celticdragonfly

Only parents with several children close in age will understand how exhausting a day of errands with three kids is. Only a few things take all day, what with the diaper changes and nursings and other stops. (One diaper change today involved going through three new diapers and a new onesie, with the baby in the front passenger seat and me twisted sideways in the driver's seat. No wonder she was crying, with that going on in her system. Trust me, you don't want to try that.)

In quick summary - the bills have been paid and mailed off (Saginaw REALLY needs another post office, or at least a drive-up box somewhere - I couldn't park within a block and ended up driving to the regional one one Mark IV Parkway), Maggie's dance clothes were found, Jamie's glasses have been fixed, I have bought a new kit for my Medela Lactina, and new and much improved storage bags, confirmed once again that there just isn't a standard nursing bra that can fit me, returned home, and Maggie was bathed, dressed, and taken to dance class on time.

I am highly ANNOYED with Bath and Body works. fordprfct took us in there once when we were up doing errands in that Southlake area with all the cute shops around the park. He was getting more shower gel, and convinced me to try some. He uses a nice masculine juniper scent stuff, nice but not my style, but I found a raspberry that smelled really good, and was convinced to try it. And I liked it. And I ran out. And hey, Jamie's optician is all the way up there in Southlake, so I was very close. After going to all the trouble to get a parking spot only a block or so away, get three kids out of the car, get Alanna into the carrier, and walk across to the store in the sun and heat, they don't have the raspberry shower gel. Out of stock, and well that's an 'old' scent, so now they're only going to have it during the annual sale, except they're out of stock for this one. Well, they just lost a customer. I do not understand the whole drive to New! Different! stuff - if I find something that works I like to stick with it.

I would like to go collapse now - except in a bit I have to go back out and get Maggie back from dance class. We'll see if it's raining then or not. It's been alternating between pouring rain and hot hot sun.

We have figured something out on Maggie. Try to introduce her to someone new, she gets all freaked out and insists on being shy.

Then totally ignore her and shift the attention to the new people, talking to them and having fun, and shortly she's right in the middle of things, trying to get the new people's attention and being cute at high intensity.

We must remember this.

Also, I just got off a longish good phone call with my parents to find that Jamie had broken his glasses. Bother. So after lunch there will be a trip out to Southlake. What worries me is that he has an evaluation with the school district tomorrow morning, and I do NOT want that to be without his glasses.

So we did get up to the optician's in Southlake with Jamie before they closed at noon. We tried a few pairs of glasses on him. My, that's a different experience now - the first time, I was having to hold him and pin down his arms while the lady tried to put glasses on him and hold the mirror so I might see. This time he gave no objections and left the glasses on. Wow.

We settled on a sturdy plastic pair this time. The guy says certainly they won't be Jamie-proof either, but we'll see if that does any better. He figured Jamie would manage to break the twist-metal ones. These don't have separate nose pads, so that's one less thing for him to bend or break. They're brown, with little subtle yellow duck outlines. I liked him in blue, but better to go with something they had on hand, and the brown looked good on him too. They'll have to make new lenses for them, and once again they'll be special ordering those, first thing Monday. So he should have glasses again on Tuesday or Wednesday hopefully.

Then I shall have to update this icon

DAMN! Jamie just broke his glasses. And this time it is indeed BREAK - not only are they bent, and one of the lenses out, the top curve of the metal over one lense actually broke off.

crap crap crap

They say they'd fix anything except losing it. I left them a voicemail asking them to call me. I'm thinking this is going to take a new frame. If I have to BUY a new frame, I want to get them from an optician closer to home.

I do not want to drive to Southlake and back this afternoon. I want to make his eyes better, and have glasses on him as much as possible - but damnit, my sanity needs to be taken into account too. I'll be in that general area tomorrow morning - I think I'll bring them in then. And it might be "drop off the lenses and come back 3 days later" in which case screw it, might as well do it Saturday and avoid so much extra driving.

I was on the phone, he was still in the high chair and bored... you'd think I'd know better. But darn it, I wanted to take a phone call from a friend I don't get to see.

I just had to go off and get Jamie's glasses fixed again. He was in the high chair eating lunch, and I got a phone call from patgund, and I guess he got bored. Totally bent out of shape, one lens missing, unwearable. So, another 50 mile round trip to Southlake. Next pair MUST be from a closer optician.

And while prepping for this trip, I came out of the bathroom to see Maggie in the kitchen. "I'm sweeping!" she chirped. I started to say "oh, okay", but I'd just stepped on the kitchen floor - and fallen badly. She'd once again dipped her toy broom into the cats' water to pretend to mop. She has been repeatedly told she's not allowed to do that, because it makes the floor slippery and dangerous. I didn't break anything, but I hurt in many places. Suffice it to say Maggie no longer has access to the broom.

Now they've both been put down for naps, I'm going to try to finally get myself some proper lunch, and hope it gets better from here.

Busy stressful frazzled day.

Speech for Jamie this morning - and still short on sleep post-con, I overslept. Leaving me frantically trying to get everything ready in time. I didn't get it all done, but I got enough to get by.

Speech went well, really - Jamie is starting to use again some of the words he'd lost, and since that had been scaring me with the spectre of regressive autism, I'm really glad. We're still needing to get a lot more new words. His yearly evaluation is next week. There was lots of paperwork to fill out. And we're looking at probably needing to refer him to school district programs to start at age 3. There are a myriad of reasons why I am stressed and frazzled because of this. I may try to write up something on that soon. (Although I want to finish that ApolloCon report first, I expect) It has me feeling tense, though.

Jamie's glasses have been re-repaired. This is good. They weren't AS broken this time. It was still possible to have them on his face when we walked in.

The van has been inspected. The Candidate Passes. Now selenite can take care of that ticket Friday.

In both of these I am very grateful for the help and support fordprfct gave me today.

And on the fun side, I got to have dinner with friends, and then play Chrononauts. It was more fun than I had thought it would be. It is disturbing that selenite keeps resurrecting Hitler, though.

I'm back. Jamie has repaired glasses. We went and got lunch while she was working on them.

Maggie was my sweet helper and walked in carrying the case (with the popped out lens) in one hand and the broken glasses in the other, while I was getting Jamie out of the van. The lady there was all "what did he DO to them?" but said yes, she'd fix them right away, fix if possible, replace if necessary. So off we went. Came back an hour later and they were ready.

(Oh, patgund, I talked to her about different types of glasses. She confirmed yeah, this is probably best. I mentioned your suggestion of plastic - she said "no, metal bends, but plastic snaps.")

The guy who was there then, who fitted him last time, was quite impressed that this time Jamie sat still to have them put on and did not throw a fit. We talked some about him fighting them, which is improving some, but yeah, he's been rough on them. The guy said "Yeah, he's a boy." He also said "Things will get better. Might be next week - might be three months from now" in a resigned tone of voice, making it clear that yeah, they won't be surprised to see me again.

I have been reminded by fordprfct that yes, Jamie's old nickname WAS "Thumper the Tank Baby". For a reason.

I hope he learns how much they HELP him, stops wanting to destroy them, and gets used to them.

Jamie is starting to keep his glasses on a *little* better.

Trouble is - he's managed to beat them up badly. They do not look like glasses less than a week old. They look like glasses that have been worn in a war zone for more than a year.

Most of the rubber covering for the cable temples is missing, and he's chewed the paint off under that. And they've gotten BADLY bent, beyond my ability to gently bend back into place.

I'm going to have to take him back to the optician's and see what they can do. Which means another drive to Southlake. *weeps*

Maybe tomorrow. We'll see if I can face it.

Dear World,

If I'm talking to anyone today, and seem frequently interrupted or slow to respond or distracted - it's because I'm trying to get Jamie's glasses back on him.

Sigh.

Jamie's glasses were ready today, so we drove out and got them fitted to him.
( Picture of Jamie in his new glasses )
He hated that part. But then once we got into the car, he left them on undisturbed for a glorious forty minutes, that made me feel EVER so optimistic about how this was going to work. Maybe, just maybe, he would be one of those children who realizes how much better he can see the world and then leaves the glasses on!

Let's just say that this particular bubble of optimism has been well popped.

He does seem to see better. He was looking around a lot at the optician's. When we were walking into Walmart for a grocery run, I was suddenly getting my arm YANKED as he saw the plastic playset and the big air inflated water slide they had outside for display - he hasn't done that before. I did have to give up halfway through the grocery shopping and put the glasses in the case in my purse. (Fisher Price glasses, with this cute little hard plastic blue case that hinges open at one end.)

I am a bit concerned that they may not be sitting far enough UP on his nose. I'd been insistent that he not get really narrow lenses because I remembered how much I disliked glasses that left blank space at the bottom, as looking into my lap for work left me looking through air, not lenses. But for him, the problem seems to be at the top. And this is a big concern, because hey, for a two year old, a lot of life involves looking UP.

I'm not sure what to do about it. I'm a little wary of rushing back there to ask them to readjust. See - Kevin from ECI gave me the referral list of pediatric optometrists he could recommend, and I started calling right away. There were two relatively nearby - but one had closed for the week and I couldn't reach them, and the other said they could see him in a month. I wanted results sooner than that. So I ended up going with an optometrist in Grapevine, a goodly drive from here. And he sent me to get the glasses made to an optician in Southlake, even farther. It took about an hour to get there today, and an hour and a half to get back. So I'm not in a big hurry to rush back. Jamie will be seeing the doctor again in about 5 weeks for a followup check, so maybe I'll let it wait until then.

I'm really hoping this will make a big difference for him. And I'm really hoping I can keep them on him enough for them to work. It's going to be a bit of a rough time for us as we fight him over that.

So off we went to Jamie's eye appointment. Slightly delayed by traffic problems and getting a bit lost at the end, but I got us there. In we went. The aide saw him first, had me sit in the exam chair with him in my lap, and looked at his eyes some, and said yes, she saw his eyes crossing. Then they had the doctor come in and examine his eyes, and he said yes, he saw it too. We were discussing family vision, and he looked at me and said "I see you're farsighted" and could see that I was much worse in the left eye, which was cool. Then we took Jamie into another room, laid him down, and he got the eyedrops to dilate his eyes. He did NOT like that, at all, either the first numbing drops or the second dilating drops. I had to hold him down. Poor baby. Then we were sent back out to the waiting room for about a half hour to wait for them to take effect. He was not a happy kid. Then the doctor examined him again, shining lights into his eyes through lenses and such.

Dr. Beauchamp said he is farsighted, although for him, unlike me, it's symmetrical. He is crossing his eyes, but not really badly. He wrote a glasses prescription for him, and told me that for now they're not going to correct it ALL the way, only about 80%, to get him used to things. He said the squinting Jamie has been doing is due to the eyes crossing. (Oh good, it's not stimming!) He'll be seeing Jamie again in six weeks, and can look at other options in the future. He might need the stronger prescription, if he's okay at distance but still crossing his eyes for close stuff he might need bifocals. He mentioned eye surgery, but said with Jamie as he currently is, it really isn't even on the radar. We made the next appointment, and he gave us a referral to an optical place down 114 a bit into Southlake that he says has experience with little kids' glasses.

So we went there. Jamie was not happy with life at this point at all - I'm sure getting out of the van in the really bright sunlight had to be miserable. He did not want to even try glasses on. They say that for a lot of kids, once they realize how much better they can see, they have no problems keeping them on - I just hope that's the case for him, I expect at least to start it's going to be a BATTLE. He wanted NO part of trying glasses on. We were having to have me hold him with his arms pinned, Renee the optician putting the glasses on, and then me trying to see them in the hand mirror before he yanked them off. Maggie was quite willing to help model glasses to show him it was okay - she'd have been thrilled to be getting glasses - but it wasn't scaring him or anything, he just wanted NO part of it.

The lady kept showing me little oval-rectangularish glasses, that I just did not think would cover much - I remember getting those pushed at me last time I got glasses, apparently they're fashionable, but I don't like them. When I was wearing them, I'd look down at my lap, where I'd hold a book or knitting, and I'd be looking through air, not lenses. Useless. She was saying but oh, round lenses would make his face look round! I figure he's 2 years old, he doesn't care if his face looks round, and I don't care, I just care can he see well. So I got her to show me a rounder pair. Fisher Price glasses, heh. They have the super bendable spring lenses, and the round cable earpieces to help hold them on better. The lenses will be polycarbonate, and guaranteed for a year against breakage. I'm glad of that.

They could have made them up with lenses they have there, but they told me that since his prescription is SO strong, better to have them sent out and custom made, so they can be flatter and a better fit. No extra cost, just extra time. So they'll be ready in a few days, probably middle of next week. Oh well, just like Mama, no "glasses in an hour" for us. I am bemused by the combination of the doctor telling me oh, we're not going to correct him all the way yet, and the optician telling me it's a really strong prescription - yeah, clearly this kid NEEDS these glasses. Oh, and the frames are blue, to match his cute blue eyes.

The ECI guy thinks Jamie should have his eyes checked. He gave me a list of pediatric opthamologists. I now have an appointment for him for next Thursday. Hah. I am quite excited about this. I've been watching Jamie a lot with this in mind - and I think we may be on to something. I *hope* we're on to something. Needing glasses is a problem I can TACKLE head on and DO something about!