Patch

We've been dealing with two patches. One is wonderful and fun and filled with round orange gourds and has a train with dinosaurs! The other forces my little bear to use her bad eye and makes her so sad and snugly. Let's talk about the former. 

We went to the pumpkin patch last weekend. None of us had ever been, but it seems like something normal families do, and we are a normal family, so we went. We loved it. It's so fun to do seasonal stuff with Eleanor because (like any kid) it's exciting to see things through their eyes and also because of all the new words she can try out! As we traipsed through the pumpkin patch, she kept exclaiming "tangled!" as her feet got caught up in the vines. 

As for her eyes, well, we have to continue to patch for the next six months until she can get corrective surgery. The angle has lessened with the patching and her glasses (when I remember to put them on her - bad mummy), but her vision is pretty horrible in her right eye. She would never let you know, though. 

She's gone through a rough, tantrum period recently. It's been challenging for Kris and me, but we are working through it and it seems to be lessening. A very wise woman once said to me "just because you're experiencing 'normal' problems, it doesn't mean they aren't problems" and we have learned A LOT about ourselves overcoming these parenting woes. I'm holding out hope that the terrible twos won't be followed by terrible threes (or a "threenager") and in two months time I will wake up with a perfectly behaved preschooler. A mum can dream, no?

Happy Day!

Or rather, happy half-year birthday!

Eleanor's "siss-er! Baby siss-er!" is six months old today. I think celebrating month birthdays is a bit silly, but this one is a pretty big deal for us. Eleanor was diagnosed at exactly six months of age, and it marked the end of life as we knew it. Life before cancer, and life after. For Penelope, it is just another wonderfully glorious day of being the fattest, happiest, healthiest baby I know. She has two teeth and is chowing down on all kinds of big-girl food. She sleeps and sits and smiles and laughs. She is joy. 

She is health. 

She is hope.

She is love(d).

Sweet, sweet P.

Outdoor Adventures

My last post was all about indoor, "rainy day" activities, so I thought I would share some outdoor, "sunny day" adventures!

Wearing her sisters toque

Waiting for the bus

On said bus

At the park (this thing spins around really fast. So fast she fell over when she got off!)

Random sleepy baby shot - because Eleanor now says "sleepy baby". Also because awwwwww

Naked Botchi (or boules, depending on your country of origin)

Dolly-wearing on the beach

Poor Dolly!

Building Blocks

I hate Lego. I always have. Eleanor has a Lego set that creates a treehouse for Pooh Bear and his 100 Acre Woods friends. We have had it for two years and hadn't played with it too much. All she wanted to do was mouth the pieces and then when she grew out of that, she would smash what I had just created. I was okay with that, but it wasn't super fun for either of us. The same goes for colouring and painting or playing with Playdoh. I figured she just wasn't into fine motor, rainy day activities. 

Well, like everything with Eleanor, a little time and distance equals progress. 

She built this all by herself. It's not particularly "good" or interesting or remarkable but I think it's amazing. I didn't coach her on what goes where, or how to fit pieces together, she just worked it out. And even with my hatred of Lego and my "if it doesn't look like the box, WHATS THE POINT?" mentality, I think this is cool. 

It probably would have been cooler if she hadn't been reciting "shit, shit, shit!" the whole time. I kept saying, "oh sit! Mummy sits here, Eleanor sits there. Sit sit sit." I have no idea what she was trying to say. 

And as for the other stuff, well, that's exploding too. She loves colouring with her crayons and playing with finger paints. I think because she spent the last year+ working on her gross motor (she was exclusively bum scooching this time last year!), she never had time to pay attention to the smaller things.

One of those "smaller things" is her speech and language. She has gone from a First Word(sign) User to a Combiner in a few short weeks. She is starting to use short phrases and they are usually requests (call daddy) and I can never say no. 

And she can say her name. The most beautiful sound in a single word... Eh-nore! My love for flowery girl names is coming back to bite me on the ass. I knew they would be tricky to spell, but I never realized how hard they would be to say! Poor Penelope has been given the unfortunate nickname "PP" and Eleanor makes valiant attempts at her own name, but it still sounds a little like Pooh's melancholy donkey friend. 

What's up Eeyore? Stuck in a water trough? Sucks to be you.

She is catching up by leaps and bounds. Everyday she seems more like her peers. I'm so excited to watch all these new developments unfold and hear so many new words... even the naughty ones!

Say "Ahhhhh...!"

Today I was graced with the task of taking Eleanor to the dentist. In Vancouver.

Road trip...?

ROAD TRIP!!

We went to see the dentist here a few months back and made the decision to move her care over to BC Children's. We could get her teeth fixed here, but it would take a lot longer and I was assured that if we went the BCCH route, it would be done before Christmas.

And the irony of making a trip to Vancouver three months into our first six-month scan rotation is not lost on me!

I took a peek in her mouth earlier this week, and it is pretty devastating. Her top right baby molar is all but gone. It's just a brown, rotten stump. I take some solace in the fact that it was probably dead when it broke through, as it doesn't seem to cause her any pain. I hope it doesn't cause her any pain. The dentist said to watch out for swelling and any other sign of infection, otherwise her surgery is booked for the end of November. They will extract the ones they can't save, which costs less (yay!), but will probably mean orthodontic work later (boo).

Dental plan!

Lisa needs braces.

Dental plan! 

I have to say, the staff in the dentist office were incredible. The dentist was so awesome with Eleanor. I have no faith that she will do as she's told or stay calm, but some health professionals are so incredible with kids, even Eleanor will comply! Or maybe she's just less cranky.

It is pretty hard to be cranky with these cool shades.

The receptionist found a loophole after I recoiled at the price tag attached to the consult. In fairness, it was over $100! For a five minute visit! But she made it work and another lady came and talked to me about payment plans and government assistance. People really take pity on those of us without dental insurance. I knew about all the programs they offered, I just liked them being so lovely to me. It was kind of a crazy day. Hauling Eleanor and her sister all the way to Children's and back on my own was a teensy bit stressful. Eleanor was pretty good, but by the time we got on the ferry to come home, Penelope had reached her limit. She's asleep beside me right now and still sniffling from crying so hard. Poor thing. Eleanor basically put herself to bed and told her daddy before he left her room, "Daddy? Home. Mummy, daddy, baby home."

                          ***

Eleanor met a boy on the ferry. He took her by the hand and walked her around the top deck. Twice. There's that compliance again! 

The further she gets away from cancer treatment, the less feisty she seems to be. Whenever she gets into situations like this or when a kid takes something from her, I always get down to her level and tell her she can say "no". She rarely ever does. 

Unless it is her sister who is ruining her mojo. Then it's fair game!

Tummy time in the playground, anyone?

I try not to interfere too much, because I know she is capable of saying "no", and if it was really upsetting her, she would show it in some way or another. I just wish she would show a little of that spark to the rest of the world. I wish she would display what we see at home to the world around us. I hope she knows what an incredible warrior she is. Sometimes she just seems so passive.

Yoink. 

Bless. 

Ultrasound? More Like Ultrasuck!

It's been three months since Eleanor's last trip to Vancouver for scans. Her doctor over there has extended her time between scans to six months, so this is the longest we have been away from Children's. Crazy. But kind of awesome. In lieu of a scan, he requested that Eleanor get an abdominal ultrasound at the hospital here. I got the letter in the mail about a month ago and the very chipper automated message robot kept calling me last week (Hello! I'm calling to remind you that Eleanor Goudie is to have an ultrasound at Victoria General Hospital...). I felt confident that it would go smoothly and Eleanor would lie still and be fascinated with the procedure. After all, there would be no pokes, no sedation, nothing scary at all. She would just miss breakfast and it would all be just fine.

Boy was I wrong.

We woke up nice and early and Kris helped me get the girls ready. We put on Sesame Street for Eleanor while we stuffed the diaper bag full of goodies for afterwards. I sat down to finish my tea and realized that the episode we had put on was all about food! Every single sketch/clip was about food. Eleanor noticed and started pointing out said food and asking for "bah??" and "toe??" (banana and toast, with extra question marks for her fierce up-speak). I ushered her out the door and into the car. We were going to be seriously early but there was too much temptation in the house. To kill some time. I went through the drive-thru starbucks and got a coffee. She was still on to me. "Nim? Nim?" while signing for milk. Frack. "No Eleanor, it's coffee for mummy. Yucky coffee."

We arrived at the hospital 30 minutes before her procedure, which is what the friendly robot told me to do, and I kept my fingers crossed that we could get in early. No dice. We waited with all the other people... sorry, I meant to say OLD people. We were spoiled rotten to spend so much time in a children's hospital. Being a toddler in a grown-up hospital stinks. Being the mother of a toddler in a grown-up hospital IS THE WORST! There was nothing for her to do and she was seriously antsy. We walked in circles, read magazines, sanitized our hands and we still had more 20 minutes to fill. The other patients were not impressed. I suppose it wouldn't have been that bad if it was just the two of us, but I had a tired Penny strapped to my chest and she was begging to sleep. She has reached this point where she is not cool sleeping "on the go" so I often end up with a baby crying herself to sleep right in my face. It's a little bit tough, but today she was doing okay.

They finally called in us and the second Eleanor got up on the bed, she freaked out. She was writhing around, crying, screaming - you name it. No one had even touched her. She's had lots of heart echoes and she doesn't love them, but she's never reacted so poorly. I tried to comfort her by singing songs, stroking her hair, kissing her forehead... nothing seemed to work. The tech wasn't much help, but she moved as quickly as she could to get us out of there. She did the right side, the left side and then checked out her pelvis. Great. Let's go home. I gave Eleanor a bag of grapes to get her satiated and we headed down the hall. We were almost at the reception desk when she grabbed us and said, "I didn't realize we were supposed to do the whole abdomen! I need you back."

Let the tantrum begin!

Holy hell. She screamed so loud and started crying hysterically. Penelope started to chime in at this point and I would like to extend a huge F-U to the woman who walked by with her fingers in her ears as I scrambled to pick up one child while juggling my bag, our coats and two crying children. Give me a break. Seriously. I carried her kicking and screaming back into the room and somehow we made it through. We got out to the car and I sat there and wondered would it have been better to go to Vancouver? Would the travel, the sedation, the hassle have been better than that gong show I had just experienced? Why on earth did she freak out so much? Maybe I treated it too lightly. Maybe she needed more prep before hand. Maybe she just felt gross because she was hungry. I have no idea, but it was shocking. Next time I am definitely bringing another set of hands. And a colouring book!

I Spy With My (lazy) Eye...

We had our second visit to the pediatric ophthalmologist last week. We went two months ago and he checked Eleanor out, waved some things around her face and told us she needed glasses but they probably wouldn't work. I left his office feeling thoroughly confused and slightly perplexed. What was the point if they wouldn't work? I phoned my GP to go over the notes from this visit, but I never got a clearer answer. So I didn't get her glasses and waited til her next visit. 

I came armed with questions and he was much more forthcoming. He thinks she needs surgery to correct her right eye. It creeps into a cross eyed position pretty frequently and if they adjusted the muscle on the outside, it will most likely look normal. He suggested we try patching her good eye for *gulp* two hours a day and get her glasses. He reiterated that she won't tolerate either, but if we leave it untreated it will likely become wandering or will permanently cross. Apparently with this condition the brain tells the wonky eye to stop working. Yikes. 

So we've been stocking up on supplies! We picked up some pirate patches along with her surgical-bandaid-esque patches  so we could all be pirates together. We will see how that goes! - and we got her glasses. We are waiting for them to be ready and I'm kind of excited about it. She was really good about trying them on, and a bunch of adult frames which looked hilarious. 

Looks an awful lot like this:

She's even trying to wear her sunglasses.

So I'm optimistic about her ophthalmology. Surgery wouldn't be the worst thing to happen to her, but I think she's going to need a couple of teeth pulled next month, so if we can avoid more anesthetic and knives, we will do whatever it takes!