Potty Party

Will the little girl in the big girl panties please stand up?


Yes, it's true. Holland is officially potty-trained! If you remember, she was a little slow coming out of the gate, but she just completed day five with no pull-ups and no accidents. Thank goodness, cause the whole potty training thing is really starting to get on my nerves.

Sitting!

The best part? Eden is getting into this position all on her own! That means getting her knees up under her, pushing up with her arms, then holding it. It's a lot of work, but she clearly thinks it is great fun, and was saying over and over, "look at me Holland!"

Today she did the best I have ever seen her do and I'm so excited!!!! I want to shout it to the world! Thank goodness for the internet because I CAN!

Workin at the Car Wash

A Motley Crew

Holland had an eye doctor appointment last week. Good news is that her vision has not gotten any worse. Bad news is that there hasn't been any improvement in her left eye over the past couple of months. She is basically not using that eye to see when she does not have her patch on. Soooo. We are now patching 6 hours a day (up from 2, then 3-4), which is why you see her wearing the patch in so many of the recent pictures. 6 hours a day is the maximum amount that you can patch and continue to see benefits. We're going to see how it goes for another 2 months, then see the doctor again.

The even worse news is that we are very likely looking at another surgery. Not only is her left eye continuing to turn in, her eyes also roll too far to the sides and up and down when she is moving them. This is apparently a common problem that goes along with strabismus, and also has to do with the eye muscles. If and when she has the surgery, we would hopefully try to correct muscle balance issues in both eyes.

The trick is to try to improve the vision in her left eye as much as possible before doing the surgery. If the vision in that eye continues to be poor, there is a risk that even with surgery to realign the eyes, she will continue to neglect using it and we won't have as good of an outcome from the surgery.

We are very lucky that little Holland is a pretty rules-oriented person. The rule is that we put her patch on before breakfast, and she has to keep it on until one of us tells her it is okay to take it off. Rarely, she will ask to take it off early, but most of the time it doesn't seem to bother her at all and she forgets about it until we tell her she can take it off.

Boy, 6 hours is a long time though. We used to be able to take it off before we went out. Now she has to wear it, and it just adds to our motley crew image. Holland with her eye patch, glasses, orthotics, scabby knees, and crazy unbalanced gait, and Eden with her pony walker or wheelchair, cochlear implant, and orthotics. You should see some of the looks we get... Of course, any seasoned micropreemie parent could spot us a mile away! We don't care though. We smile and sing and chat as we continue on our merry way.

That's just how we roll.