Mia and Norah wish you a Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day. I know my posting schedule has been even more erratic than usual, but I'll get back to semi-regular updates soon. The holidays have been a bit hectic! Merry Christmas, everyone.

Mia gets all nerdy, like her parents!

A few months ago I took Mia to the eye doctor because she was poking herself in the eye a lot and it had been about two years since she had seen the eye doctor. The doctor told me that she had amblyopia, or "lazy eye," and he prescribed glasses - not a patch - to correct it. He also gave us some atropine, which makes her right eye blurry and is supposed to help her keep the glasses on, the theory being that she will pull the glasses off and not be able to see at all, so she'll learn to keep them on. It hasn't worked out too well so far, but we've only been putting the drops in for a few days, so maybe it will work soon.

Mia doesn't really mind the glasses all that much. They're lightweight, so we don't think they bother her that much, but she still like to pull them off. We don't think she does this out of annoyance, we think she does it to compare how she's seeing with them and without them. Unfortunately, she can't get them back where they're supposed to be, which is when it becomes a problem. Since she only uses one hand, she can't get them right, and we have to step in. She hasn't figured out yet that she just can't disturb them. She will, we hope, but it's frustrating right now.

We're hoping that she won't have to wear them forever. She has to go back to the doctor in 6-12 months, and he'll check her again. We think she'll eventually have to get glasses for her actual sight, because both her father and mother have poor eyesight, and isn't it genetic? But we'd like her to go through a few years without glasses - Krys didn't need them until she was in her late twenties.

Here she is with her glasses:

Just when you thought she couldn't get any more adorable!!!!!

Norah got a hat!

It's all there in the title! Norah, unlike Mia, loves hats. We're not sure why Mia doesn't like hats or sunglasses - if it's something to do with her injury or just that she doesn't like them - but Norah loves both. She wears sunglasses a lot, and last week, Krys bought Norah a hat. So she's digging both:





Meanwhile, the weather has been very nice here this week (it's our reward for dealing with the horrible summers), so Mia has been on the swing! She really likes the swing. It freaks Norah out, for some reason.



Of course, Norah doesn't need a hat and sunglasses to be adorable!



Again, sorry for the infrequent posting. Mia has big ocular news, though, so I may have to write about that soon!

Miss Mia, in the conservatory, with the candlestick!

Norah has entered a climbing phase. She has figured out how to climb up onto the bed by using the end table next to it, and she has also become quite nimble about getting up onto the sofas. One place she likes to climb upon is the tray that Mia's chair is equipped with. Mia sits in the chair and we put toys on the tray for her to play with. Usually she ends up throwing most of the toys on the floor, an activity that Norah is only too happy to help her with, and then it's time for Demon Child #2 to strike!



Mia seems to deal with Norah sitting there with a kind of world-weary tolerance, which is how she deals with a lot of things. However, yesterday I was in the other room, when suddenly Norah started screaming. Well, screaming more than she usually does when she doesn't get what she wants, or Mommy isn't picking her up every second of the day. This was more "I'm hurt" screaming, so I walked into the living room to see what had happened. Norah was lying on her belly in front of the chair. It looked suspicious. I asked Mia if she had pushed Norah, and she said, authoritatively, "No." She has already learned a crucial component of American culture - deny everything! Of course, her favorite word these days is "No," so I can't be sure if she was telling the truth. Certainly the circumstantial evidence was heavily against her - but that didn't hurt O. J., after all! Through the course of the day Norah developed a nice little boo-boo on the end of her nose:



On the one hand, we don't want Mia pushing her sister around. On the other hand, it's nice to see her being a bit assertive. Norah constantly takes toys away from her, and as Mia can't chase her, she (Mia) is quite passive about it. And Norah is going to have to take some lumps in this world, so a little scrape on the end of her nose is nothing to freak out about. Of course, she may have "slipped." Unless we get Hercule Poirot in here, the world may never know!