children, eyesight, mommyhood, surgery

Eye Know

WFAM

Our day was a success. Full Speed had his best eye test to date and little T.Puzzle has the greenlight for his lens removal surgery for his left eye.

I also uncovered the secret to getting exceptional behavior from little T.Puzzle. Simply send his big brother to spend the night over at Grandma’s. Little T.Puzzle is relishing the spotlight without his brother’s extremely strong presence to shift my focus. Of course I am being overly attentive to his every move, need and breath. I guess that’s what a pending surgery for your youngest kid will do to a mom.

I have a good feeling about it all. Then again, having seen his big brother attain 20/40 vision in his stronger eye (20/50 in his other eye!) when he was initially considered legally blind, I know anything is possible.

Possibilities are what will get us through this. For that I am certain.

Good luck, little T.Puzzle. We love you and wish you a speedy recovery!

I will post updates when I am able. Wish us luck!

children, eyesight, health, surgery

Times Two

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Full Speed knows something is up. Little T.Puzzle’s first surgery is tomorrow and the air in the house is soaked in anxiety (mainly mine).

I’m taking both boys to the eye doctor this morning. As I picked out little T.Puzzle’s regulatory Thomas shirt for him to wear, Full Speed said he wanted to wear the same.

He never says that anymore. I think it’s his way of showing support for his little brother.

Maybe we’ll make it through after all….

Two is better than one
children, gratitude, happiness, mommyhood

Well Behaved (don’t get your reading glasses, I really wrote that)

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We went to Costco as a family. I do not enjoy shopping in a large warehouse setting packed to the gills with merchandise and shoppers. The noise, colors and smells in this vast space bombard me at every angle and make my skin crawl. You add in the antics of the boys and I’m all but hunkered down in the wine department pleading for a Costco worker to give me a sample. Now there’s an idea, if Costco gave out wine samples like they did their foodstuffs, it would quickly go to the top of my best-store-ever list.

Of course Mad Dog loves it even without the promise of free alcohol. He could spend hours bumping into people, perusing the gigantic lasagnas and nibbling on samples of cheese if he so desires.

To compromise, our trips to this mecca of bulk-shopping are rare and since I know how much Mad Dog loves it and I love him, I go.

As we entered the store I took a deep pull of breath and braced myself for the worst.

I was pleasantly surprised. This surprise is in reference to the boys.  They behaved with the utmost respect and decorum. They behaved how I always knew they could. The rest of the experience was much as I imagined; crowded, loud and larger-than-life.

This refreshing and unexpected of calmness of T.Puzzle and Full Speed was enough to help me endure the ocean of Costco madness.

Way to go, guys!  Now, let’s take this rare occurrence and supersize it Costco style!

children, life in pictures, marital blissishness, mommyhood

Yin and Yang

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Mad Dog is a quietly persuasive force. He is a man of few words and when he speaks, each word is chosen with careful precision. Before I knew what hit me, Mad Dog had me convinced that Full Speed should be signed up for the ‘leadership series’ in tae kwon do. This means he is eligible for more classes each week and has more chances to spar and use weapons.

Whatever.

Apparently Full Speed is having the time of his life. He thinks he is a major baddie and is completely jacked up to do three classes in a row on the same day.

I just don’t get it.

I’m grateful that Mad Dog is all over this and pushing Full Speed’s limits in something he actually seems to like and excel at. Mad Dog is the sort of parent that symbolically throws the boys in the deep end of the pool without a life jacket and is confident that not only will they swim, but they will be swimmers of Olympic caliber. If I had it my way, they would wear floaties until they are fourteen and only go in a deep end that is heavily supervised by a professional lifeguard.

You can see we are the two extremes of the parenting paradigm.

Thank goodness we cancel each other out.

Thus, the perfect balance of yin and yang parenting is established.

Or something like that.

Full Speed, on the left, gets ready to attack during a sparring match.
children, health, life in pictures, mommyhood, terrible threes

A ‘Full’ Life

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I took little T.Puzzle for his pre-op physical. He still holds on to an element of three year old unpredictability that makes trips to the doctor more exciting than they should be. When the doctor prepares to examine his mouth, he clamps it shut and throws his hands protectively over his lips.

The doctor switches gears.

“Why don’t I look in your ears instead?” she asks little T.Puzzle.

He immediately shoots both his hands up and theatrically covers his ears. He also manages a sliver of a smile while maintaining a rigidly closed mouth.

Impressive.

The doctor turns to me.

“Looks like someone is really full of it today.”

“He’s pretty much full of it every single day,” I say.

Despite his contrary efforts, Little T.Puzzle passed his physical with flying colors.

Luckily, he’s full of dimples, too, and that has saved him more times that I can count.

Little T.Puzzle prepares to dive into the most ginormous slice of pepperoni pizza I have ever seen courtesy of the Mellow Mushroom.