Mixtures

If emotions could be bottled, chemists could have a grand time mixing them all up into all sorts of dangerous creations. . . . Oh wait, women do that every day without any kind of knowledge in scientific engineering.

I find myself mixing polar opposites lately. It is such a strange combination. Case in point:

I'm dreading the phone call from Moran Eye Center telling me Greta's glasses are ready. So not ready for ten years of bent frames, scratched lenses, misplaced glasses. . .

Yet, I'm anxiously waiting for a phone call so we can finally get the pollies.

I'm filled with excitement for Greta to be able to see more clearly--something she hasn't ever known.

Yet, I'm sad that little Greta doesn't enjoy the gift of sight naturally and that we have to go this route.

I'm deeply grateful that we are able to help her see and enjoy things around her and develop properly.

Yet, I fear that she won't be cute in glasses. (I know you've already been over this with me; but this worry still hasn't subsided.)

But on the other hand, how can she not be cute in little pink pollies?

I'm scared that she'll look like she is wearing little magnifying glasses.

Yet, we got the polycarbonate lenses with the aspheric grind so it will be the best technology available. And I'm thankful that option is available vs. what used to be the option: Coke bottle bottoms.

I'm enjoying the last few days of not having glasses to worry about or having them obstruct her cuteness.

Yet, I'm aching for her to be able to see--I find myself gazing at her wondering how much of me she sees.

I'm enjoying the last few days of anonymity of people not staring at my baby and asking questions.

Yet, I'm looking forward a bit (gasp) to meeting new people and hearing of others who are in our same situation.

I've been wondering if her sweet-easy-going nature is going to change.

Or is it going to be a welcome change because it's going to be so fun to watch her explore as she's never been able to before?

I'm worrying whether or not I'll be happy with the decisions I made regarding her frames (having them 'tweaked' and the pieces not matching vs. having to use a band to hold them on).

Yet, I'm feeling good that I made the right decision about the frames because they'll fit her well and that will make all the difference in how cute they are. And not having to worry about the band holding them on will be a much better option.

I've been wondering if I'm going to laugh or cry when they put them on her--am I really ready for what lies ahead?

Yet, I feel completely at peace knowing that we have been led and guided up to this point and that everything is going to work out.

And so if this is the case, how come all the strange mixture of emotion? How come I am crying and smiling while typing this post?

Tessa Documentations

*Looking at Greta very intently Tess said in a frustrated voice, "My can't do it." (make her eyes go like Greta's) Ha.

*Some of Cache's friends came by to bring him something and Tessa emerged from her room wearing a tank top dress, a tutu, high heels and one shin guard. She went right to the front door and said, "Hi! My name is T-E-S-S-A." And so as to not embarrass Cache more, I suppressed my desire for a photograph.

*The last few mornings for Tessa's prayers she has wanted to help Greta say hers instead--and she has to be the prompter. She waits and waits until Greta responds to go on, but of course Greta can't talk and so I have to mimic a Greta voice. Her prayers go something like this: Heavenly Father. Bless Daddy. And Danny. And Justin. And Abby and Sally. Amen.

*A neighbor gave us some green nectarines from his tree. One morning Tessa woke up and said, "Are the nectarines bright yet?"

*Tess and I were drawing. After we draw something we write what it is underneath it. We drew a cow. As I was writing the caption, I asked her what letter cow starts with. Her response: "Moo".

*Dressed like this and trying to ride this horse, Tess announced "I'm Grandpa!" (Grandpa Waddoups used to be a semi professional jockey.)*You can't convince Tessa that anything is too small or too big for her to wear. Here she is at almost 3 years old in a 3 month old dress. At first she had it on with a pair of pants. She announced that she was going to wear it to church. I told her that we didn't wear pants to church and without the pants it wouldn't be modest. She insisted that with the diaper cover it would be modest. But she couldn't be convinced. I think I'll be hiding that little blue dress.

*When Tess is grumpy I usually sing this little song I made up:
(To the tune of If You're Happy and You Know It)
Whatever situation you are in (clap, clap)
Whatever situation you are in (clap, clap)
Choose righteousness and happiness whatever you do
And you'll find that things work out for you.
Well, the other day she came home from a friend's house. Apparently the little friend had a crying moment while Tess was there. Tessa told me about it and then said "And _____'s mom didn't even sing her the get happy song." I just laughed to myself (my little song is working:).

* After watching Dr. Ruth Wordheimer on Between the Lions (scroll down), Tessa found her reading glasses and walked around saying "I'm Dr. Ruth". Frankly it was hilarious.

*One day she was really upset with me and said, "Mommy Norine Waddoups you stop that!" (Don't we always hear ourselves through our kids?)

*After FHE one night, Tom, Tessa and I were sitting around and she started singing "I Am a Child of God". We joined in and it was a bit of a sweet spiritual moment. Then in the chorus she started singing louder and louder then made her voice go deep and mid word she announced, "I'm a man!" Unfortunately neither of us could contain laughter.

*Often we tell Tess that we love her when she is grumpy. Her response? "NO!!! My grandmas love me!"

*According to Tessa, Greta's favorite color is "indigo green".

*This morning Tess came into the bathroom right after my shower. She saw the mirror all fogged up. Her comment: "The mirror is blind".

Domestic Accomplishments

It's rare that much that I do domestically feel like accomplishments, but yesterday two happened exactly in one day! So it must be blogged about!

1) Tessa came out of her room with this item:It is an 18 month jumper, but she called it an apron. As I helped her put it on, I looked at it and I realized I could easily modify it to be an apron. As she has been wanting an apron for a while and I have a pretty high phobia of patterns and fabrics, I jumped at this opportunity. In less than a half hour, she had a new apron! (Sally, hope you don't mind, this was something Abby wore!)
2) My mom was down the other day and we went over to the Roller Mills for flour for her and cracked wheat for me. She asked me what I did with cracked wheat. I told her we mostly ate it for cereal. She told me that she uses it in bread. I thought that sounded pretty yummy, but since she is brave and makes her bread by hand and I use a bread machine I couldn't really make her recipe. So I set out to find one. After finding one that I thought looked good, I threw in a loaf. Although it was edible, it was not worth making again. Typically I'm not too confident in tweaking bread recipes, but I decided that perhaps I could combine two of my favorite recipes and add a little from the cracked wheat one. Amazingly it turned out awesome--and on only one try! Yay for yummy healthy goodness!

Pollies

{Thanks to my Aussie friend, Kathy, for terming ' pollies' (polycarbonates) for glasses--it has become a household term!}

Typically vanity doesn't lead you to too many good places with good results. But because of it I canceled the order on the glasses Greta is wearing in the post below and went on a search for something I liked better. In less than a week I have talked to an ophthalmologist, 2 optometrists, 3 opticians and a handful of 'office helpers'. (And now I know the difference between all of them.) And through the course of events, we eventually found ourselves at the Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah.

~The plan as of now is that Greta will be in glasses until age 10-11 then into contacts then she will have surgery at age 19.

~The ophthalmologist said her vision in one eye is +10 and +9 in the other. Her prescription is actually +8 in one eye and +6.50 in the other. This is so she'll have to work quite a bit to still see clearly, but it will strengthen and improve those muscles. One optician told us that most of the population who need correction fall within +4 to -4.

~One of the optometrists is a neighbor friend. She gave me such reassuring encouragement. She told me we were doing exactly the right thing in getting Greta into glasses even though it is a hard pill to swallow. She said that many parents disregard it and kids miss a lot of important developmental steps. (One study I read said that kids with strabismus usually skip crawling and go straight to walking--and some studies show that kids who don't crawl have difficulty learning to read.) She said that many kids are not diagnosed until around age two and the earlier you catch it the better off they are developmentally. She was so nice to me and kept telling me how proud she was of me. I really appreciated her explanations. She was also the one who recommended we go to the Moran Eye Center.

~The first set of glasses is the most important because it develops the baby's (or child's) future habits of wearing them. It is important that the glasses correct the vision right (measuring pupil distance is a whole different issue on a baby--especially when one eye turns) so that the greatest improvements can be made. Typically children with farsightedness improve their eyesight as they wear glasses--and they can't make as much improvement with poorly fitted glasses as with good ones.

~Even though the pediatric optician at Moran had stacks of catalogs we could have gone through, said she could tell just from looking at Greta that she would need a certain pair of frames because her head is fairly wide and the distance between her eyes and ears is quite short. And even that pair she was going to have to 'tweak' to fit snugly. (She is going to have to cut the cables--the things that go around the ears--because even though they'll be the smallest available, they'll still be too long.) Thankfully that one pair are a cute shape and come in pink. (even though the pink is baby pink--not my favorite) The shape reminded me of these ones that I really loved on Greta. (Although I've also learned that you can't judge how things will look from a catalog--if we want the best fit we don't have much of a choice. I'm just hoping we'll be happy with them.)~Greta will have to get her pollies adjusted every two months (because of growth) and she should be able to be in the frames for about one year.

~Tessa is getting some pollies too. Not because she needs them but so that she'll leave Greta's alone. The pediatric optician said that when we go out with Greta we'll get a lot of comments about a baby so young being in glasses--that is attention that Tessa will not be getting and that will cause her to want to play with or take Greta's glasses. She says it is easier just to get her a pair upfront and make as big of a deal out of them as we do Greta's. She said that siblings usually cause more needs for adjustments than the baby.

~Here are a couple of videos that tell a little about strabismus. One Two (We can see now Greta's 'head turning' compensation.) You have to click on the little icon on the black screen to see the video, not the play button.

I'm getting really anxious to give Greta the gift of sight. And thanks to all of you for the nice, encouraging comments. It has meant more than you know.

Polycarbonates

So I have already written this post a couple dozen times in my head all through the night last night and now I can't remember how I had woven the story so cleverly and neatly together. I should have typed it out instead of spending my wee morning hours doing research. At this juncture all my thoughts are filled with swimming facts, so you get the facts not a story. (I guess having been up since 3:30 then dashing like a mad girl getting Cache's wisdom teeth out, then to get prescriptions then in his care and taking care of the other issues of the day, the story is gone.)

Fact 1: Greta has strabismus. It is genetic and if you carry the recessive gene, studies show 1 out of 4 of your children will have it.

Fact 2: Strabismus means she needs glasses. The doctor assured me she could see, but she had to work very hard to do it. But with a diagnosis like +10 and +9 I kind of get the feeling that there is less sight than more.

Fact 3: There are not too many frame options for a 6 month old baby. The office I was at had 1 option. They looked so Harrypotterish and nerdy to me. But I ordered them not knowing what else to do and then I cried all the way home.Fact 4: Sweet neighbors who tend little Tessas and husbands who assure the overwhelmed mom that you don't have to go with the nerdy ones are heaven sent.

Fact 5: I am vain because my biggest worry has been that no one will tell us she is cute any more (we have been too spoiled in that department).

Fact 6: Brothers were honest. 1) "I don't know if I like Greta as much with glasses." 2) Greta is only going to be half as cute with glasses." (yes, I'm raising tactful children).

Fact 7: Did I already say that frames for this age are hard to find? I have been out and about looking, looking, looking and when I find some and start the ordering process find out that they have been discontinued.

Fact 8: Tom said to me early this morning. "This is Heavenly Father's plan for Greta. She is going to have some challenges, but that is okay." I told him he sounded too much like me.

Fact 9: As the whole thing is sinking in, I'm starting to wish more and more for Greta to be able to see well and to develop properly. This can't happen without glasses, nerdy or not. I'm going to embrace this. It's just going to take a little time.

Fact 10: As we were explaining to the kids that people don't really get 'glasses' (lenses made from glass) anymore, Caleb said, "Well they shouldn't be called glasses then." I asked him if we should say that Greta is getting plastics. He said, "No, she is getting polycarbonates."

9-9-09

In celebration of 9-9-09 we are having a 9 course meal:

Course 1: melon sized ball of sherbet (like at fancy restaurants where they serve a small serving of sorbet to cleanse the pallet)

Course 2: mini rolls

Course 3: drink (if I have time/energy it will be something better than Sprite)

Course 4: chicken nuggets

Course 5: jello

Course 6: chips

Course 7: baked potatoes (the mini red ones)

Course 8: strawberries

Course 9: ice cream (or cookies if I get them made)

Of course, all servings will be fairly small.

Other ideas I've had:

Count to 9 in 9 different languages.

Come up with 9 different ways to eat chocolate chips (or some other task).

If you can come up with 9 different ways to make 99 cents, I'll give you $9.99. (this won't be hard for any of the kids who care about money, but it is just something silly to build family memories)

Give away 9 'get out of a job coupons' by having the kids do something silly 9 times.

Learn 9 new things.

I don't know how many of these we'll do, but I'm going to try to do a few of them. If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them!

6 Months

How is it that time always goes by much faster after the baby arrives than when you are pregnant? It should be the other way around! I can't believe Greta is 6 months old already. She has been such a blessing. . . so content. . . so easy going. . .so sweet. This is classic Greta these days--her cute little tongue is always hanging out (and her eyes a bit crossed)!Greta has seemed so much chunkier than Tess was. However, at her 6 month check up, she weighed less than Tessa did at the same age by almost 1/2 pound. She had also dropped from the 70th percentile to the 25th. When I came home to make comparisons, I discovered that from 4 to 6 months, Tess gained 1 lb, 13 oz. Greta gained 1 lb. 3 oz. I was a bit surprised to say the least. Greta's 6 month stats: 14 lbs. 9 oz. 24 inchesWe also have been concerned about her eyes. Our concerns were validated and we were referred to a pediatric ophthalmologist. We go next week and hopefully we'll have a few answers.

And since it is such a novelty for me to have two of my kids look so much a like, (my boys haven't ever looked much alike) I am always comparing their looks. Here is the most recent. What do you think? (My mom doesn't think they look much alike.) Note: I added a post quite a ways down the page if you are interested.