Greta

My sweet little shadow started kindergarten.  Sad.  Yet happy too.  She is LOVING kindergarten and is ready for school everyday (even wearing her backpack) before Tessa is ready--and Greta's school starts an hour and 15 minutes later than Tessa's.  Even a few months into it, she is still so excited to go every single day.  She told me all summer that she wouldn't miss me, but she would give me a kiss goodbye every day because I would need it because I would miss her.  She was right.  It's sad to send her to school.

This sweet girl has many people asking to her home.  Even complete strangers like dance teacher's sisters, techs at the eye doctor and hair stylists want her.  A cute story from a few years ago that her dance teacher told me last spring.  It was picture day at dance class and Miss Mindee's sister was there to take photos.  At one point in the session, they had the girls posed for the dance just waiting for the music to begin.  However, they could't get the music to play.  It took them a few minutes during which all of the three year olds had begun to run around and get a bit crazy.  They were both huddled by the sound equipment trying to work it out and then finally they got it and they both turned around to get the girls back into position and there was Greta still poised and ready to go.  It melted both of them.  It is so typical of her. So sweet.

Last spring at a routine eye appointment they caught her little eye wandering a bit.  It was causing her vision to not be equal and compromised her depth perception (none of which, I noticed. . .).  The remedy was to patch one hour a day.  She was super diligent about it and would often wear it well beyond an hour because she did not want to have to wear a patch to kindergarten.  At her follow up appointment for that issue, she had improved greatly, but still was recommended to patch to strengthen her weak eye.  Also at that appointment, she was diagnosed with Fourth Nerve Palsy.  Basically it is a weakened nerve that as it continues to get weaker will cause her to have little control over her eye so it will wander up.  We could start see this occur within the year, but could also take a decade or so to manifest itself enough to warrant intervention.  The intervention is prism glasses and then when it gets bad enough, a surgery in which they will weaken her other three nerves in order to even them out.  Even though I could get myself all worked up about aspects of this (teasing kids, surgeries going wrong, long term vision etc.), I'm really just thankful to live in a day and age when she can get vision help.  A half a century earlier, she would be blind by now and having a much more difficult life.  (Update 5-10-15:  She was such a trooper wearing her eye patches that as of our last check up, she had strengthened her weak eye enough that she doesn't have to patch for the time being.  In fact, her last appointment, her weak eye was seeing stronger than her good eye.  BTW, This is not related to the Fourth Nerve Palsy, that is a completely separate condition.)

Greta was the Kindergarten of the Week!  She was thrilled especially since she got a package of Skittles.  (She's got quite the sweet tooth!  I could bribe her to do almost anything with a treat.)

The dinner/breakfast table goes something like this:  

Tom:  Chandler (or anyone else), will you please say the prayer?

Instantly after that invitation is extended, Greta starts the prayer. Every meal, every day for weeks (now months).  The rest of us might just forget how to pray! 

She is such a sweet and caring girl.  One time we were at my mom's house and peeling potatoes and struggling a bit with the potato peeler.  She whispered to me, "Grandma needs a new potato peeler, but we won't tell her that because it would make her feel bad."

She LOVES to-do lists!!  I'm always amazed at how much she loves to check off things.  I love that she loves to accomplish things and see what she needs to do written out on a list.  

Greta is just such a delight!