on a girl who's less than a year old would be a 24/7 battle.

And at first it was a battle. Especially in the eyeglasses store. (incidentally, email me if you want a recommendation of a GREAT glasses store) So I took the glasses off, got her home, and put her down for a nap, hoping a bit of rest would make her more docile during the next battle.

Daddy was home by the time she woke up, and he was great in helping me to distract her in her highchair while we started the next battle. And you know what? Within 2 minutes she stopped the constant fighting. A minute or two later, as I took a few photos, she even gave me a smile or two. And a few minutes later she stopped fighting altogether. In fact, she only reached for her glasses a few more times over the next few hours. Only when she started getting sleepy did she start grabbing at the glasses again.

I'm constantly humbled and amazed by God's mercy to me. You'd think after 20-odd years of following Him, I would know better than to worry about such things. He always takes care of me, whether His Will lines up with mine or not. And I'm truly grateful.

So is Katie seeing better now? Hard to tell after just a few hours with a barely verbal bespectacled baby, but I did notice a few things tonight. I found her examining her wiggling fingers as if she was seeing them for the first time. And when I took the glasses off just before putting her in her crib, she looked at her fingers again, as if to notice the difference. Also, when I turned on the end of American Idol, she seemed to be able to see the TV better than she could before.

Thank you all for your prayers and care for us.

A Day in the Life: Eyes, Goodbyes, Kai, Hi, A.I., and New Things to Try

Yesterday was a long, busy day in Katie World. We started the day off with her eye doctor, and got news I wasn't quite ready for yet: She needs glasses immediately. I knew the day would come, but 11 1/2 months seems awfully young to be wearing glasses. I have to admit I struggled a bit through the day as the news settled in. So I spent a few hours last night on the site "Babies With Glasses" and was comforted to read stories from other moms in similar situations. Of particular interest to me was the photo gallery of babies with glasses. It was hard for me to imagine until then what exactly a baby with glasses would look like. We'll be getting the glasses later this week and I'll post a photo then.

Until then, here are some fun photos of Katie enjoying the tiny couch in the doctor's waiting room.

Afterwards we caught the last 15 minutes of Mommy's last Bible study of the year. Community Bible Study has been such a blessing to me this year. Katie and I have been in a "small" group of 23 nursing moms and their babies. When we started, Katie was 3 1/2 months old and would sit quietly in her car seat while we had our discussion about Genesis. Those days are ancient history!! Now she climbs all over the other babies and their toys. It's been fun to see all the babies grow up this year. So it's sad to say our goodbyes.

We went home for a few hours of "quiet" time (Katie napping, playing, eating, and getting her patch time in; Mommy watching her, working and doing laundry; both of us walking the dog), and then Katie's good friend (aka potential husband) Kai came over with his mommy. I didn't get any good photos of them together yesterday, but here's one of them playing together last week:

Daddy came home shortly after Kai left, and Katie got to try two new things: grown-up lasagna and her new walking toy. She couldn't get enough of the lasagna, and neither could her clothes. Needless to say, we carried her straight to the bathtub after dinner was over.

Then we pulled out her new walking toy, a hand-me-down from my friend Betsy (thank you, Betsy!). In no time flat, she was running across the living room with it. Here's the video.

After cheering her on, John stepped outside to finish mowing the lawn (can I tell you again how much I LOVE having John home before sunset?!!). I took Katie over to watch, and Katie enjoyed waving HI! to her Daddy. See video below.

Finally we started settling down for the night, but not until we enjoyed our favorite Tuesday night family pasttime: American Idol (A.I.). John and I are cheering for David Cook, but Katie enjoys cheering for everyone. She has always been fascinated by American Idol -- see this former blog post and this video taken last week:

Katie was more than ready for bed by her 9 pm bedtime!

Milestone of the Day: Katie's crawling!

What a fun age this is! As Katie approaches the 9-month birthday this week, it seems like she is doing something new everyday. Her favorite activity right now is grabbing onto Mommy (while I'm sitting) and pulling herself up to standing so she and I are face to face.

Today we were at a playgroup at my friend Sara's house, and Sara's cat Misty was a few feet away from Katie. Katie was so excited that she decided to get to the cat as fast as she could -- and that meant crawling for the first time!

While I didn't catch the crawl on film, here she is a few minutes later trying to crawl toward Misty again (and not quite doing it).

Oh, and you'll see that she's wearing the patch in this video. We had an eye appointment yesterday and got a good report from the doctor. While he encouraged us to continue to patch her eye, he was delighted that her blocked tear duct has finally cleared up on its own and that she is apparently not favoring one eye over the other. We're thanking God for His healing and for the good report. While there's still a discrepancy between her eyes, it definitely could be worse.