The Comings and Goings of Lil G

(The white balance on the camera inadvertently got switched to a different setting. I promise, she’s not really purple.)

Hi all. We were tagged by our friend Ra to dig into our pictures on our computer. The challenge was to go into the sixth folder in our picture file and get the sixth picture and explain a little about the photo.

Here we are, sometime around the end of August. Geneva would have just turned four months old. We were fooling around on the sofa (we do that a lot) and broke out the green hat. This hat was made for us by Geneva’s Great Aunt Bits. I remember getting that hat while pregnant and thinking it would never fit Geneva. Little did I know I’d have such a monster baby! Ha ha.

Papa was holding Geneva while I played shutterbug. I was also experimenting with the flash, thus the mighty deer-in-headlights look. Funny, but I already miss that chunky little monkey. She’s gotten so big, so fast.

Monday, we had an appointment with a pediatric ophthalmologist. I thought I had noticed Geneva’s eyes crossing occasionally and I was nervous about it. I mentioned it at G’s last doctor’s appointment and they referred me to Dr. Lipsky. When I called to make the appointment, the lady on the phone said the appt. would last approximately two hours. TWO HOURS!! I was not excited.

We got up bright and early on Monday morning to head for the North side of town for an 8:50 time slot. Once there, things moved along pretty quickly. The first person to examine G was an orthoptist. She employed a number of tricks to see if G’s eyes were tracking properly. Then, Geneva got her eyes dilated. I hate having my eyes dilated, so I was a little concerned about how it would affect our gal. Geneva seemed non-plussed and they sent us off to a waiting room to wait for the drops to take effect. Before we were dispatched, I asked the orthoptist if she saw anything. She said Geneva’s eyes looked pretty good, but we’d wait to see what the doctor said.

I’ll break away here and explain why I was so quick to run to the doctor for a possible lazy eye. I was treated around 6 or 7 years-old for crossed eyes. I barely remember it and it only required an eye patch for a very brief time. Rob also has a mild lazy eye (that he won’t admit to). Compounded with Rob’s terrible eyesight and my family history of bad eyesight, I erred on the side of caution and took Geneva in. If you can catch eye issues very early, there’s a higher chance they’ll be completely resolved with simple treatments. Plain and simple.

So, in we went to see Dr. Lipsky. He was impressed with how easy Geneva was to work with (everyone says this to me – I realized how truly blessed we are to have such an easy-going girl). He examined her eyes and called out a few numbers to his assistant. I told him what I thought I’d seen and he said he was glad I’d chosen to be proactive with Geneva’s eyes given her family history. Thankfully, he spied nothing wrong with our girl. He said her eyes were “spectacular.” He did spy a slight astigmatism, but nothing to be concerned with yet. Then, he explained what I’d seen: Pseudostrabismus.

When children are small, the bridges of their noses are not completely formed. Couple this with how babies’ eyes are shaped at this age, and you have a pretty powerful optical illusion. I instantly felt stupid that I’d seen nothing, but Dr. Lipsky was never condescending and still praised me for bringing Geneva in. He gave me a pamphlet on pseudostrabismus and said he’d still like to check G in about six months (again, given her family history).

Thus concluded our big adventure at the eye doctor. Geneva was a superb patient and Mama feels a whole lot better. I guess that’s all doctors visits are for anyway, right? Just to make Mama feel better? Ha ha.

We had dinner with our good friend Theresa on Wednesday. Geneva gave her some sloppy kisses and impressed her with her puff-handling skills. 

And here’s some video of our happy dance with Papa!

I’m experimenting with a new video sharing format. Please enjoy a peek at G’s pre-crawling preparations.

Apologies, friends. We got a little slack here at the Oviatt household and haven’t updated the blog! To wet your whistle, we have a couple photos and a video. 

Saturdays are for goofing off at Casa de Oviatt. We like to stay in our pajamas all day and have breakfast for lunch. Witness the following:

Geneva palling around with Mr. Bear (a gift from her Papa when she was born)…

And Geneva enjoying her first taste of pancakes. Rob has been dreaming of Pancake Saturdays since the day we found out we were expecting! Papa Pancake Saturdays may become an absolute around these parts, except for when Papa waffles and we have waffles instead. Let the pancake eating commence!! (That weird sound in the background is our dishwasher – I’ve got to pay better attention to background noise!)

So last Tuesday, our pediatrician’s nurse practitioner suggested that we let G. try some cereal. Or more specifically, a toddler food called Puffs. These are small, manageable rice puffs that dissolve easily and are fun for little ones learning to self-feed. I picked up some of these Puffs and some good ol’ Cheerios. Here’s a glimpse of Geneva’s first taste of something other than a puree.

Our little Geneva was dressed as the best duckling you’ve ever laid eyes on. Her Gigi custom tailored a duck suit and it was scrumptious. You’ve never seen such a succulent little fowl. Trick-or-treating was a visit across the street to see our neighbors. There were many smiles in the costume – my camera just wasn’t fast enough to catch them. Featured in the photos are Papa, Gigi and Unky Lowell.