it's getting closer

akaiya will be getting surgery on her eyes this thursday (as long as she remains healthy). we have been going back and forth on repairing her ptosis for about 4 years now...we wanted it, the doc didn't really think it was necessary...now he agrees that it needs to be fixed. i will write down what is in his letter to akaiya's pediatrician so i don't mess up any of the details of what is happening.

...Congenital ptosis; exotropia. Fortunately no occlusive amblyopia or other functional ocular deficits were observed in association with this. This degree of ptosis definitely impairs upper visual field use. Ptosis surgery (levator resection) and exotropia surgery (lateral rectus recession) is therefore scheduled for July 2...

obviously she will be under anesthesia, which makes mommy very nervous! surgery is only supposed to last 45 minutes and he said that she will be able to return to school on monday. if you have a chance please send some happy thoughts our way that day.

kaiya currently looks like she entered a boxing match - and lost. one of her top front teeth is still hanging on by a thread. it's actually sitting crooked in the center of her mouth. she was outside for about 5 minutes last night, but it was enough time for those evil mosquitos to get to her. she has pretty severe reactions to the bites. she got bit on her right temple so that is all swollen, and she also got bitten on the right side of her neck right under the ear so that has a big old swollen welt...poor kid :( she's pretty itchy so we're going the benedryl route to see if that helps.

....another one bites the dust...

so one of the front teeth that was loose finally fell out. kaiya was hanging out with her aunt and cousins for the night and when mommy came in (at midnight...) everyone was scrambling around on the floor looking for something. when i said hi, kaiya looked at me and smiled so i could see the big hole where her tooth used to live. the tooth was finally located (whew..she didn't swallow it!) now we're just waiting for the other top front tooth to go. it's already moved over a bit so that it looks like it's directly in the middle of her mouth. she looks pretty silly right now...mommy will post pics when she gets over how goofy her little girl looks ;) i keep telling her not to smile, but she's so sassy she's been smiling even more (if that's even possible...)

apparently kaiya thinks that she's a big girl now too b/c she hasn't taken a nap in the past couple of days. usually she's my sleeping partner, but now she's too busy playing around to take a nap.

she's also on a huge eating kick (YAY!) i have added another meal to her day so now she get's breakfast, snack, lunch, dinner, and fourthmeal (thank you taco bell for the invention of that little phrase). hopefully she starts packing on some pounds. it's finally summer here and she needs some meat on her legs to look good in all these dresses and skirts ;)

all i want for christmas is my two front teeth...

well, maybe it's a little early to sing that song, but kaiya's two top front teeth are loose. very loose. kaiya has already lost her four bottom front teeth - and now she's going to lose the top two. the kid is going to look hilarious! at least the bottom four started to grow in quickly, although they stopped growing at about halfway in... her new favorite activity is to play with the loosest tooth with her tongue. she pushes it wayyyy out, and then sucks it back in - it's really gross, but she is entertained ;)

some other things that are going on...kaiya finished school last week. she will start summer school in a week and a half. kaiya's mommy also finished school - graduated in fact - and got a really amazing job that i can't wait to begin! so there will be a lot of change happening in our house, but it's all for the better ;)

videos

i was recently reminded of a couple of videos of akaiya that are posted on youtube. they are both around 2 years old - so they aren't the most up to date, but still cute ;)

the first one is of kaiya eating a cheeto. kaiya doesn't put many food items into her mouth on her own, cheetos are one of the few food items she likes enough to feed herself. cheetos and marshmallow peeps - junkfood. yeah, she's definitely my kid!




the next video shows akaiya doing some talking. lots of ya ya ya, ga ga ga, and some typical kaiya yells in there too ;) mommy forgot to rotate the video before it was uploaded so you might have to turn your head or the computer...whatever works best for you ;)

am i being too sensitive

the other day i had an interaction that left me feeling slightly ticked off. i was standing at the end of the driveway waiting for akaiya's bus to pull up and a neighbor was walking out of her house to get her mail. she said hi and asked me how akaiya liked school. i told her she loved it and figured that was that. well she goes on to say "oh i'm sure she does. it's so wonderful that they have something like that for her, the poor thing." and i'm not one to be easily offended - trust me - i have very thick skin. but for some reason this just put me on edge. and i still haven't been able to forget it. the poor thing? really?!? is that what she is? i think kaiya has a very full life. she has a large family that adores her. she has teachers and therapists that dote on her every day. she has made friends in her class (and even a boyfriend...lol). everywhere we go people are drawn to her and she makes them smile. how can you look at someone like that and say "the poor thing" ? i don't ever look at kaiya and pity her - quite the opposite. this kid is living the life! she has everyone wrapped around her little finger willing to entertain her.

instead i pity the next-door neighbor, for not having an open enough mind to see that my daughter is a person too.