Thursday's...Things??

I'm really into taking pictures of the girls' eyelashes. Maybe I'm covetous. These are Anna's and let me tell you, this blurry picture was hard won. This is a girl that cannot stay still to save her life.

Rachel is a little uncomfortable holding Isaac. Of all the girls, she seems to care the least that he's around, but she still likes him.

 Speaking of Rachel, this is what her ankle looks like. It looks like she got burned. I'm treating by putting triple antibiotic ointment on it and covering it with gauze pads and tape. I change it every day. I've never felt more like a nurse.

And here she is in her broken-foot-boot and with her crutches. She's getting pretty good with the crutches. The orthopedist said that her broken foot is about 70% healed and that the horrible, awful-looking sore on her ankle will take longer to heal than her broken bones.

Anna is starting to refuse taking naps during the day and then passing out in random places and odd positions. This was two days ago. Yesterday it was at her high chair.

 This looks like a mess but it's actually really beautiful cypress vine and a green bean plant. You may not be able to see the green bean plant. Ella has picked quite a few green beans from the plant that we're going to eat for dinner tonight.

Here's a closer look at the pretty flowers. It's not a very good picture because I took it through the window instead of going outside. But there's snakes back there.

 We've never gotten the stump removed from our palms that died during the hard freezes we had this past winter. I think the stump looks lovely with this bitter melon vine growing on it.

 And look at my baby boy!! Look at his chubby cheeks. Ignore my double chin!

Thursday's...Tidbits??? Thidbits???

Do you know it's near on impossible for me to write anything here without some pictures to prompt me. Isn't Sarah cute with her baby brother?

You may or many not know that Rachel broke her foot and there were a few complications with the splint being on too tight. I don't know exactly what's going on here but I think it has something to do with her skin dying. Anyway, it's getting better every day. Next time she's hobbling around in her boot and crutches I'll snap a photo. She's cute.

There are blisters all over the dead skin area...or whatever that is. The orthopedist said it was fine and told us to expect blisters. It looks terrible though doesn't it.

Ella has the most lovely eyes. She's got these lines around the outer edge of her iris. And beautiful eye lashes.

I thought this acorn was pretty.

Other than school and nursing and sleeping and making food and wasting time on FB and playing Bejeweled Blits (thanks a lot Johanna) life is pretty normal around here.

24 Weeks.

Sorry, but since I'm always the one taking the pictures I can never get my face in.  Besides, I don't want to scare you off.  This morning I was hold Lily after she had hurt herself.  I had her propped up on top of my belly and Rachel said, "Mom, Lily is sitting on Isaac."  It was really funny.

Update on Rachel's Eyes

Rachel's crossed eye has regressed to all-out lazy eye (amblyopia).  She now must be patched three hours a day until she's seven or so.  As you can see, she's not all that happy about it.  She is a very mild-mannered girl and so she is just weepy about it, but she hasn't protested much.  She's playing a game on the computer right now.  Poor little Ray.

And the Verdict Is...

Accommodative Esotropia (AE).

A fancy word for crossed eyes. I ended up not going to the appointment with Rachel, Del went instead. Getting information from him is like pulling teeth. It takes several days to get all the facts out of him. ROTFLOL. Del's quirks...he's so funny.

So what I know is that she needs glasses. Vision in her left eye is +4.00. Vision in her right eye is +5.50. Quite a difference, so her brain is ignoring the signals it's getting from the right eye. I knew this (from reading about Savannah...thank you Meagan) and from my own research. Del was shocked to learn that she will go blind in that eye if we don't take care of it.

Even though it's hard to get info from him, I'm glad he went because I don't think he realized the severity of the situation. He was a little skeptical when I was talking to him about what I read but to hear the doctor say that she will go blind if we don't take care of it...he came home a changed daddy.

Rachel had her eyes dilated. She likes her cool sunglasses. She told me that the drops hurt and she cried. Ahhhh...poor girl.

We went to get her some glasses. The folks at Pearle Vision were sssooooooo nice. I wish I had taken Ella there. We tried her in a few frames and finally settled on these. It's not a very good picture. I'll get a better one when the actual glasses with lenses come in.

Isn't she so cute. I think they had better frames at Value Vision, but the doctor recommended Pearle Vision and the woman who helped us promised to get them back quickly so that we could get Rachel in them ASAP. She said, "Oooh, did you see Dr. C? I love her!! If I had kids I'd definitely take them to see Dr. C." So that was comforting.

I am glad that it's something so fixable. Dr. C said that it's a textbook case of AE. If the glasses don't fix the crossed eye, then they'll do surgery on the eye muscle, but she thinks the glasses will do it.

Some extra pics of Lily and Anna in some sunglasses.

Rachel

Rachel is always good for some classic kid one-liners.

Rachel: "Mama, why does my spit do that bubble thing in the back of my throat?"

Me: (while trying to not spit up my drink) "I don't know, honey, what do you mean?"

Rachel and the Faerie Queens

Sorry Johanna, I didn't mean to totally wipe out your post.

We bought new pepper plants after whatever-it-was ate the others (we think it might be raccoons now). We put them in the ground and immediately they were chowed down. But we managed to rescue this one with one leaf and now it's growing more leaves.

And this one ha already got a pepper growing on it. Wahoo!

Do I talk about Rachel a lot? It seems like I talk about her more than the rest of the girls. She's at that age though.

Monday I took her out on an errand to JoAnn's and to make it extra special the plan was to get her a freezy drinkie thingie. Whatever they are called.

I decided to pamper her real good and carried her around, whispered jokes in her ear and tickled her knees. I said, "Rachel you are so heavy. You're getting so big, why do you want to grow up like that?" And Rachel says back to me, "Because I want to wipe my own butt."

She's got lofty goals.

We have been studying the Renaissance in history. This week we read about Good Queen Bess. That's Queen Elizabeth I. Edmund Spencer wrote and epic poem about her called "The Faerie Queene." So as a project for a house full of giggling little girls, we made fairy wands. Lily is now pointing with her wand and saying things like, "I'm hungry" and "Go get it". I might have to take her little wand away. She's getting a wee bit too big for her britches.

In Which Rachel Slays Me

I want to discuss Rachel's ponytails.
I mean, do ponytails get any cuter than that?

Oh my goodness, stop it Rachel. You're killing me. Ponytails this cute should be illegal.

Rachel on Muffins

I was making blueberry muffins this morning. Yum-o. I had a little helper (term used very loosely). Rachel loves to sit on the stool and help, or watch or make trouble and generally gives a running commentary about whatever is being made, life, movies, sleep and whatever else is on her mind at the time.

As I was spooning the muffin batter into the muffin tin (although I don't know why I'd call it a tin since mine is a muffin stone) Rachel's question is:

"Mom, are those going to grow up to be muffins?"

Awesome. Love it. Can I get a snuggle and a nuzzle and a kiss please?