Eye to Eye

Riley had a minor, elective surgery on November 30th. She was born with her tear ducts clogged in both eyes, after a few months the left eye cleared up but the right eye never did. When we mentioned this at her 12 month appointment Riley's doctor said they could refer her to an ophthalmologist. Well, then covid exploded and that never happened. We didn't really care to push it because we were about to be on free health insurance where everything is covered. So then at her 18 month appointment we did get a referral, unfortunately since we are on the military insurance we have limited providers we can see, most pediatric specialists are at Walter Reed, a seven minute drive from our house. The pediatric ophthalmologist happens to be a Fort Belvoir which is 45 minutes away. So, already not a great start to this whole process. 

It was quite the journey to actually get us to the surgery day. Lots of appointments and lots of hemming and hawing by me and Ben. There are definite downsides to being married to a doctor and one of them is knowing way too many things to be worried about. After telling Ben the procedure to unclog the tear duct would require anesthesia he mentioned that made him a little worried because of the lack of studies around giving children anesthesia. Obviously, they think it's safe, but ethically you can't pick a random amount of children, put them under anesthesia, and see how they all turn out. Eventually after thought and prayer we decided that we would trust the current medical opinion that the anesthesia wouldn't negatively affect Riley's development. We were comforted by the fact that the surgery would be just 30-45 minutes. 

We were scheduled to arrive at the hospital at 6:15 am. So that meant waking Riley up around 5:20. She actually handled that much better than her parents, after she rubbed the sleep from her eyes she was ready for the day to start. Once we got to the hospital and all checked in we had a great time. They had a little toy car and I pushed Riley around and around until they were ready for her. Before they took her away they gave her something to make her a little loopy so that she wouldn't get too stressed when they took her away from me. Below is a video to show how out of it she was. (Notice that she was drooling a little, but couldn't seem to figure out how to stop it.)

After the surgery was a whole other animal. Walking back to post op and seeing Riley with wires all over her, completely limp, and screaming like a banshee was slightly traumatic. As I tried to calm Riley down while talking with the nurse my stress level was pretty high. The nurse was obviously not used to pediatric patients and didn't really handle all the screaming very well. I could feel her nervous energy and it wasn't helping. Luckily, she asked her boss if she could let Ben come back and it was a huge help. He was able to deal with all the paperwork and chatting with the doctors while I tried to contain Riley. I need both hands and all my attention to deal with her since her body was still not fully awake. 

We spent the rest of the day trying to take it easy and watching Olaf's Frozen Adventure. I seriously underestimated how much Riley would fall in love with that Olaf show. At one point there are wolves that chase Olaf. Riley thought it was the best things ever and almost every day since she has mentioned, "Puppies chasing Olaf," while throwing her head back and laughing. That girl. 

Long story short I'm never ever planning to sign my child up for an elective surgery. If it's not threatening they can take care of it as a teenager. No clogged tear duct was worth all this. 

Just because this post was pretty boring here are a few random videos that I forgot to add to my last post: 

Funny Girl

Riley is the main source of entertainment in this house. She has some funny little quirks that keep us laughing. First off, she gets startled pretty easy. Sometimes by things you wouldn't expect. The other day Riley was requesting to look at our bellybuttons, not an uncommon ask. Right when Riley touched Ben's bellybutton he stuck out his belly. Riley immediately fell to the floor, curled up, and said, "Riley sleeping." She wasn't sure what she'd done, but she figured pretending to be a sleep was a good alibi. 

Sometimes we will scare her on purpose, usually she thinks it's funny when we jump out and scare her. She laughs and asks us to do it again. One night she was going back and forth from the kitchen to the living room. When she would enter the living room I'd hide somewhere and scare her. She thought it was great fun and asked to be scared again. After a few scares, Ben snuck into the kitchen and hid under the counter. When she went back into the kitchen he jumped out and it was immediately clear the game was over. Whether it was the intensity of the growl or the fact that she thought the kitchen was her safe space she was not feeling it. You know it was too much of a scare if instead of laughing she says, "Hug...hug!" 

Another funny, but maybe also troubling thing is Riley's relationship with Alexa. It's a little sad that a two year old already talks to an Alexa. And sadder that in no fewer than 5 occasions I've called Riley Alexa. It's honestly the name I say the most in a day! Although, I guess it's good that I believe most the times I've accidentally called her Alexa it was when I was exasperated with her. I obviously associate that feeling with Alexa more than Riley. Alexa is our DJ, so all throughout the day we are asking her to play different songs. In the morning, we always ask her to play something as Riley drinks some milk. One morning, every time I asked Alexa to play something she'd say something like, "I'm having trouble understanding right now. Try again later." Ever since then when I ask Alexa to do something and she doesn't respond Riley will say, "Lexa troubled." 

I'm not sure if this next thing is funny or just a little curious, but Riley is very sensitive to sound. Recently she has started telling me that the music is too loud and to turn it down. We've had a fan in Riley's room for a while now and this last week she's made us turn it down to the lowest setting, saying the medium setting was too loud. She will also decide she doesn't like a certain book or page of a book if it seems too loud. We have a book where a character is snoring and even though I tried not to read the sound effect too loud she is now terrified of that book. 

Riley knows our neighborhood very well. There is a blue car that's always parked a few houses down that Riley is obsessed with. Every time we walked by she would say, "Blue car there!" Well one day the blue car had a tarp covering it. For a girl who doesn't get out much, it was a major moment! At first she was very distressed, but eventually she got behind the idea that the car was sleeping. In this video you can hear her talk about the blue car being so sleepy. I couldn't capture her little hand motion that she usually does with it. She'll rest her head on her hand and lean over while saying, "Blue car so sleepy," and it's just adorable. 

This video might not be for everyone. It's got some potty talk. I just think she sounds so cute. Riley has started really dreading diaper changes. She's fine once she's on the changing table, but just the idea of being taken away from the toys she's playing with really distresses her. When I ask to check her diaper she'll shake her hands up and down saying, "No, no, no, no, no!" We eventually convince her to let us change her diaper, but one of her tactics for delaying the diaper change is to try and convince us she's not really poopy. 

I won't say I was very happy when Ben showed Riley this game, but she is pretty cute when it's happening. It's a pretty quick activity with a much longer clean up, but what can you do. One day when we were cleaning up I circled a bunch of balls with my arms and said, "I have ALL the balls." Riley thought it was hilarious and that is what you'll hear her mimicking in the video. She absolutely cracks us up as she uses this same voice for lots of things. Declaring that she has ALL the pants, ALL the combs, or ALL the cars. 

A little better angle of the game...

She's a pretty good little talker, but sometimes there are words where she can't quite get all the letters in the right order. This video is of one of my favorite words. 

This video was just really so everyone could appreciate how much this girl loves to talks. She talks and talks and talks. Usually the only way to help her stop repeating something over and over is to repeat it back to her, but that's only if she was looking for acknowledgment. Sometimes she just likes to hear her voice and I just love it. Recently I'll hear he use little words when she's playing with her toys or looking at book as if she's reading it to herself. It's the first hints that I can see of real imaginative little kid play and it's so fun to watch.  

There is a point of this video that is incredibly embarrassing for me, but I love it so much I'm still putting it up! The first half of the video is Riley trying to mimic a little sound Ben was making with his lips. When she eventually lays down and attempts to do a crunch you will hear me laugh and when I speak I sound a little like a demon. I was just overcome. When Riley trying to sit up from a laying down position on her own it's easily one of the best things she does. It is hysterical to me. 

Riley will often workout with me at some point during my workouts. It's always absolutely adorable, but I'm rarely in a position to capture it. Make sure to at least watch until you hear her pronunciation of squatting. Also she later saying she's doing a yoga squat. She calls any form of exercise yoga. I do yoga maybe 1-2 times a week, but whenever we go downstairs it's to do "yoga".