2832.

One year.

Today marks one year since we started patching . Look at that perfect bug on his first day of patching.

365 days minus the 11 days after his surgery when we didn't have to patch.

Averaging about 8 patches a day. 2832 patches. Give or take.

2832 reminders that this might not work, he might not see.

2832 reminders that we caught it, we can't overpatch and Dr. Cogen is cautiously optimistic.

So much happened in the last year. I mean, so, so much. But this post is not about Anderson discovering trucks/tractors/trains or the fact that I am the luckiest Bobble in the world for so many fun days with my bug. No, this post is about The Eye. (Aren't they all?)

THE LOWS

Let's get the yuck out of the way first. Here are the "lows" as I remember them. Not trying to be negative, just trying to lay it all out there. Plus, lows always make highs so much better.

1. The diagnosis

-Not the diagnosis by the optometrist because, for some reason, all I remember from that is , "He does have a cataract." Oh, ok.

Instead, the day when the eye doc (NOT Dr. Cogen) laid it out for us. Anderson has a cataract. This will affect the rest of his life. He will never be able to wear contacts;he will always have really thick bifocals. He will most likely never have vision in his left eye. He WILL have surgery. The surgery will be the easy part. This could have long term effects like detached retinas, glaucoma, etc. He will never be normal.

The crying. The fact that she never offered me a kleenex. The awful, awful feeling of just awful. The unknown.

2. The patching

Oh, holy nightmare. I will say this right here & now. I will NEVER be more proud of anything in my life than the fact that we have dealt with this patch. The last year has been the hardest of my life. Way harder than the first year of Anderson's life, which I did not think was possible when I was exhausted. Our lives revolve around this little bit of adhesive. Seriously, it is the "Patch Show" & we are just minor players who aren't even important enough to be listed in the credits.

We only use 8 patches a day because we can sometimes re-use the krafty patches. He definitely takes it off about once every 5 minutes. We patch about 13-14 hours a day, so whatever that adds up to....I don't want to see that number. If he is distracted with Jack or Lily or at the play area at the mall we can get longer than 5 minutes, but then there are times where he is fighting us so much that he can rip it off while I am putting his glasses on. He is a sneaky thing.

3. The Incident

I saved it for last. I still remember it so clearly. I may or may not be tearing up right now as I type this. Overdramatic? Possibly. Motherhood? Yes.

Last April we were at an event at the YMCA at some community thing. Anderson was about 15 months old. We put him in the play area. He went right to the trucks. (The boy started early.) Then, a 5ish year old walked up, looked at Anderson & lifted his redneck arm. He pointed at Anderson and started laughing as he made fun of his glasses & eyepatch. "Look at his glasses! Ha, ha! Look at him!" Anderson waved back at him. Smiling.

I waited until we got in the car to start crying. I was pretty proud of that.

Nobody wants their kid to be made fun of or laughed at, but I am pretty sure that it does not happen to a lot of 15 month olds. It was hard. It hurt. A lot. My sweet bug, just waving back at the punk kid who clearly had no emotion. Punk.

The Highs

1. The diagnosis

We are so lucky. We caught it. We WILL fix it. I will always be grateful to Aunt Paula for giving Anderson his vision.

The Knoxville ophthalmologist was so awful that we found a second opinion. Thank goodness for the Hills & Dr. Cogen.

2. The patching

While I am frustrated right now with the patching, I know it has so many positives. Yes, I just said that.

Everyone tells me, "Enjoy him now while he is little!" or "I wish mine still could sit in my lap!" I will NEVER question if I spent enough quality time with this boy. My job does interfere with our Bobble/Bug time, but the rest of the time it is all us. He is in my lap a lot. We talk a lot about construction, trains, the girls (dogs) and the moon. We read, act out different animals & construction equipment & play in the clothes I just took out of the dryer after I dump them on the bed.

We are best friends. Well, after his Bop, I think I am his best friend anyway.

3. The incident

I teach Advanced Placement students, which means I write A LOT of letters of recommendation for college. I stopped counting at 58 this year. In addition, I generally fill out quite a few of these generic checklists for the guidance counselor to give her information about the students. There are general questions like intellectual promise, leadership, etc. But, the one that stands out to me is "Reaction to setbacks".

Every time I see that I pause for just a few seconds.

I'm reminded that so much of success isn't obvious, it's the work that it took to get there.

I'm reminded of Teddy Roosevelt's words, "There never was a man who had a life of ease whose life is worth remembering."

I'm reminded that your character is defined by how you react when something really crappy happens to you.

I'm reminded that life isn't about how many times the patch comes off; it's how many times the patch goes back on! 2833...

I'm reminded of my Bug & the fact that he is such a trooper and he will get a FULL RIDE TO COLLEGE because he will write some awesome admissions essay about overcoming adversity at a really early age and now he is empathetic, resilient and a genius/star athlete with perfect vision because his family patched him ALL day when he was a toddler.

4. Daily reminders

I was reminded every day of this last year that love, instinct and being a mom can really overcome anything. In some ways this is so easy because it is second nature to do what our kids need. Also, my mom taught me those things every day. She never once complained about the patch. Not one time. Clearly Nicole & I have no patience because she kept all of it.

Having Mom, Toni, Nicole, Aunt Manda, Clare...all willing to listen to my frustration on a daily basis has been a constant reminder of how lucky I am. We are not alone. And, I have a perfect husband who lets me get frustrated a lot. I still get so upset sometimes, just worrying about the unknown, the vision future, the fear we aren't doing enough to fix it. No wonder Anderson is a trooper, look at his dad. It's tough to deal with a hormonal woman who is a worrisome mom.

I've learned that some days you're the Bobble & some days you're the Bug. The most determined person will win.

I think our personal motto became, "When life hands you an eyepatch, make a pirate!" I really did have that weird pirate obsession, even before he was born.

My Eye Moms have been such a Godsend. I will probably never meet you, but I will watch your kids grow up & I can't wait to see perfect examples of how the damage of cataracts CAN be reversed! You all are awesome & your encouragement is what keeps me patching.

And, now I leave you with a few patch sightings from over the weekend...

He is so fair, one for each of them

The car. ALWAYS.

pizza.

The belt section at Target.
Bobble Cole truck book.

TWO patches on the truck table. I didn't even see the green one when I took the pic. I love when he sets down the patch & glasses together, so purposeful. (I mean, I hate it because it's off, but love it because it's precious. You know. )

The recliner. (Still loving it, Cousin Shae!)
My sock in the car.

This is pretty constant.

His reindeer slipper.

My favorite one. I was putting my stuff in the car. Literally not even 2 feet away from him. The dog food incident is just because he is a toddler. I find that entertaining. I just hate that stinking orange bandaid in the mix.

Maybe I totally underestimated the number we use each day? This looks like more than 8. Let's just stick with 8.

WE MADE IT A YEAR!!!! An ENTIRE year. A YEAR! I just can't stop thinking about how awesome that is! :)

festivities.

I do love some festivities. For any occasion, really, but especially for Christmas! We are going all out for the entire month of December, so stay tuned for lots of of exciting pics. To start off, we went to the Christmas celebration at Farragut Town Hall & Breakfast with Santa at the YMCA. I am still waiting on the "official" pics with Santa to be emailed to me, but I have some pretty fun shots of other things!

I Love the Santa tie. He loves the candy cane. Thanks, Lo Lo, for the hoodie!

Making an ornament. He looks angry, but he really enjoyed it. I kept thinking about Lily & how much she would've loved the foamy stickers.

YMCA literally had breakfast-pancakes & sausage. Is that not hilarious? Can you imagine working out to the smell of sausage?

Anyone remember this guy from last year? He was a clearance purchase at CVS & has lived in our closet keeping us entertained with Holiday music throughout the year. Now, he is making a full force return. Post from last year

Anderson put the angel on my parents' tree. Just a bit lopsided makes it perfect.

We celebrated at the Town Hall party & Anderson played with the ornaments on the tree...

until I made him stop & he threw himself on the floor into a tantrum. I guess he forgot that Santa is making his list right now.

New ornament to celebrate the addition over the last year.

So glad we started this last year. Look how his hand has grown!

I could not get enough pictures of this adorable elf shirt from GG. It is SO cute!

Someone found Baby Jesus. Despite the fact that my Christmas cards do not have Jesus on them (Sorry, Aunt Paula), I am teaching him the "Reason for the Season." He gets pretty excited about spotting Baby Jesus places even if he doesn't quite get that whole "born in a manger to save the world" thing. How cute is the sign that my sister made? I know.

Cookie/milk/Grinch break.

2nd Santa !! I love that they both have glasses. Let's be honest, Santa has to give special treatment to kids in glasses. I am so glad we got a few semi ok pictures already so that I don't have to pay $20 at the mall. Here is a pic of him with Santa last year!

Watching the Grinch. I love, love Christmas movies & am starting to work on Anderson to love the classics now.Grinch, Elf, the mouse Twas the Night Before Christmas (Even A Miracle Needs a Hand...)

Cookie & cute shirt with glasses on it, does it get better?

Because I am borderline OCD organized & cannot pass up a free deal, I made my Christmas cards in October. I know, it's weird. But, I had to do them before the code expired so they were totally FREE! I got them from mypublisher.com. They are such nice quality & I am so happy with them. I did a few different designs. I recommend using their site if you don't have yours made yet.

There is a train track not far from us & we heard it when were taking the dogs out over the weekend, so we drove over there to catch the train. We didn't, but we did play on the tracks for a few minutes! Christmas jammies & Roos, what a combo

not very silent night & some other things.

It has been a rough few weeks at the Glover house. Anderson tricked us into thinking that the big boy bed transition was going to be super smooth. He went to sleep without getting up after just a few nights & I always thought getting them to sleep was the hard part about the toddler bed.

Oh, how awful it feels to be wrong.

Every night for the last 2 1/2 weeks Anderson has woken up early. I am not talking about 5:30am. That would be a luxury. The latest he has slept is 4:30 & that was on a day when he had already woken up twice before in the night.

I have tried all of the cute suggestions that seem to work on other people's kids. (If you are "other people" & your kid has ever slept until 7am in their life, please don't tell me. Let's just stay friends.) Anyway, I laid with him, rocked him, sang to him, acted stern, held the door so he couldn't open it, put him to bed earlier, put him to bed later, put him back in bed repeatedly while not talking to him, giving him a sippy cup, letting him sleep with us (this one is the worst because he does NOT do this well. It is hilarious. He talks to himself saying, "nite nite time. Bobble bed. Daddy bed. No Aesson talk. No watch choo choo. nite nite time..." He even shakes his finger back & forth when he talks. I can't help but giggle, which does nothing but make him giggle and really, there is nothing funny about being awake at 4am.)

We tried the doorknob cover & he pulled it off before I even shut the door. Then he pointed at it & said, "Uh, oh! that broken."

So....we have resorted to locking him in his room. Brandon switched the lock & starting tonight he is staying in there until at least 5:30. It is like crying it out all over again and I know it will be hard, but it worked the first time, so here's hoping for round 2. Our situation ) is, of course, the patch. Since he has to patch all day, I can't just leave him in there in the morning for too long. I am going to give it a week & then if it hasn't worked, we will just have to get up with him so we can patch.

Oh, and, just for fun he has stopped napping. I thought kids napped until they were 4. Or at least 2!! I thought I was at least going to get to 2. Again, the biggest problem is not the afternoon grumpiness, the fact that my poor mom doesn't get even a small break but it is the patch. No nap means another hour of patching and, let's be honest, nobody wants that!

I will keep you all posted on how the lock goes...

Love when the shirt matches the patch/glasses!

First time swinging by himself. He thought he was very grown up. (Maybe he is going hunting later?)

I love how purposeful he is when he focuses on his trucks. I also love the Kleenex box that we store them in, but I am pretty sure Santa might be bringing him a case to carry them.

One of his favorite games is "scarves." Creative, I know. Anyway, he loves playing in my scarves. My mom is pretty talented so I have a few. hundred....:)

What would be a post be without a high quality video? Possibly my favorite suggestion with the sleeping is to "wear him out". I am assuming they mean with exercise & not a belt, but soon I might not be totally opposed to the second option. Kidding. Anyway, here he is running laps around his room.

Yep.

Anderson has started responding, "Yep!" when we ask him questions, which might be the cutest thing ever. We have definitely had a jam packed last few days!

Family? YEP! Friends? YEP! Fantasy of Trees? YEP! Fun? YEP! Dollywood Christmas? YEP!

In no particular order...

Please check out the construction plate & utensils! How fun are these??

Playing with Great Aunt Donna on GG's bed!

Still loving Jacob's trains! Love this turkey shirt, too.

While I do love Black Friday shopping with my family because it is just exciting, it is totally a gimmick. I enjoy shopping deals all year long & online really is the way to go. BUT, CVS is AWESOME! All of this was free after extra bucks! And, I had some coupons so I made money on some of it. Mom & I were the first people there at 6:55am on Thanksgiving morning. It was hilarious.

The fam looking at old pictures. Look for pictures to come of all of the goodies from Aunt LoLo. She found him metal, real looking bobcat. It is legit.

Anderson making cupcakes! Check out "Crayon Pirate" in the background, which is where my pirate obsession started when I was pregnant.

Dancing in the kitchen.

Playing construction puzzle with Sunny!

His favorite game consists of me dumping the clothes from the dryer on him. He LOVES it. The giddiness is contagious.

We went to "Fantasy of Trees" with GG! Sadly this is the best picture I could get of the 2 of them because it was dark in there & he is just a little active. The boy loves his GG, they are kind of grinning at each other here...I am just a really bad photographer!

Loved the penguins. Actually that night, Animal Planet was on and he was watching the penguins & was excited...until they were attacked by a crazy sea lion. He said, "Oh, no! Penguin!" And then I felt like a really awesome mom for letting him watch the slaughter of a penguin family.

He was very proud of the snowman painted on his hand. He kept looking at it & walking with his hand held out in front of him, just staring at it.

He looks so cute in his little jeans, snowman shirt and Roo shoes. I just want to snuggle him.
The boy continues to love his Bop. They rock and watch train videos, making the train sounds the entire time. Here they are saying, "Whoo, whoo!" They don't play around with the generic train sounds, only the real ones will work for them. My poor dad has watched this video hundreds of times, I think. Yet, he is always so excited for Anderson.
They really are best friends.

Christmas at Dollywood! I must admit, my adoration of Dolly seems to grow with each visit. Everything looked so festive. There were lights everywhere, elves, reindeer, Santa, rednecks.

He definitely was the most excited about the train and it's great because you can hear it everywhere in the park. We watched it for abour 30 minutes while people were loading on it. He was in awe.

He really loves the kid rides. His favorite is the bee but this is the only picture I could get on any of them.

I just love this kid. And, clearly he loves his Bobble Cole based on this video.

a few days late.

In the spirit of Amy Krouse Rosenthal (if you have never read "The Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life" then you are missing out!)

I am thankful for colored cardstock, surprise coupons at CVS, Sonic milkshakes and pants that fit without a belt or heels. I'm thankful for unconditional love. For a husband who loves me because not although, a job where I am made to laugh a lot, the colors of the American flag & leftover macaroni & cheese. I am thankful I was born a twin, that my parents gave up their entire lives to live near me and my parent-in-laws have forgotten that whole "in -law" thing. I'm thankful for childhood experiences that shaped me: my mom's ability to fix everything from a messed up school project to a divorce, wearing plaid uniforms, conspiring with friends, playing Lemonade Stand & Oregon Trail in computer class & being involved with sports. The furry girls waiting for me every day, so excited just to see me. For the beautiful creation that is dark chocolate. For no line at the post office, the arrival of the mail, cute kid hats and Dr. Seuss. I'm thankful that I get to be a Bobble and a Sissa. That when I call my sister we never say hello but launch into whatever inconsequential reason that I am calling, "Chex mix...thomas the train decals...corn from the fresh market". I'm thankful that my dad fixes stuff that is broken, the difference between a toaster oven and a microwave, epidurals, Anderson's giggle and the fact that I am going to get to see most of my family at Christmas. I'm thankful for the families of soldiers. For running out of hangers because all of the laundry is done, for the magic that is reading, texting, pick a size papertowels and creativity. For the moments when Anderson is startled and he instinctively latches on to me knowing that I will protect him. For my life.