No chicks today. I’m sharing pictures from Friday instead.

Isabelle had an appointment with the ophthalmologist.

We were sitting around in the waiting area. Nathan kicked off his shoes.

Lately he’s been objecting to them, “off! OFF!”

Anyhoo back to what I was saying, Isabelle’s appointment.

The doctor checked her vision and it’s 20/250 in her bad eye, the left one. It hasn’t improved since the last time. I think it’s worse actually. He said her astigmatism has increased.

It might have something to do with her eye growing, I don’t know. Or maybe it has to do with Isabelle cheating with her patch sometimes. When she can’t see, sometimes I catch her turning her head and peaking out the side. Sigh.

So, now she needs to wear her patch for 6 hours a day. SIX!! Waaaaah!! Is it because she was cheating and peeking? Waah! Waah! Waah! Today I tried to put a bandaid patch on her so she couldn’t cheat and she started to cry.

Ok how about I talk about something happy instead. While we were waiting for Isabelle’s eyes to dilate, we went to a kid area to hang out. They had little tiny benches and tables. Nathan got a kick out of them.

A real big kick! He can’t climb onto the tables at home.

And look at this grass there.

It’s totally FAKE! I couldn’t tell until I went over and felt it. I want fake grass. No more watering. Or mowing! But fake grass and chickens don’t go together right? Well real grass and chickens don’t go together either. Alan said they’ll eat it all up. Good thing we don’t have any grass in our backyard because we suck at gardening and killed the lawn back there years ago.

Do chickens and weeds go together?

For a few months now Isabelle has been wearing bandaid eyepatches. We misplaced her pirate one and I’ve been meaning to make a new one but hadn’t gotten around to it. The box of patches we have is running low so I thought it was a perfect time to get going on the eyepatch.

I used this eyepatch tutorial for occlusion therapy by LucyKate Crafts. Isabelle chose the colors. It’s made of felt. Even the button! Well, I think the button is felt. I can’t remember what it said on the packaging. All I know is that it’s soft and not hard like regular buttons.

It’s nice not to use bandaid type patches.

Why didn’t I make one sooner?

Bogged down here. I mentioned we’ve been busy this week. On Monday Isabelle had a dentist appointment.

A cavity is starting. And Nathan’s teeth aren’t looking that great so we scheduled an appointment for him next week. The dentist said I need to stop breastfeeding him at night. But I don’t know any other way.

We also had an ophthalmologist appointment for both of the kids. Nathan’s eyes look good. And Isabelle’s eyes are slowly slowly improving. I think the doctor said her left eye is now 20/200?

And that was just two days this week. I’m not even going to talk about the two homeschool meetups we went to. How about I just share our monthly family photos. That’s easy.

Isabelle is now five years five months.

And Nathan is one year five months.

I can’t believe we’ve been taking monthly family photos for over five years now.

Glasses for everyone! Ok, not really. Just glasses for Alan. Nathan is in the minority now. And they’re not glasses like my glasses. You know, blind as a bat glasses that I wear all the time. They’re reading glasses. Wow, that was a shocker for me. Alan usually has no problems with his eyes. I joked that we must be getting old. After he got them he played around quite a bit taking the glasses off and putting them to his lips, that pensive, I’m thinking look. Bwa ha ha!

And on a less funny front…news on Isabelle’s eyes. We’ve been patching now since the end of August. Isabelle’s eyes actually seem worse. Two years ago, when the optometrist checked Isabelle, she said she was seeing 20/40. At her last appointment it was like she couldn’t see anything. At home, she has to put things inches in front of her eye to see. It’s a lot disheartening.

I am a little irritated with the opthamologist’s department. First, I never really cared for the opthamologist. He made us feel bad the first time we saw him, like we did everything wrong. For years. Like we should have been patching or doing something way earlier. Like we are big failures. Poop on him.

Second, his nurse, though usually nice, seems not on top of things. For Isabelle’s last appointment in August, she called and left a message saying she would call us again to reschedule but she never called back. Then when I’d call I’d get a full message box. Then for our appointment this week I called and left a message to have someone call me to cancel and reschedule the kids’ appointments. I never got a call back. I ended up canceling it online. I received an email today and only Nathan was rescheduled.

Third, the hospital is not convenient for us. It’s a half hour away over a toll bridge. There is one closer to us, half that distance. I guess that last complaint isn’t a biggie but when you add it on top of the first two…SIGH.

I must call tomorrow and see if we can go to the closer hospital. I can’t remember now why we were sent to the further one? Maybe the opthamologist is a pediatric opthamologist? Big old poopy one. BIG SIGH again.

Sorry such a downer post. Tomorrow (or the day after depending on Nathan’s temperament and his willingness to let me sit at the computer) will be a happier post. A fire station tour post!! Whoo hoo! Whoo hoo!

Last month, at a park, Isabelle came up to me with the saddest little look on her face, with tears threatening to fall. She was patching her eye and she said, “why am I different? Everyone asks why my eye is like this.” I felt so bad for her.

And we do get this question A LOT when she is patching. The patch looks like a bandaid and if we’re out, people will stare or ask if she had surgery or if she was hurt. I always explain, oh no, she’s just patching.

A few weeks ago, the library sent me an email about some books of interest. One of them, the Pirate of Kindergarten, was about a little girl, named Ginny, who was different. She didn’t see the same as everyone else.

The subject intrigued me so I went out and immediately borrowed it from the library. Me and Isabelle read it together right away in the car. We didn’t even wait to get home. The artwork is lovely.

And though Isabelle doesn’t see double the way Ginny does, I thought it was nice being able to read her a story about another little girl who sees differently.

I especially love these pages with the phoropter and eye chart, items Isabelle is used to seeing at the doctor’s.

This part, where Ginny starts to cry when she realizes she is different, just about made me cry.

After reading the Pirate of Kindergarten, I thought I would make Isabelle her own little pirate patch. Something that looked less like a bandaid so, hopefully, she will get less questions and rude stares.

Here’s my own little pirate of kindergarten.

Thank you George Ella Lyon for writing this for all of us who see the world different.