Growing up is hard to do...

A recent conversation between my two youngest boys and I had me both laughing and crying. It started with our 9 year old having a consult with an orthodontist. They think he may need to start ortho in 6 months or so. As we are leaving I must have looked a little down, and our 9 year old says "Well at least they are giving you 6 months to get used to the fact that I am growing up!". I don't think I'd actually come to the point of thinking about that  YET, (I would have, he just helped it along) I was more looking at the estimate for the cost of this ortho stuff and thinking "really?". It started this whole conversation of how I am so proud of all of my kids, but I hate how fast they are growing up. So Mr. Carson has to continue with "yeah, and soon Chase and Kohl will be away at school" which of course opens up new questions. Will they ever live at home again? We won't get to be with them on their birthdays? Can we move to where they are? Do we all go to the same college? It really was ending up to be quite a sad conversation, but funny the way the minds of children work. So Kaden then at some point realizes this means somewhere down the road he will be the only one home with Bob and I. After a minute of him seeming a little sad about that he decides it might be kind of fun! Whew....thought maybe I wasn't going to be cool enough! Mr. Carson then continues to add "and by the time you are 16 Kaden you could be an uncle"! Ok, so now they have me laughing at the fact that they even think about that kind of stuff and if you do the math it really is possible! Crying at the fact, I can hardly deal with our oldest leaving for college and they already have me being a Grandma! I am NOT ready for any of this. Not braces, not college and definitely not Grand parenthood! Growing up is hard to do...for me!
Thank you God for blessing me immensely.

I remember years ago,
you were so little then.
Sometimes,
I can't help but wish,
that you were small again.
I've cried when you've faced heartaches,
and saw, that as you grew,
nothing broke your Spirit,
instead it strengthened you.
I'm filled with mixed emotion,
as I hold back all the tears
and, with much pride remember,
back so many years.
When I first held you in my arms,
if only I'd have known,
the years would feel like moments,
after you had grown.
You aren't a baby
though in my eyes,
I guess you'll always be,
that baby boy who changed my life,
and means the world to me.

-Cynthia A. Sieving

Do you see what I see?

Do you see what I see? Maybe not. As I have blogged before our son Kaden has some issues with his eyes. I laugh a bit as I write that sentence because all of us have issues with our eyes, and if you don't, consider yourself lucky. We have four children and all four have had eye surgery. Three have had muscle surgery and one has had a detached retina. We have been blessed to have wonderful eye doctors and surgeons who care for our children. I think I can take credit for the bad muscle gene and am probably responsible for passing that on to my children. Sorry guys. I do not however take credit for the detached retina! Chase's retina detaching (at age 7) taught me a lot. As the specialist is rushing us to surgery he says "I can't believe he hasn't been seeing floaters" Chase says "what are floaters?" The doctor explains, and Chase says "I do see those, but I thought EVERYONE did!" Lesson learned: we just take for granted that we all see the same. Children especially don't know what so called different vision is, they don't know any better. So, back to Kaden. He has tracking issues, and no depth perception. (Weird Gregory fact: Carson and Kohl don't have great depth perception either) AMAZING to me, is what these children do with these issues they don't know they have....how does one with no depth perception play baseball, football, basketball? The brain is an extremely incredible thing that without us  even knowing helps us to adapt ourselves to be able to do these things without knowing we aren't suppose to. I noticed some things with Kaden that kind of sent me a red flag. He got by until first grade. When he was really starting to read and write. His writing was all over the page, no space between words, he'd skip lines when reading, had trouble with word cards ect... ect.... ect....So I took him to have a developmental eye exam which is different than a vision exam. You can pass a vision exam, but have other problems with your eyes which is where a developmental exam comes in. After a couple of hours of testing we found out what exactly his "issues" were. We have since started eye therapy. We have the kindest most uplifting and motivational, wonderful woman who works with Kaden. She, I am convinced has changed his life, and with that mine too. We spend hours doing therapy and he loves it. He's teaching his eyes to work together. He has a long way to go, but has come miles already. We set goals and when he reaches them we celebrate like no other! He didn't realize he wasn't seeing things properly so he didn't know to ask for help. One big goal Kaden has is to ride his bike without training wheels. Another lesson learned, when your 5/6 year old doesn't want to ride a bike and is truly scared too, and I mean truly scared too, there may be a reason! He might not just be being difficult. You see someone with no depth perception doesn't take to doing things like riding a bike! In an earlier blog I talked of Kaden being rewarded with a nerf gun, I was unsure if this was a good parenting technique. Well let's just say he has since added two to his collection and now gets to choose an activity for the weekend when he has had a successful week. I am so sorry Chase had to go through the agony of a detached retina but in some way it may have saved his brother. I feel you always have to look for the good in every situation. So the good from Kaden's situation is that he is getting help, but also if we can help someone else we would be so happy. These kinds of things are often misdiagnosed. So if you read this and think of someone it may help, please share. I am intrigued by what I am learning at eye therapy, I often think if I was ever going to change my job, I would be an eye therapist. It's truly amazing.


Update: We are (knock on wood please) pretty healthy right now =)
              Chase also received word that he has been awarded a VIEW Leadership Scholarship for successfully demonstrating the leadership qualities of Vision. Integrity. Excellence. Wisdom.
Thank you God for blessing me immensely.