Ahoy Matey

Emily had her eye doctor appointment on Monday to check for a suspected "lazy eye." We were hoping that it was fake, her pediatrician had suspected that it was, but unfortunately it is the real deal. Her right eye crosses when she is focusing in front of her. The first treatment to try is patching the good eye to strengthen the muscles on the lazy one. The doctor checked her vision and her vision is good, but the right eye is weak. We don't know if the right eye was weak and then became "lazy" or if it is lazy and then became weak. Her eyes haven't always crossed. Right now she has to wear a patch for 4-6 hours a day and we go back in about a month for a recheck. There is a surgical option that is fairly common and the doctor said he often has to do it. We're hoping that since Emily is so young, we'll be able to get her on track without surgery. Her sitter has been great about working with us and the patch. Once we get it on (she doesn't like that part), she is fine and plays normally. The first day, she seemed to have a tough time seeing right in front of her, but now she is doing great (this was the second full day).

The patches are cute! In the pictures, Emily was wearing a ladybug patch. Yesterday she had a yellow one with little stick figures on it. We have told her that she is like a pirate and have mentioned the pirate from the Wiggles. Tonight when we asked her what pirates wear, she pointed to the eye that we cover. She can also tell us where we put the patch.

In other non-eye news, her vocabulary has increased a lot recently, and it was pretty big to start with! She has gotten clearer with her 2 word phrases in the last few days. This morning during breakfast she said "cracker please." She also has been saying "my ____". Often filled in with some body part (my legs, my eyes). She's been saying multi word phrases for awhile, but we're really understanding them now!