Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Y'all Knew Her When...

I just had to share a couple more. This is my total favorite so far. I can see my Katie in it, but see the woman she will be/is turning into.

And this one looks totally like a Vogue shot, but I can still see a hint of her freckles on her nose.


Now, to totally change the subject.....

I took Ashley to the eye doctor yesterday. She has worn glasses, or SHOULD have been wearing glasses (we have a bit of a compliance issue in this dept) for the past 2 years. Her prescription isn't much, but it is enough that she should be wearing them for distance. This past year she has been getting a lot of headaches and we attributed it to her not wearing her glasses. So I promised her contacts if she could show she would be responsible enough. She did everything I asked her to do to show me she was ready, so off we went to the eye doctor. They did a couple of new tests I had never seen before. One of them involved two images that she had to make come together into one. It has to do with the way your eyes/brain take the two images we see and converge them into one clean crisp picture. Well, she failed it. Apparently she sees everything as two images floating on top of each other. Her eyes and brain constantly strain to put them together, and that causes the headaches she has been having. She also has this odd habit of looking at things sideways, out of the corners of her eyes. She tried to read the eye charts that way. It's her way of compensating to get the images clearer. She says when she reads the words will float and shift on her. It also has messed up her depth perception (which is probably why she has always had eye/hand coordination issues) I asked the doctor what causes this and her answer was that it is commonly illnesses with high fevers during the first year of life, when the eye/brain system is developing and learning to function. Well that describes Ashley's first two years of life to a T. Luckily, it's just a matter of vision therapy to retrain her eyes/brain to bring the images together correctly. In 4-6 months of work she should be fixed good as new. Want to know something funny? Her dad has been really getting on her because she doesn't look at you when you speak to her. She turns her head and glances out the corner of her eyes. He thought she was avoiding eye contact because she was lying! We all feel like big heels right now.....

8 comments:

Ellie said...

Oh Ms Ashley...

Thank goodness there is a fix...

One of my brothers have a wondering eye... It seems the hard he tries to control it, the more it wonders... Half the time you don't know if he is looking at you, or 2 feet to the side of you~ hehehe... He has even been question by the police about his eyes... hahaha..

Anonymous said...

That poor kid. Thank goodness they can do something about it now but imagine all the wasted years. I wonder how many other people have experienced this (or still experiencing this) and aren't getting the help they need. I can see why your ex would assume that she was lying--I wonder if I've thought the worse of a niece or nephew and it could be a similar explanation. Thanks for letting us know about this.

Anonymous said...

Good news re: Ashley's vision. It's always good to know, isn't it?

I have the same problem. Depth perception is the biggest issue - I don't even try to back up my car unless I have LOTS of room. It also makes me a bit of a clutz at times, as I seem to always underestimate the length of the 2 x 4 and the size of the door. The problem wasn't found until I was in my 30's so I just cope.

Hugs to both from someone who remembers them as these little adorable baby girls in Arizona and refuses to admit that I could be getting that much older!

Sandra

Anonymous said...

I know you feel guilt right now, but remember, you are the one that took her to get checked and will get her fixed! If all issues of parenting could be this easily fixed... Hang in there, she really is wonderful with just a few quirks... Not unlike her dear auntie!
Lovey you!

Krystal said...

Well, I'm glad that they found the issue with Ashley's eyes and that it is a relatively easy fix. I know you're feeling bad, but you couldn't have known that there was a vision issue that was causing (or contributing to) certain behaviors, and Ashley has probably just been compensating for it without even knowing it herself.

Kelly said...

Katie's pics are soooooo beautiful . How exciting. Poor Ashley ...that would be very very difficult to live with ! I asm glad that it can be corrected with therapy. Who knew?????

Candy said...

OK I knew she was a KNOCK OUT...but GOOD GRIEF....I SEE TOTALY SUPER MODEL HERE...YOu go GETTO BARBIE...I can't wait to watch your career BLOOM. HUGS

Candy said...

Hey ASH you Eye Doctors ROCK...little TROY AND TRAVIS PLUG here...HAHA