Before we left for our church camp retreat I took one finally bubble bath to last me the weekend because I didn’t plan on any showers while out in nature. Then I cut my finger nails really short and painted my toenails a dark color hoping that it would camouflage the dirt that would incur when I hit the trails.

We all are doing fine by the way. It did affect our home some, but we may actually get a new roof out of it.

This was a really busy week for me. I am not as excited about this transaction as I was last week. It’s still not a bad deal though I got all of these items for less than a dollar each ($7.88 total) and got $16.50 back in ecb’s.

It would have been less money out of pocket though if I would have done more transactions.

Contact solution- $8.99 -$1Q

Crest Pro Health- $3.49 -$1Q

2 Oral B tooth brushes- $2.99 each -$2Q each

2 Right Guard Body wash- $3.88 each -B1G1Q

2 m&m easter eggs- $.99 each -$1Q

2 Extra 15 slice gum- $.99 each -$1 Q

– $11.50 in ecb.

Total out of pocket $7.88

Total amount saved this week= $32.30

Total savings this month= $101.71

Baby clothes are cute, but they grow out of them so quickly you are lucky if they get to wear an item more than a handful of times. I have found a couple tricks that work to help the clothes go a little further.

First of all, kudos to whoever started put the adjustable elastic bands inside of toddler clothes. I actually found these shorts at a thrift store that are a size 18 months, thanks to the elastic inside I was able to adjust them into a size that fit my 3 month old.

Since they were shorts and not pants it worked out perfectly. Now she is wearing them again this summer.

3. How do they use an eye chart if the child cannot read?

This last appointment was a milestone for Z because while he still is too small for the traditional letter chart they had him look at a screen across the room that showed different sized silhouettes of things, like a horse or Christmas tree. If they are too young to easily identify objects like this then they would just skip this test altogether.

4. Is he near sighted or farsighted?

Z is extremely farsighted, which means he cannot see things close up very well at all. SJ is farsighted too, but in a normal range. Everyone is born with some level of farsightedness, but it’s usually really minor and many people grow out of it.

It’s basically “lazy eye”, or a weak eye. For Z it was his left eye. Amblyopia causes more visual loss in the under 40 group than all the injuries, and diseases combined in this age group, and affects at least 3% of children under 6. It can cause serious vision problems in both eyes if left untreated which is why we had both of our children see a pediatric ophthalmologist when they were still babies.

6. How do you treat it?

You can use eye patches to cover the strong eye and force the weak eye to work, if this treatment is ineffective the weak eye will eventually shut down and stop working entirely. We did this therapy for a year before the Doctors suggested we should go ahead and operate. Z had eye surgery right after his second birthday. He still needs glasses and his eyes still cross some if he doesn’t wear them, but there is always a chance his eyes will get better as he gets older.

7. How do you know his glasses work?

When he was a baby we could only hope, but now that he is talking it becomes apparent like when he was 2 he was playing in the closet and came out without his glasses. I said “you need to get back in there and find your glasses right now!” and he did try, but he said “I can’t see anything” it was sad and cute at the same time. When he was 3 his glasses broke and we went to get new ones. He kept on trying on one pair after the other saying “No. I don’t thing those are going to work. No. These don’t work either. I think I need my old glasses” At first I thought it was because he didn’t like the way any of them looked, then I realized it was because they were DEMOS there was no prescription so they literally didn’t work for him. This assures me that his prescription glasses do in fact work!

8. How do you get a baby to wear glasses?

I was so worried about this when I had 15 month old prescribed to wear eyeglasses, but they make the kind that bend every which way, and are supposed to be unbreakable, scratch proof, and everything else, but they do break and I have a story, or two to prove it. As far as how they stay on, there are special pediatric kind that loop around the ears and are customized for little baby faces, plus you will find that because the glasses do work they will have to get used to them, but eventually they will be prone to WANT to keep them on in order to see better.Z trying on his first pair of glasses
9. How much does it cost? A fortune is the short answer. The special glasses I mentioned are about $300. Each doctor visit for my children has been close to $200 and when they are young, and special cases like my son they want to see you starting as often as every month. We are finally spaced out to every 6 months, and eventually it will be once a year. I can’t even tell you how much the surgery costs because you get billed separately for every little thing. I think in the end it was $5,000 for Z. Hopefully if you have a child with an eye condition your insurance will be better than mine and it will cover a lot more. I don’t share this to be negative or have a pity party, but it’s a head’s up for anyone that is in my situation and wanting all the information.

10. Is it genetic?

No. Some vision problems are genetic, but in our case it is not. My husband and I have always had perfect vision, and the people in our families that wear glasses didn’t start until after 50, this makes me feel totally aloof when it comes to understanding what he going through or what type of prescription he even has. It’s been almost 3 years since we first began this journey with Z’s eyesight, and I’ve learned quite a bit along the way. It’s been a roller coaster of emotions, wondering if we could have done anything to prevent it, or if there are any other treatments to help him. The medical bills we have accrued will more than likely have an effect on our lives for years, and even though it’s pretty smooth sailing from here it’s more like gastric bypass surgery than it is like getting your tonsils removed, they don’t just say “okay you’re all set”. Which is tough because after the surgery everyone wants to know if it worked and it’s not that simple. But believe me, I am well aware that of all the things that could happen, strabismus, amblyopia, and astigmatism are not the worse. Other than when he was a little baby I’ve always known him with glasses and I can’t imagine him any other way, he makes frames look good!

This post is linked to Oh Amanda’s Top Ten Tuesday

It’s been a couple months since I have posted an official update about SJ. As you may be able to see in the above photo her front teeth haven’t come all the way in yet, so she is still sporting the fangs look. At least she is not at an age where she can feel self conscious. She has had a couple more teeth come in on top recently, bringing us to a current total of 10 teeth! And she uses them a lot because she eats like a horse. The good news is she will eat anything I put in front of her, so it takes no effort for me to get her to eat her vegetables. The bad news is she will also eat anything that I don’t put in front of her, like grass, branches, or gnawing on a shoe. The worst case scenario was when she got a hold of a cigarette butt at the park. OH THE HORROR!

I began this week blogging about how the weather went from hot to cold overnight, but we’ve come full circle and today we are back in the 80’s, but it’s pleasant with a cool breeze. I decide this would be a good opportunity to walk to CVS (it’s only .7 miles from my house) and finish out my deals for the week. So, I put SJ in the stroller and strapped Z into his child leash. On the way there I commented on how nice the wind felt which began a little science lesson with Z. He is just getting to the question age, so even though I know I have heard him talk about wind and skin, I guess he just was eager to learn more.

“What is the wind?”

“It’s what you feel blowing on your skin right now?”

“What is my skin?”

“It’s this” I said as I playfully pinched him.

“No. That’s my elbow!” He said very matter of fact.

“Well, your elbow is covered with skin. Your whole body is covered with skin for protection.”

“And so I can feel the wind?”

“Exactly.”

I liked his answer better. As we continued on it began to feel like a 10 mile walk, not from exhaustion, but because the slugs were in the fast lane passing us. I am all about taking it slow, but one mile per hour is where I have to draw the line. Then I asked Z if he wanted to ride on the back of the stroller. We have never tried this before but he climbed into the basket and rode that way for part of our trip, which allowed me to pick up the pace.

We made it back home with all of the items I needed and didn’t even spend any gas money to get there. Now that’s a bargain.

I ended up with some stuff that I really needed and I only paid 83 cents for all of it!

I used 2 -$1 Q for the organic mascara and compact mirror and brush

-$.55 for the shaving cream which happened to come with a RAZOR!

2 -$.75 halls Q

2 -$1 on the colgate toothbrushes

Other than that I used my extra bucks and got all, but $1.50 back! Total savings of $33.52.

Week 3 of couponing is looking pretty sweet!

Linked to The Thrifty Mama and Money Saving Mom

Along with the flowers and sunshine there is another element of springtime that can not go unnoticed and that is the bugs. SJ has bug bites for the first time and Z got stung for the first time, fortunately he is not allergic like his mother or we would have had another emergency room visit.

In celebration of these latest milestones I thought it might be fun to have a little bug trivia challenge. Let’s see who can name that bug!

These bugs have a very active social life here in Texas, but I think their party lifestyle might include booze because they bump into stuff wherever they go.

These things are like the latest gossip tabloids you see them everywhere and they are hard to get away from. Also much like Hollywood, what is big news one day is gone the next, lifespan of these insect is only a couple of couple weeks.

These guys sing to attract females which seems be a popular approach these days. I hope the singing works because they are certainly not getting anywhere with their looks. I tried to pick the most appealing image I could find of one because most of their “profile pictures” make me gag. YUCK!

I thought Sean Combs, Puff Daddy, Diddy, P-doodle, had many names, but these guys are just as bad. They don’t urinate but they do poop and they eat it (aren’t you glad you stopped by messymom.com today?)

Alright, let’s see how well you did. Whether you are playing along or not you may want to check out the answers in the comment section, I think some of them may surprise you.

It all began with my parents getting SJ a baby swing for her birthday, but we didn’t have a tree branch that we could hang it from so it turned into a little lumber project.