See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil

This is a little overview of the past year or more and the ailments that have plagued my children.

Payden has needed glasses since she was about three and a half years old. The thing that drew our attention to this fact is that she started crossing her eyes consistently as seen here...

 and then even with the glasses she crossed them a bit.

2009

 It turned out not only was her vision far from good, she had some muscle weakness in both eyes but the right more so than the left.

2010

 Just a few pictures of her in her glasses about every year she's had them.

2011

 And 2012. One thing you can't deny she sure is gorgeous!

 So we've stayed on top of normal checkups for her eyes. Her prescription has changed a couple times and the plan of attack for strengthening the muscles has been exhausted.

 Mostly helpful siblings.

 On top of the patching that we were doing two hours a day...

...we added dilating drops to the stronger eye over many weekends to try and get her to use her right eye.

Eventually she ended up having surgery that actually happened today. So I have a whole new post to work on about today. At the moment she is sleeping on the couch with Mulan playing in the background while I blog away.

That is the See No Evil part.

On to the Hear No Evil

There are plenty of times where I doubt if my kids can hear my voice. But I was starting to get worried with Lincoln last year about this time. We took him in to get checked out and found out that ironically he had hearing loss in his left ear, right at the tone of my voice!!?! Seriously it was a little funny I just had to laugh. Turns out he's a lot like his dad and needed tubes. This kid had many many ear infections and actual tubes in his ears were having a hard time healing and it was causing some major hearing loss. So by the time we scheduled his procedure for putting the tubes in I had a feeling it wasn't as bad anymore and sure enough he passed with perfect hearing, so after chatting through everything with Jer we opted out of the surgery in hopes he would continue to stay healthy and we could avoid the procedure and still have a boy able to hear his momma. Only mildly important right?

Now for the Speak No Evil and final portion...

All of our kids have had their first dentist appointments starting at about three years old and it's mostly to get them used to the discipline of regular cleanings and habits of taking care of your teeth. Well, Hailey's first appointment over a year ago brought out the realization that I wasn't imagining things when I thought her teeth looked a little...weird, for lack of a better word. The dentist said to keep an eye on them and then right before the next regular 6 month cleaning I noticed many black spots on her back teeth. Turns out she has soft enamel which basically means she is a carnival for cavities! So my lovely crazy Hailey got a special trip to a pediatric dentist who filled all of her cavities in one visit.

 

This place won her over pretty quickly. Dress up, computers, instruments, and games galore in the waiting room. Inside the gals that work here talk like Disney princesses. They told Hailey she would get to breath cotton candy air and eat popsicle's before she even got to see the dentist, and watch whatever Disney movie she wanted.

 

The little bit of  happy gas distracted her from the multiple little pokes she got to numb her up before her little teeth got cleaned out and protected. She was one happy girl enjoying her popsicle and Ariel.

 

One brave girl...and got everything done in one visit!

Proudly displaying her pretty teeth and her bounty of prizes!

So there you have it, the Schumacher round-up of ailments that have been taken care of, or took care of themselves. I'm thankful that God provides through so many unique ways and my children have been the recipients of doctor's expertise, their bodies doing what they should, and the ability to help them thrive when their bodies fail them. He reminds me all the time that I can't control or protect my children from everything I'd like, but He has got them all the time! What a comfort!