Surgery for Avery

Well, we finally have a fairly definitive date for Avery's eye surgery. It will be in January. We still don't have an exact date, but at least we now know it will be happening. We had her most recent appointment on Tuesday and while her eyes did respond to the latest prescription better than any of the past Rx's, she still needs correction and there is no where for him to take her prescription. She is currently in the strongest one he can give her. So, we are patching her right eye again in preparation for January. The patching is harder this time around- she is much less willing to wear it. From our parenting class we have learned that we should not be offering incentives or rewards for doing things that she should do anyway, so I no longer feel like I can say "if you do a good job wearing your patch, we will do x" or whatever. I understand the logic behind that, I don't want her looking for rewards later in life for getting good grades or cleaning her room or some other thing that she should be self motivated to do, but it's tough in the moment when she's screaming that she doesn't want to wear it. I'm sure it will get easier each day, but today was rough. She did finally put it on before I left her at school, but there were tears and drama. I don't know how I am going to prepare her for the surgery other than to say "you will go to sleep and when you wake up Daddy and I will be with you and we'll get to go home". No one I talk to seems to have any good suggestions. I just dread that day. :-(

We are still enjoying our class and we have our last one on Monday. I am a little nervous because we have learned so much and by going to class it is a great reminder of what we want to be doing and saying- how are we going to do when we don't have that reminder? And as Paige gets older I am starting to see her throwing tantrums. It's pretty funny right now- she throws herself down and cries for a minute then gets up and continues about her business, but it won't be funny soon when she stops snapping out of it so quickly! I dread the day both girls are throwing tantrums at once! That will be chaos!

Off for more tea for me! Have a great day!