Just resting up tonight...

Before the Cookie has her Strabismus Correction  surgery tomorrow morning. (On just her left eye). I'm a little nervous about it I admit, but not as much as I was before they sedated her for an MRI several months ago.  She made it through that just fine, so I don't have the newcomers paranoia she's going to react to to the anaestesia badly I might have otherwise been plagued with... Recovery will take a few days of course but the Opthomologist seems pretty optimistic about how it'll go.

Christmas is getting closer and closer.  It's fun to see the munchkin really NOTICE all the trappings of it this year.  She loves all the lights and Christmas carols her parents keep singing.  The biggest challenge I think will to be to keep her and the cats off the christmas tree.  Well that and not drink too much eggnog!

We are trying to be fiscally responsible this season, which means I'm trying to be creative but not cheesy with Christmas presents. I'm making a bunch of ornaments in the evening when K (Cookie) is asleep to give to D's more extended paternal family.  I hope they like the result...it's a new kind of challenge for me.

Yes I'm still here - I know we dropped off the radar for awhile there, what can I say...D's in final's week and on top of that (and the obligatory editing of term papers that results) I'm also coping with a cranky Cookie who's getting not just one but two more teeth pretty much simultaneously. Despite all that life's going pretty well...we got approval from the VA homeloan program for a home loan and immediately after christmas we plan to start looking for a house.  :)  That's exciting because it means more room generally, and a garage for the car that doesn't require a walk across an icy parking lot in another few weeks/months...believe me when I say with vigor that a fall with the hideous resulting bruises would the absolute last thing any of us need.

Now off to UnderwaterWorld at MOA.  In case I haven't brought it up before, the Cookie LOVES the fishies...

The trouble with proper size baby clothing....

I got the chance yesterday to go shopping for fall clothing with both my mom and sisters. (I am the youngest of three girls, for the curious.) It was a rare treat indeed, since the Cookie got to stay home and spend some quality time with her Daddy while we were out.  D's an awesome baby watcher...if perhaps prone to addicting out kid to random get-stuck-in-your-head silly songs. Mahna Mahna anyone?  (Those those of you teens and twenty something who don't get that reference?  Google the name and the Muppets and be properly introduced...)   :) 

But where was I...ah yes, shopping for the fall.  We're officially back in the frozen kingdom of Minne-snow-ta after 5 years of army assignments to the southern half of the US (Georgia and Texas mostly).  The Twin Cities are as cold by late September and October as Fort Hood is at its worst, so pretty much a complete stockpile of cold weather outfits for all three of us was necessary.

Which makes me want to groan, because for the record I HATE shopping.  Well for clothing anyway.  It's a totally different story if we're talking a book store or a cooking store or an arts and crafts store - heck anything BUT clothes.  I'm just...not fashionably gifted.  I may be fashionably impaired in fact (at least for me - K has easier coloring than I do to find good stuff for, thank goodness!)   Luckily, my clothes shopping phobia is  mitigated for by the fact that my mom and sister both LIKE clothes shopping - at thrift stores in particular.  (Which is good because we're saving up for a house and like being thrifty.)

The result...10 new outfits I know will look good on the wearers  for under 80 bucks.  It was totally win in my humble opinion...

Especially in our case, because I'm hard to find stuff for and the Cookie?  Is basically an adorable curly haired bean-pole with an oversized head.  (No there's nothing wrong there whatsoever -big heads and monster IQs are actually a family thing, you should see the ones on her grandpa, uncle and Daddy.) With that disclaimer ...the Snickerdoodle's almost impossible to dress some days. Cause her tops have to be sized to be at least 18M to fit over her head (the sleeves need to be rolled they're about an inch too long), while the 18M  slacks are the right length but fall right off her hips...

At the thrift store I at least can match items to ones I know fit piece by piece.

Took the Snickerdoodle to an opthamology appointment today. (For the record she was less than thrilled - we're dealing with some significant stranger anxiety in her these days, probably because so many of the ones she's known up until now want to poke and prod at her all the time.)  She's both cross eyed and VERY near sighted, and so is being followed on a fairly regular basis to make sure her glasses prescription is still what is should be.  She'll be seen at the eye clinic once a month until December, at which point  they'll decide if she's making acceptable progress with the eye patch mystique or if she's going to end up needing corrective surgery.  I'm hoping for the former of course - no one is thrilled with the idea of their 13 month old going under anestesia, but then on the other hand I know now how very very much Kaia's world is impacted by the ease with which she can see.

For example...she got her first set of glasses at about 9 months.  Before that I couldn't get her to crawl further than two feet away from me for anything.  Now?  She's all over the house at mach 10 (mach eleven if the dry cat food dish is in sight!) And while she may scream at the sight of doctors and physical therapists some days, (No touching with out saying hello and playing a little first) both have played a big role in getting her where she is today - still struggling some, but also on target for the larger number of her developmental milestones...

That's the balance I think, when dealing with kid who may need different types of medical intervention (especially surgery).  You want to give them time to come into their own and spare them as much pain as possible when its not absolutely necessary, but at the same time, you also don't want them to lag far to behind, or have them just give up because of fear or repeated failure based frustration.  Sometimes it's a tightrope you
can't help but teeter on and hope that they'll just forgive you in the end.

Otherwise know as casting myself into the great unknown.

I have no clue if anyone out there will ever find or read this, and to be honest it's as much a place for me to write for the sake of writing as it is a place for me to share the munchkin and I's story. That stated I've always believed that a journey shared can be very powerful - and I love a captive audience. That being the case I plan to write here fairly regularly about just about anything I think all of you may find interesting.  If you want to know anything more detailed about anything in particular just let me know and we'll see what we can do...

I'll start with this disclaimer - I'm not inclined to use my daughter or I's real name's...so I'll be referring to her from here on out as The Cookie  -or is I'm more honest with myself BigTrouble. She just turned one this month, and despite what most people might expect (since she - like I- appears to have connective tissue disorder) she's proven quite capable of crawling at lightening speed and getting into EVERYTHING...

Seriously her first day crawling she found the cat food and it's been downhill ever since...

If my Mom believed in it she'd be making wise cracks about karma right now.  :)