Superwonder Mama

So guess who went running this morning? That would be me--and a lot of other people, incidentally. The BYU field house track is alarmingly crowded at 9:00 on Saturday mornings.

But the point is I went. And I ran. Most of the time. Amelia, BOB and I were racing around that track at the speed of, well something not very fast, but we were doing it. That's how I started out my day as a Superwonder Mama.

Then I came home and the babe actually took a nap so I could get showered, and THEN I finished the Visiting Teaching list for February. It probably should have been done a week ago, but I got it done before the first Sunday of the month, and that is a feat, let me tell you.

I got some housework done, mailed off the bills, ate nutritious, low calorie meals, and did the grocery shopping without overspending and buying stuff that wasn't on my list. I played with and read books to my baby and then worked on Amelia's baby book.

And I made dinner tonight for a sister in my ward who is sick. I even delivered it on time.

That is when I decided I must have some sort of super powers. If I had written a letter to my congressman and spent a hour indexing names I could have run for Perfect Mormon Mom of the year.

I decided that I better write all this down because I don't think I've ever been this productive on a Saturday in my life, and realistically, it isn't likely to happen again. So if this sounds extremely bragful, don't worry. I lack the organization skills and the motivation to keep this kind of life up for more than 24 hours. Next Saturday will undoubtedly find me sleeping in and wondering where I left keys and cell phone. Again.

Update

I suppose I owe it to my (many, many) concerned readers to give an update on the whole eye-crossing situation.

Well my baby needs glasses.

In three days and two (very long) doctor appointments it was determined that she is extremely far-sighted and that the strain of trying to focus on objects nearer to her finally caused her to start crossing her eyes. She needs glasses and will likely be in them until she is about 10 years old, at which point she may be ready to switch to contacts.

So that's it. A lifetime of corrective eye-wear starts now, just before her first birthday.

It would be dishonest to say that I was thrilled, or even relieved. I actually cried for most of the weekend.

But it could be so much worse. Before we got the verdict I had spent a good deal of time online researching all the different things that could cause a baby to go cross-eyed. Horrible things, like brain tumors, strokes, lazy eye muscles and other permanent disorders. My girl just has super-human long range vision and needs glasses to control it.

Of course I started looking for all the places I could find that carried glasses frames for tiny faces, and came up with exactly 2 in the entire county. They both offered the same 3 frame styles to choose from, all made by Fisher Price. Actually, there were only 2 styles, but one style was offered in 2 colors.

These are the frames we picked out:




Except pink. They only come in pink and blue. They should be ready in about a week.

I'm actually starting to feel much better about the whole ordeal. I still don't love the idea of my baby having to wear glasses while she is so small (how am I going to teach a 1 year old to keep her glasses on?) but she is just such a happy little person in general that I'm having a hard time mourning for her.

I do, however, reserve the right to completely freak out if her glasses arrive and they give her huge, distorted bug eyes. I knew a girl in high school with the most unfortunate thick glasses that made her eyes look massive and blurry. If Amelia's glasses do that, I'm going to start searching European countries for pediatric eye surgery options.

My Mommy Heartbreak

Warning!!! This is NOT an upbeat, happy post. Do not proceed if you do not wish to read my aggravations, and potentially become aggravated yourself.

So, most of you know I'm a writer.
Of sorts.
I write for an online marketing company and basically get a random slew of topics to write articles and blog posts about. Anything and everything from campgrounds and wholesale flower markets to marine refrigeration and industrial grinding mediums. Usually not terribly fascinating stuff, but bearable.

Today I had to write an article for an abortion clinic. Promoting the abortion pill.

I didn't want to. Despite my feminist leanings, I am passionately anti-abortion. The only reason I keep this job at all is because it allows me to maintain a (very) modest income while staying at home with my baby. So I can be a mom.

I started doing a little research and checking out the website for this abortion clinic to find something I could write about without making myself literally ill, and it had the opposite effect.

There was a happy, smiley paragraph about terminating "problem" pregnancies in which the baby has some disorder or is imperfect. It talked about all the expense and heartbreak they could spare you by terminating pregnancies of babies that were less than perfect.

That was when I started to cry.

Six days ago my beautiful baby started crossing her eyes. Not constantly, but every now and then, and it would take me a while to get her to snap out of it. It became more frequent every day until I called the doctor. My doctor told me this is not normal for a child her age, and referred me to a local pediatric ophthalmologist. I'll take her in tomorrow for two hours of testing, with the possibility that she may need surgery, special glasses, or other measures to straighten out her eyes that were perfectly normal a week ago.

I know this connection is tenuous, if that, but it broke my heart to think of someone being encouraged to terminate a baby that was going to be less than perfect.

And I had to write for them.

I hope I don't go to hell. Or that anyone actually reads the article I wrote. I promise it was lame and completely neutral.