It's a Small World

I feel as if my life has been moving in fast-forward since February 1^st.  That is the day that Peyton was diagnosed.  There has just been so much going on in our lives.  I have actually had so much to blog about just not any time to actually sit down and write!

The title of my post is “It’s a Small World” for the several “small world” experiences that we have had lately.

Let me start with the WONDERFUL news that our house FINALLY has a contract on it.  Our house is a wonderful four-bedroom ranch in an amazing neighborhood, but it has its limitations for us.  It is four bedroom, but a small four bedroom with absolutely no storage space.  We are just bursting at the seams.  Also, we don’t really have much of a usable yard.  None of this was a problem when we moved in five and a half years ago, but we never intended to be here when we had children, much less two.  But the economy took a turn for the worse and we were pretty much stuck.  We are losing quite a bit of money on the house, but we are hoping to make it up when we buy and well everyone makes at least one bad investment in their lifetime, right?  Let’ s hope this is the only one.  It is a small world, because I think that I know the buyer, but I am not positive.  I guess I will find out at closing (May 4).

You are probably wondering where we are moving….and the answer is….my parents’ house! Since we knew that it was going to be a while for our house to sell, we did not want to find something that we love only to lose it because we couldn’t sell our house.  So we did not even really look until we got a contract on our house.  Since we lost money on this house, we want to look at our next house as an investment and hopefully get a deal on something.  This is going to be a difficult task. We actually fell in love with a home this past weekend and made an offer on Monday, only to find out that someone offered full asking price on Tuesday and it was accepted.  Total bummer….who offers asking price in this economy anyways??  The good news is, this helped me realize what I want.  The bad news is, my standards are now WAY too high and I probably want something that I can’t afford. So I think we have basically decided to take a step back, move in with my parents, and wait for something to show up on the market that fits our tastes and our budget.  It is going to be crowded since my little sister will be moving home from college this summer, but I don’t want to rush in to making a decision that we will regret.

About a month ago, Eric was at our neighborhood playground with Leah when he noticed a little girl with the same glasses that Peyton wears.  He asked the parents why she wore them, and they said that she was born with a cataract! The little girl was three years old, but was diagnosed as a baby.  The poor girl was not fitted with an implant lens like Peyton was and she developed scar tissue which caused severe glaucoma.  She has had to have subsequent surgeries to treat the glaucoma.  Anyways, Eric learned about the Atlanta Center for the Visually Impaired, which has been a great help to this family.  I plan on getting in touch with this center very soon. I wish that Eric had gotten the contact info for this family, but they left while Eric was busy swinging Leah and they actually don’t live in our neighborhood (they were just using our playground).  It is still always nice to know that we are not alone and that there are support systems out there. 

On the very same day, my dad was flying back from Chicago and whom was he sitting next to?  None other than the doctor that examined Peyton in the hospital…..basically the doctor that missed her cataract.  My dad actually did not know that she was THE doctor that saw Peyton, but he did ask her about infant cataracts.  She said that they are hard to find in newborns, etc.  I will admit that it is probably hard to find in a newborn because they don’t usually open their eyes, but this doctor did not even look at her eyes.   Anyways, that is all in the past now, but just kinda funny that he sat with her and on the same day that Eric met that other family.

Last time that I posted on my blog, we were in Hilton Head Island, SC for our much needed getaway!  We had a really great time.  Leah normally does not do well at the beach.  She does not tolerate heat well at all.  She gets very red and last time she even developed a horrible case of the hives.  Basically, she is forced to stay inside the whole time and someone has to stay with her.  Since it was March, she did not have any negative reactions to the weather.  She loved the pool (it was heated) and wanted to spend most of our time there.  She would not walk on the beach because she said that they sand was, “disgusting”.  I am not sure where she learned that word, probably from me changing her diapers.  Anyways, she would sit at the edge of the blanket and play in the sand, but she would not walk on the unpacked sand.  She would walk on the wet, packed sand and watch the water wash up.  Every time that we would enter the lobby of the hotel, Leah would start slow dancing to the classical music that was playing.  It was absolutely hysterical.  That is her latest thing…slow dancing and singing princess songs.  I just love that kid.

Peyton is still adjusting to her glasses, but she is doing quite well with them.  She is almost seven months old now!  This past weekend, she was baptized.  My dad actually performed the ceremony in front of three crosses and the lake that is behind my parents’ house.  It was beautiful, and I am so glad that we were able to share that moment with our wonderful family.  In other Peyton news, I am trying to get her to take a bottle and having a VERY hard time.  She literally acts like I am trying to feed her poison.  I know, I know….I should have had her on the bottle a long time ago, but it is just so easy to let her nurse.  If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.  I have tried different bottles.  I have tried breast milk and formula and she will literally take nothing from the bottle.  On top of that, she will not take baby food either! We have tried different types, but she just clamps her mouth shut.  I guess that she is just content with nursing. 

So for now, we are just packing up our house and looking for a new one.  Next month we have the closing on our house, Emily’s graduation, a visit from Auntie Mel and cousin Abigail, and hopefully another beach trip!