"It hurt."

This is Lucy's arm. I bet you will never guess what happened there...

 - My Office telephone rings -

Blah, Blah, Blah, "This is Cori."

"Cori, this is K at DayCare." (That always makes me nervous!)

"Oh, hello!" I say all coy and stuff.

"I just wanted to call you and let you know that Lucy got bit today."

I admit; my first thought was, "by what?" But, it dawned on me quickly as I muttered, "Ohh..."

K continued, "We have a biter [in DayCare]. I put a cold cloth on it; but, it didn't break the skin. She just may have a bruise in the next couple of days."

I didn't really know what to say. I don't really remember where the conversation even went after that. We discussed Lucy's own demeanor and apparently she is a "pusher." To which Heath and I both agreed, if she shoved the girl after she was bit, then good for her! I certainly hope she sticks up for herself. :{

I just imagine poor Lucy staring at the girl in confusion, while she bit her arm. Then, slowly starting a silent, gasping cry. :( Poor girl. But, for the rest of the day, I tried to put it out of my mind. I mean, what was I going to do? say?

I know one thing, I wanted to know who did it. K didn't indicate who had. I knew that I would hold a personal grudge on said child...it was killing me.  I figured if I asked Lucy, she would tell me.

When I picked Lucy up at DayCare, I immediately went to her arms. I saw the same red, teeth shaped mark as you did above, with a little bit of swelling too. I said, "Well, someone small bit you." Lucy looked at me with a concerned face and said the name. I didn't understand her at first, until the other DayCare ladies told me who it was. Then, the name became clear to me. Ahhh....it was another little girl, just a bit older than Lucy. The ladies went on to tell me that the little girl bit two other kids that day too. I thought, hopefully her parents have been given some type of warning or something. That is a little out of hand! Three times? Three different children? That is a serious behavior issue.

All night, every time we said "arm" or "hurt." Lucy would say, "[So-and-So] bite me. It hurt."

It was pretty sad. These are the hardest parts of having a child in DayCare. I just want to protect Lucy every second of the day, at least until she's...um, let's say...18...haha. Or better yet, forever!

There really isn't much I can do. I know that the Director was concerned and knew that I'm the psycho mommy that she might want to call and warn. I guess that is kind of nice to know. I just hope Lucy doesn't start biting people now!

Big Girl Room: Update

Heath painted Lucy's room! :) He did a really, really good job too. I asked a hard challenge of him, by painting two walls white, one wall purple, and one wall teal. Meeting in the corners was difficult; but, he did awesome! :) I wish I had the pictures gathered to show you.

Disappointingly enough, I haven't gathered any of the photos yet. BUT, we did take a few photos on our phones! :) So, here they are - just a sneak peak until I gather more photos and we completely finish the room.

First of all, I gathered the paint samples, the true colors, for you to see. Hopefully the colors are true on my iphone camera (they are the top, darker ones).

Once Heath painted the walls, I started to paint smaller items that I had collected....

(You can see a teal wall in the top of the photo.)

 Like this candle stick that I have no idea what I'm going to do with...but, I thought it would be cute painted.

Or, this large wood frame that I hope to use on the wall in the room.

As you can see, there were some smaller frames that we also painted, and some letters.


 Do you remember in Lucy's nursery, how her name was on the wall?

 

Of course, we had to put her name in her new room too! :) So, we repainted the letters to hang.

Before:

(The picture looks yellowy because of the lighting.)

 

After:

The frame was a fantastic touch! Want to know where we got it? :)

My cousin had her mirror break in her dorm room. So, she was left with just a pink frame. When she asked if I wanted it, I thought, "Sure!" I knew I could do something with it. But, when I framed Lucy's name, it was perfect! :) We didn't have to do anything to the frame either; Heath just hung it! It was already a perfect color!

All I can leave you with now is a shot of the curtain rod we got at Lowe's.

It's pretty cute too! :) It doesn't add a lot to the room; but, it was too cute to pass up.

Hopefully I can show the entire room later this week. Stay tuned!

Optimistic at the Ophthalmologist

Back at Lucy's 18 month appointment, our doctor checked Lucy's eyes. A student from the Medical Center was in the room as well, as Dr. B explained that Lucy's eyes looked as if they had a slight... "stra.... something-or-another, but they didn't." I admit the word was way over my head and I had no idea what she was talking about.

Once she was done explaining what she was looking for to the student, in medical jargon, I asked her what it meant. She said that sometimes when she would look at Lucy, it looked as though one of her eyes was facing outward. Dr. B was basing this on how the light reflected off of Lucy's eyes. She said that sometimes it looked like the reflection was in two different spots on each eye. But, she assured us that it was probably nothing. I just figured, I have never noticed anything, so must not be anything...

Then, at my 14 week appointment with Dr. B in March, when we went to hear the baby's heartbeat, we took Lucy. When Dr. B walked into the room, she said something about Lucy's eyes. I then reminded her that she had mentioned it once before, a long while ago. She said the same thing this time, when she first looked at Lucy the reflection of light looked off, then when she looked at her again, it appeared fine.

Since this was the second time she had noticed it, she decided to get us an appointment with a pediatric ophthalmologist. She said that sometimes if one eye is weaker, then it will try to refocus and go outward. Since Lucy is so little, she may just not know that her eye is weak.

What was supposed to be a day of pure bliss, turned to slightly concerning. I was optimistic. I had never once noticed Lucy having a "wandering eye." I was certain that it was nothing. Heath, on the other hand, was purely bummed. He gets so upset when something is wrong with Lucy. I am just so thankful for the health she does have, that I don't allow myself to get down. If the worst thing for her to live with is glasses, so be it. I can deal with that.

So, the following week, we headed to the eye doctor...I mean ophthalmologist (I will never get used to the spelling of that word; no wonder people say "eye doctor").

Lucy was in good spirits, with baby Aurora in tote.

We went back, not knowing what to expect. How do you check a toddler's eyes? You can't exactly ask her if "the apple is on or off of the table," if you know what I mean.

The initial exam was great. The doctor told me what he was looking for and Lucy passed with flying colors. Now, she had to have her eyes dilated to make sure. In the mean time, he gave me brochure. It had sad pictures in it like this:

 

I just kept thinking, "I have never noticed Lucy's eye coming even close to looking like that."

He circled what they were apparently looking for with Lucy.

"I read and thought, "Aha! Strabismus must have been the word Dr. B used." Then, I read on. The final sentence was scary!

I was hoping even more now that it was nothing. Glasses are one thing, surgery is something totally different.

Then, there was this section of the brochure.

Wow, just when I needed something comforting...I just pretended that the next paragraph about risks didn't exist. They lost me at "bleeding"...(body shiver)

We were called back again for the second exam. It looked great! :)Whew! We have to go back for a follow-up, just in case. However, the doctor thought Lucy's eyes looked great!

Talk about relief. I threw that brochure in the bottom of the drawer. I hope to never see it again. I'm staying optimistic! :)