The Daily Hailey

I hope everyone who was in youth ten-ish years ago is singing Toby Mac. “These are extreeeeeeeeeme, extreme daaaaays! We’re livin’, we’re livin’, we’re living in extreme days days…” Anyone?! Am I the only dorky one here? Probably.

Today was filled with a LOT of emotion, I won’t lie. I know I don’t exactly qualify for the most emotionally steady person, but it was a I was already anticipating nervously, and then more came.

We’ve been having some issues with our basement bathroom the last week or so. The other day, I peed in the toilet and when I flushed, it acted like it was plugged. I didn’t think anything of it, and tried to flush it again a minute or two later. Same story. I told Brady, and when he tried to plunge it, the water came out the drain in our bathroom floor where our sump pump runs. Sooo nasty! We called about it last week, but finally got some help out this morning. Our plumber said it wasn’t him that we needed, but actually the town people. I am completely thankful that they came, because everything is fixed. However, Dekker was scared of them and was losing his mind the whole time they were in our house. Not their fault. However, the smoke smell and the dirty wet boot prints all over my carpet and all through my house are. It was hard for me to swallow. I know they had to make multiple trips to their truck and stuff, and then would be working with nasty toilet stuff, but its just hard to see muddy footprints everywhere I look. Our furnace room was already a wreck, but now its even worse. Thats not their fault at all, as it was us who filled it with boxes. Basically, I’m thankful that they fixed everything, but the clean up for me is looking pretty daunting. I finally got the kids loaded into the van to head to Laela’s eye appointment.

*Fun story about the morning! Dekker called his corn pops amaza-pops!!!

I dropped Dekker off at Grandma Willa’s first. When he saw her, he squealed with excitement, and bolted from the van. He went with her and didn’t look back. What a relief!!! It was great to know he’d be completely happy while we were gone.

We got into Laela’s preliminary testing almost  half hour early, which was great. She did quite well through her tests, and the orthoptist said she looks great! Its hard to know anything for sure, being that she can’t really tell us anything, and also because she’s still little enough that she can’t see as far as maybe you or I could. But she did as well as any other 8.5 month old baby would. We waited a bit longer and got in with Dr. Rubab at our scheduled time. Again, Laela did fairly well, until it was eye drop time. She was piiiiissed! Luckily, she’s still little, and I could just lay her on my lap and hold her hands, and Dr. Rubab could put in the drops. Laela cried and cried, but once we left the exam room she perked up. We had a 30-45 minute wait after her drops went in before we’d see Dr. Rubab again, so we went down to grab a coffee. My little light-sensitive girl was getting tired, but was still fairly content. Just a bit twitchy. Oh! And she clapped her hands together by herself for the first time ever!! She’s such a sweetheart. My little sweetheart, however, was pretty finished by the time we saw Dr. Rubab again. She cooperated for a couple of minutes but wouldn’t have the last and most important test. Again, we had to lay her down and force her eyes open so Dr. Rubab could look behind them.

The little miss has a pretty wicked astigmatism. For a refresher, that means her eyes are shaped more like footballs. The rest of us has small ones. Dekker’s is the biggest at 1.00, then me at 0.75, and Brady at 0.25. You don’t have to know what those numbers mean, but Laela’s is 2.50. Her vision seems fine otherwise, from what we can tell, but if I came in with the same situation, with the same astigmatism of 2.50, I would be given glasses based solely on that. However, because she’s still so little, her eyes can still change shape. So. No glasses! Not today. We’ll go in again in about eight months. Her appointment is on the one year anniversary of Dekker’s eye surgery, haha! Gross, hey? At that point, if her eyes haven’t developed far enough, she will be in glasses.

This was sort of a good news/bad news situation to me. I’m so glad her vision looks good and normal for her age. But I’m sad that her astigmatism is bigger than it should be. As I drove away, I struggled with wishing we hadn’t gone, because then I wouldn’t have to stress about everything for the next eight months. Yet, if we went for our first time in eight months and she came out with glasses, I’d be really disappointed and more caught off guard. At least I know the possibilities. I don’t know. I’m pretty mixed about the whole thing.

Another thing I was planning on dealing with today was Dekker’s glasses. His one year warranty rolls over on Friday and I was hoping to get his frames replaced before then. I called this morning and was given a pretty serious run around, so I was going to go in. I had a friend lined up to come help and everything. But after Laela’s appointment, I was feeling so emotional and upset and just generally off kilter that I knew I would go in, and bawl my eyes out. Today just wasn’t the day for it 🙁 I know I’ll have to drive in again just for that, which is unfortunate and expensive, but it just wasn’t in me today. Instead, I went and picked up an iced coffee and drove home.

I’m so relieved that my house doesn’t smell anymore! No smoke is leftover, nor the stench of all the chemicals that were dumped down the drain. I was nervous about that when I left, but it all seems back to normal, minus the footprints. The toilet even flushes.

I probably should feel more relaxed and happy to be home, but I just feel heavy. And cold. And like I might implode at any moment. So I’m hiding downstairs. The kids were wiped out so they slept in the van. Dekker only for the last fifteen minutes or so, so there’s hope he’ll go back down. He’s in bed, anyway. But Laela was asleep before we were out of the city, so she’s up. I’m sure she’ll have a rest at some point still, but she’ll definitely stagger with Dekker. Thats ok. I love my kids. I’m just feeling pretty overwhelmed.

Just want things to be in order. But doesn’t everybody?