Impossibly Long

The title of this blog involves the word ‘perspective’ which as we grow older tends to grow in magnitude.   Yesterday I had one of those perspective moments that in and of itself is harmless, boring and blasé enough to not matter at all, but it was something that made a mental impact on me.   It was about hair.

There was this television series I watched a few years ago.   The main actress had this lovely long hair that I envied, mostly because of length.   My hair grows slowly, so attaining her hair length seemed an impossibly long task.    Over the course of the five years the show ran, I always liked her long, straight hair.    The show ended and I didn’t think any more about it.

Then, last week, something reminded me of the show and I decided to watch the pilot.    As the episode unfolded I realized the main actress’s hair was as long as mine is now.   My hair, that even though it’s relatively long, still feels mentally short in my mind.   And yet, here was this actress with the impossibly long hair and my hair was the same length.    There’s nothing like time to give perspective.

The Big Boy Update:  Nana and Papa got my son a Harry Potter wand as a gift for when he arrived in Florida last week.   My son thought it was pretty keen how it turned on when he waved it.   What he thought was exceptionally cool was how he was a “fire starter” and could start their fireplace.   What he didn’t realize until the third day was that Nana was pressing the button on the fireplace remote when he’d wave the wand at it.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has started saying daddy with a British accent as, “dadday”.  It took us a bit to realize she was repeating the pronunciation from Peppa Pig, a British cartoon that’s currently popular.   Once we realize that we started to notice other words she’s getting from the show.

Fitness Update:  I had another swim lesson today.   We worked on my flip turns (comical) and my breast stroke (pitiful) but by the end of the lesson I have a list of things to work on that I think are achievable.

Sweet Harmony

My children were separated for close to three days early this week.   My son and I came home and my husband and daughter flew to Detroit a day after us for an appointment with her retina surgeon.   It was clear both children missed each other because they talked about it to us independently and when we got on the phone they said nice, even kind things to each other without prompting such as, “I love you.  I miss you.”

Late last night my husband and daughter arrived home from the airport.   My son had elected to sleep in his sleeping bag in the middle of the floor so he could be woken up to welcome them home.   He was unable to be woken up by my attempts to wake him, my non-attempts to wake him when I carried him up the steps and ungracefully dumped him into the top bunk (he’s getting heavy) or by the screams of his sister who was so tired she thought she wasn’t tired.  

At any rate, my children reunited this morning and breakfast and the morning routine went about as normal as it usually does.   We got ready and headed to the car.   As I drove out my children started this happy and yet aggressive conversation with each other in the back seat.   I tried very hard not to laugh.   There was initially discussion on who was going to hit whom.    It escalated from there.    By the time we got to school I had my phone out, ready to write down what they were saying.

My daughter, “if you push me down the hill, I’m gonna bite you in the face!”
My son, “oh!  Well I’m really gonna bite you in the face now!”

The Big Boy Update:  My son was sitting on my daughter the other day.   It was unclear what was happening or how they even got into the situation but since no one was crying, I assumed it was a game they were both happy about.   When we asked him, my son told us he had decided to use his sister as, “a butt pillow”.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   We got a report today from my daughter’s visual impairment and orientation and mobility teachers.   They went over the goals they had for her and how well she was progressing.   While she may never need it, she has been introduced to a cane.   Her teacher, Jane, has an adult cane and my daughter has a child-sized one.   In the report, Jane mentioned my daughter had named her cane, “baby cane”.  I asked about her cane at dinner tonight and sure enough, we heard all about baby cane.

Florida to Detroit For an Hour

It’s time to do one of those “fly a long way for a short office visit” trips.   My husband and daughter flew to Detroit from Florida to be seen today by her Retina surgeon.   Below are the notes my husband sent about the appointment.   Since things looked like they were doing well, most of the talk was about his plan going forward:

Dr. Trese examined her in his office and commented that there was a very good orange reflex in the right eye indicating a reattached retina. The cornea was clear which is a good sign that the oil and PFO has not caused any clouding.

He said that the fact that she is sensitive to light and wants to wear her sunglasses is good and the retina is receiving information. Her eyes not tracking together is normal when the two eyes are seeing different things. He was not worried about that.

He did not see anything acute that would worry him, such as high or low pressure (visually), infection, or any other problems so he said he would like to schedule an EUA on May 2nd with a possible angiogram and Healon injection if the pressure is low. He will not remove the PFO (not hurting her and would require more than an EUA).

He now thinks that it is time to get a refraction during the EUA and the process for restoring vision would follow with her ophthalmologist.   He will be seeing her ophthalmologist later this month at a conference and they have been in communication regularly.

He would like to keep her eye drops the same as they are now--atropine twice daily and Predisolone four times (or Durezol 3 times).

When asked about the silicone oil and long term worries he said that it could cause corneal clouding or high pressure. Her cornea looks clear and higher pressure would actually help in her case. He said that people can tolerate the oil for a long, long, long time.

The Big Boy Update:   My son told me the other day, “Quai got Jin always wears brown pants.”  He pays attention to all the Star Wars details, folks.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  InUnConsolable.  I’ve made up a new word.   It reflects how my daughter was feeling in her tired state tonight when she got home from Detroit.   She was cranky, uncooperative, angry, irritable, whiny, screaming, complaining and seven or nine other adverbs all rolled into one.   She was inconsolable and uncooperative.   She has finally fallen asleep.   I hope she’s in a better mood in the morning.

Armpit Hair

I know, you’re thinking, “ew, I’m not sure I want to read this post.”   It’s not what you think.   I have this thing that’s happening to me that’s never happened to me before.    It’s probably been happing to ladies all along, only I’ve never been in this situation myself so I didn’t even know it existed: the hair from my head gets captured in my armpits.

Okay, it still sounds gross, I know, but let me explain.   Let’s say the weather has turned nice outside and you decide to wear a tank top shirt.   You get dressed and head out of the house.  You drop your children off at school and then go shopping at the grocery store.   As you walk around, selecting cabbages, tomatoes and cucumbers, when you pull your arm back from selecting an item your now long hair gets pinned by your arm against your body. 

It’s strange.   Still, I like the long hair enough to keep it for now. 

The Big Boy Update:  When my son was at Lego Land last week he was eating with my father-in-law and father but wasn’t feeling well and didn’t eat his hamburger.   When asked, Papa declined to eat the hamburger to which my son said, “Papa, you’re suppose to clean up everyone’s plate.”  And he was usually right, Papa is always good to help finishing off extra food.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is in Detroit with my husband in preparation for a doctor’s visit tomorrow.   She had a bit of a rocky start to the trip, being inconsolable from the point they got to the airport until they got close to the gate when she finally calmed down.    She and my husband got in line to purchase some food before the flight and the lady in front of them accidentally spilt her water bottle onto my daughter’s pants.   More inconsolable followed.    Once they got into the plane she was fine though for the rest of the flight.   

Separated

My husband and I split up today with our children.   I took my son home and my husband and daughter will be heading to Detroit tomorrow for a check in with her retinal surgeon.   It’s nice having two children but a lot of the time the children are either both with you at the same time.   My husband and I try to do things separately with the children but we don’t usually get multiple days alone with a particular child.

My son and I had a very pleasant trip home via two plane trips.   He listened, was full of energy but payed attention and was mindful of my requests and we had fun together on and off the planes.   When we got home he was disappointed his friends hadn’t also returned from vacation as he wanted to go play with them in the yard.  He stood outside the front door for a while and looked around hopefully while I got the groceries in before dinner.

We went to my parent’s house for an impromptu meal and my son had a chance to clip some of their spring flowers to take to his class tomorrow for their flower arranging work station.   He was pretty excited about the flowers I think because they cut a lot in a variety of colors.   Tomorrow he’ll take a bucket in to share with his classmates.

My children sleep in the same room so tonight when it was time to go to bed I did our normal routine and then left, shutting the door behind me.   I went to the kitchen and asked Alexa to play my audio book from where I’d last left off.  My son opened the door a minute later, confused because he thought someone was in the house talking to me.   He asked me if he could keep the door open tonight.   I think he missed having someone in the room with him.

I called my husband a short while later and he said he’d have to call me back because my daughter was yelling from down the hall in her bedroom in Florida.   He called back a little later to tell me he thinks she just didn’t want to sleep alone and was coming up with excuses to keep him in the room with her.

I was an only child, but I loved sleepovers.   I’m sure my children will be happy when they’re back together again on Tuesday night.

The Big Boy Update:  My son told our house he had missed it.   My mother and I were talking when he did this, shortly after arriving from being away for a week.   She and I looked to see him kiss the door to the pantry.   Then he kissed the wall and then the door to the garage, telling the house several times how much he’d missed it.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My mother- and father-in-law have a convertible in Florida with a back seat.   My children got to take turns riding in the car seat in it when we went out.   After deciding my son would ride over on the way to dinner my daughter asked him politely, “when we go home, can I have a ride in the vertical?”   He nodded and told her yes.

The Dopp Kit

I’ve been packing up this evening in preparation for our spring break vacation to end.   Tomorrow my son and I head home on one flight while my husband and daughter remain behind to leave the following day for Detroit and a checkup with her retina surgeon.    I typically do the packing for the children and since this was a more complicated return home trip I spent some time deciding what should go with which parent and in which bag.

As I came to the Advil bottle we purchased the other day when my son showed up with a fever (he’s fine now) I decided to send it on with my husband to Detroit, remembering the last trip where my daughter got very sick but likely completely unrelated to the surgery the day before.

I came into the kitchen where my husband and father-in-law were and told my husband I was putting the Advil into his…”dopp kit”…   I asked him and my father-in-law if they knew what that phrase meant because it had meaning to me, but I wasn’t altogether sure I was saying it correctly or that it actually meant anything to anyone other than me.

My husband didn’t know what I was talking about so I said, “that leather thing you guys keep your toiletries in when you travel.   My father-in-law, however, knew exactly what I meant.  

My father always traveled with something he called a “dopp kit” when I was a child.   When I look at one, it is just called that.    But other than my father’s leather container from my childhood, I didn’t know if it was an actual thing so when I went into the kitchen to tell my husband about the Advil, I asked about it.

So it turns out it was the name of something and not a nickname my father had for his toiletries case.    You laugh, but you haven’t heard the story about the goats on the mountains with the legs longer on one side my father told me about when I was eight-years-old.

The Big Boy Update:  On the way home from dinner yesterday my son chimed out from the back seat of the car, “when I grow up I’m gonna have 10 children.”  I asked him what he planned on naming them.   He immediately replied, "Max, Rafter, Raider, Creeper, Crank, Roo, Cram, Cree, Raurow, and there is no more. Wait, Cutie.  And their nicknames are, Sample and…”  And folks, I’m sure there would have been more but it was at that point that my husband and I couldn’t help but laugh and we interrupted his train of thought.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My father-in-law was getting the pool cleaner hose and attachment out this afternoon so the pool would be clear for the guests arriving shortly.    The cleaner component (nicknamed ‘Little Guy’) disconnected from the hose and sat at the bottom of the three feet of water.    My daughter swam down and brought up the not-light cleaning head.   My father-in-law and I were both pretty impressed, saying things like “wow” and “that was great, thanks for the help!”   My daughter said nonchalantly, “thanks, just doing my job.”

Watching a Movie Together

My children get along well a lot of the time.   There are times when they don’t agree about who should get their way, which is sometimes followed by shoving, yelling, pinching, punching and especially complaining to the adults around.   But generally, they’re good friends.

Yesterday my son came home from Lego Land with a fever.   Today he’s still in his pajamas and is fine other than some lethargy with an accompanying fever.   My daughter is fine.   She’s so fine we had a big issue getting her out of the pool for lunch and I speculate we’ll have another issue getting her out of the pool again later today for bed.  

One thing we haven’t been able to do much with the children together is watch movies as a family.   When you have one child who can’t see a screen unless it’s less than three inches from her face, watching something as a group isn’t really possible.     We try to introduce movies to them both at different times.   My husband is good at putting movies on the iPad so my daughter can watch them in her own time.  

Lately they’ve both been into the Star Wars movies.   My son is mostly crazy about  everything about Star Wars.   He knows all the characters names across five of the seven movies.   (He hasn’t seen the last two due to his age and content.)   He gets my daughter interested in playing games and imagining they’re the robots.   They love BB8, even though they haven’t seen the new movie he’s in.

This afternoon I went down the hall to hear my children talking to each other.    They had the iPad balanced on the bed so they could both see the Star Wars movie playing.    They both had their faces close, but it didn’t matter to me because they were both able to watch the movie at the same time.

Now they’re running around playing some Star Wars game they’re making up.

The Big Boy Update:  My son is sick with a fever.   He didn’t want to eat breakfast for a while this morning.   I asked him if he felt okay and he told me his stomach hurt.  When I asked him how it hurt he told me, “it’s like my stomach is fighting each other”  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  The pool rules.   Seriously, that’s all that needs to be said.    Oh, well there is one thing.   We made a sunscreen coverage error on the first day we were here and she got burned in a few spots.   Two of the spots are peeling now.    That’s one for the, “ugh, I feel like a terrible parent” list.