Perspective. And, the Struggle.

This patching thing has now been with us for 3 1/2 years. That is a long time. I was going to say "pretty long time", but no, it is just a long time. 

If the patch was a person, she* would be starting pre school. 

*the patch has to be female. She is such a multi tasker, it just makes sense.

I am at this new place with our patching journey. It is unique because it takes into account the past as much as the present. 

SO, SO many times per day, I am reminded of the iJourney; it is ingrained in my sub conscience. 

Things I do to Mr Max: 

-try to patch him

-try to stretch his shirt really wide when putting it on to go over his glasses

-look at the clock during bath time (to see how many minutes he is in there to subtract from the daily total)

-grab patches and diapers every time we leave the house

-avoid water (like the mist things at the zoo-they are death to an eyepatch)

-Mostly? STARE AT HIS FACE. 

I can see his face. His actual eyes and the side of his face and the top of his nose and his little cheeks and the whole adorable package. I have not been able to really see Anderson's face since he was 11 months old. I see it at bathtime and in the pool, but the other 23 hours and 40 minutes a day, it is hidden. 

He actually really WANTS to wear glasses and will try to steal Anderson's. It is hilarious. 

I feel so lucky because I have so much perspective with Max. 

Want to play in water? Sure!

Want to change your shirt? Sure! 

Want to be out of my arms for a minute? Sure!

Want to throw a tantrum because you are mad the truck won't fit in the toilet? Sure! (This is the best part. With Anderson, a tantrum immediately turned into his removal of the patch. So, take into account the 50 or so tantrums per hour with a small child, and you can see why the patch count was so high.) While our beach trip was exhausting, all I kept thinking was about our last beach trip when Anderson was a baby and we kept a patch on him. All day. At the beach. 

The point is that Max is crazy, just like all toddlers. He is a runner, a climber, a bouncer, into everything and constantly looking for his next busted lip or bruise. But, he seems easy because with Anderson we had all that AND a patching habit.

I will relish in my hard earned perspective and hope it helps me with...

The struggle. 

Anderson now officially HATES his eyepatch and he can reason with a scary amount of logic as to why he should not wear it. It is harder in some ways because he is older and just wants to understand and he really can't. How do you process a pediatric cataract/potential blindness for life as a 4 year old? I can't even do that as an adult. 

When we went to 2 hours, I truly thought we were in the clear. 2 hours? What? That is not even real life.* But, I guess because he has so much time off from the patch (which is amazing), he is not used to it being there anymore. 

He fights me for the entire 2 hours (or 4, depending on how long it takes to get 2 hours.) I pull out all of the stops-science experiments, random messes with eggs (he loves cracking eggs) and soccer, wrestling, Baby Mountain Goat, Africa/Australia (these games are as terrible as they sound), etc. 

I have enjoyed hanging out with him so much, but it is still a struggle almost every day. 

*It is not real life. It is still amazing. 

I keep thinking about the fact that we have basically raised another preschooler and it sort of blows my mind. Surely we are at least halfway thorough the marathon, right??