Nothing cuter than a baby wearing glasses

There was a post recently over at The Egret's Nest describing her daughter's new glasses. I commented about Isabelle, and thought I would tell the tale of a baby who needed glasses.

(Thanks to Jim, aka The Yak Herder, for sending this photo from the dim past)

To begin, we must start at Isabelle's birth, October 30, 2001. After laboring for 38 hours (that's not a misprint...38 hours) Isabelle came into the world with a bruise in the shape of my pelvic bone on her face, but otherwise was okay. Later that day, a pediatrician came to check her over. He noticed something on her left eye, and told me to get her to an ophthalmologist. Now, after all I had been through, a doctor telling me that something might be wrong with my newborn seemed like a cruel joke.

At Isabelle's first check up with her new pediatrician, he recommended a good pediatric ophthalmologist. And off we went.

Diagnosis: A dermoid tumor. Imagine a beautiful blue eye, with a white oval straddling the iris and white of the eye. That's what my baby had.

The doctor told me that it could be removed later, if it bothered her. Sometimes these tumors grow hair, which is of course very irritating to the eye every time you blink.

At six months, we had a check up again.

After he examined the tumor, he also checked her vision. Now, many people have asked me how in the world could you check a six-month old's vision, if she can't read a chart? Answer: The same way they check an adult's eyes...that little light they shine in there, makes a bar of light across the retina. If the bar is fuzzy, they adjust it until it's clear. That tells them to what degree the near-or-far sightedness is.

Isabelle was three times more farsighted than a typical baby her age.

I went home and cried into Geoff's shoulder. The tumor I could live with, somehow. But the idea of glasses on my child just messed me up.

So, her first pair of glasses came when she was six months old, and she has gone through I don't know how many frames. They began with hooks on the earpieces, to keep them on her face (thank goodness no goofy headbands). And she accepted them easier than most adults would.

And here she is, a little older, showing off those brilliant blue eyes, encased in glass.

Post script: She had the tumor removed when she was a year old. The terror I felt as I held her down while they administered anesthesia is for another post.

(I will dig up the intra-op photos to show just how wild these tumors can be...it contained fat cells and three hairs.)

DOA

I was kicking back on the couch this morning, trying to think of something for the girls and me to do today. (This is the last weekend for Geoff to finish final revisions on his book)

I had a lot of things in mind, but couldn't decide. Then the phone rang, and that something came to me. Dan, one of our dispatchers, called and said that there was a Cooper's hawk downtown that needed to be picked up. And off we went.

Unfortunately, it was dead by the time we arrived.

It had found its way into a parking garage and couldn't find its way out. The man who called it in said that he almost had it once, but it got away and hit a window full force and went down.

So sad...but that's the way it goes sometime.

I thought that this would be an excellent learning opportunity for Isabelle, and I pointed out different parts of the Coop. She exclaimed more than once, "It's so soft!".

She was a little wary of the talons, but I encouraged her to touch them, to feel just how sharp they are and have to be, to catch and eat prey.

Temporary resting place for the Coop...RAPTOR's freezer.

And just because my mother-in-law is rather picky about such things (she's an RN) I had to get a picture of Isabelle washing her hands with some strong disinfectant.

This is Elvis, our program Barred Owl. He doesn't make many appearances on the blog, or programs for that matter. He is a bit feisty, but I have the nerve now to start taking him out more. He looks very innocent, doesn't he? Ha.

Left: Scarlet

Right: Two Socks

Our program red-tailed hawks. RT's are such beautiful powerful birds, and I tend to shy away from them when I am choosing birds for programs, but as with the barred owl, I have the nerve now. (Though I will probably choose Scarlet over Two Socks, since she does a lot better on the glove. Two Socks is the one who gashed me.)

Behind RAPTOR's facility in Mt. Healthy is the Mill Creek. In 1997, the national conservation group American Rivers designated Mill Creek as "The most endangered urban river in North America". Wow. It has multiple pollution sources and stresses, but as you can read in the Mill Creek link, something is getting done about it. I had heard about "that Mill Creek", but I never realized how bad it really was. I learned a few things about it today at the website, and I will think twice before taking the girls back down there. But even with all that, it's still beautiful right behind RAPTOR. A small amount of trash, but other than that, it was clear and clean-looking.

A day surrounded by birders

I love my job. Period.

Today, I presented at a local Wild Birds Unlimited, in my Dad's old neighborhood. My Mom surprised me by stopping by to see her baby girl do her thing and brought along friends of my parents' who have known me since the diaper days.

I gotta tell ya...I really felt like an educator this weekend. Yesterday, there were a few kids in the classes that I could tell had the spark. They were asking intelligent questions, really listening to what I was saying. It felt good. And today, there were a lot of kids-of-birders at the presentations with cool stories about raptors they had seen and could actually ID. This is the new generation of birders, the young whippersnappers who will be picking up where we leave off, writing the bird books and leading the walks.

What a nice store: It was crammed floor to ceiling with bird stuff, jewelry, books...

Who says birders can't have a sense of humor? The store rented this bald eagle costume and had a nice young lad wave at traffic streaming by.

And I couldn't resist getting a photo of us for the BLOG. It's always about the blog.

A lone killdeer

Took the girls to Lake Isabella for a chilly dinner and a frolic in the huge, crispy sycamore leaves.

Huge flocks of starlings went over us at the park. Each group seemed to take minutes to get by us. It was cool, even if they are only starlings. They're loud, too.

My all time worst bird photo. There were warblers all around us as we ate dinner, and they all seemd to be the same species. As far as I can tell, they were Cape Mays. But fall warblers give me a twitch in my face. I am so unfamiliar with warblers, only really seeing them once a year up at Crane Creek, I really need the old field guide to figure them out. Now, raptors? Not a problem.

Today was a good day to go to....Hamilton?

My program today was in Hamilton, OH. Four back-to-back presentations at the Miami University campus. What a perfect day...a screamingly blue Fall sky, holding my favorite birds for a rapt audience at a beautiful college campus. It made me want to sign up for classes.

That second-to-last sentence just hit me. Rapt for raptors. Hee hee.

Now for something completely different (any Monty Python fans out there?)

I took the girls with me to Hobby Lobby yesterday. If you don't have a Hobby Lobby near you, you are missing out! Everything you need if you are a "crafty" person. I am handmaking Isabelle's birthday party invites so it was off to the card aisle.

Hobby Lobby starts putting its Christmas stuff out around August. And it's all half off this week! The girls love to wrap themselves in the tinsel and be movie stars.

Random photo: I started scanning older pics from before the age of digital.

This is my Mom and me at one of my bridal showers. I love Mom. She is the kind of mom that everyone else wants to have. All my friends wanted my Mom to adopt them so they could have her around, too. I am so lucky to have her. She did her best with my rebelllious stage (from the ages of 12 to 25) and although her kids aren't perfect, she turned out a couple of halfway decent people.

When I drop the girls off at school, I sit in wonderment and disgust at all the damn minivans. Everyone, with the exception of a few BMW's, drives up in an SUV or minivan. And it's not like they have 10 children to shlep around. More like 2. What a waste. And if you are going to drive a gas guzzling monstrosity around, please do all of us a favor and LEARN HOW TO DRIVE IT. What a bunch of dopes. Taking corners like they are driving an 18 wheeler, hardly able to see over the steering wheel. Jeez.

It's late and I am off to bed, but one last thing to look at

Want to see pretty pictures of snowy and great gray owls?
Click here.
(Link from Dave at Bird TLC)
Going to bed now. I have to be up and out of the house in 8 hours.

It must be a Boston Terrier thing

Boomer likes to help. With anything I am doing, he's right there. And I mean right there. If I stop walking, he runs into the back of my legs.

And just try to place a simple slipcover on the couch and it's Helper Time!

"Am I helping, Mom? Here, let me hold down this end of the couch. What? You want me to move? Why? I'm helping!!!"

"I see that you want to put the cover on this end? Okay, I help! I help! Let me assist you, oh feeder-of-my-gut, and untuck this part. It's not straight.

(singsong) I'm helpin' Mommy! I'm helping' Mommy!"

Vet checkup for the Booms today...he weighs 25 pounds now! That's 6 pounds above what he was when he adopted us.

Some folks just take Halloween too far. Case in point: A salon in downtown Loveland has disembodied heads on sticks as decorations. Well, at least the hair looks good.

And this particular head has the same shade of red that I do. Disturbing.

Stream of consciousness

Not a whole bunch to blog about tonight. No pics because I left my camera at home (shameless!). I am using Geoff's PC while he is gone (will get to that in a minute) and Nellie, Boomer and Bailey are all snoring. Boomer is laying on my feet... it's quite cozy.
Geoff is at a book signing tonight at a country club in Dayton, Oh. Whose book is being signed this evening? Why, HIS, of course. This book was written last year, for a local hospital that is celebrating its 80th anniversary, and someone thought Geoff would do a good job. And he did.
So, here I sit at a foreign computer (because mine is in the basement and the girls are sleeping up here and our baby monitors haven't worked in years) while my DH is probably sipping champagne and dipping into the caviar with all those rich, important doctors at the country club. Mr. Fancy Pants.
I had yet another program to give today to Cub Scouts. So what, you say?
These boys are between the ages of 6 and 9. That's a big age difference if you are trying to keep them all interested in something, at the SAME TIME.
The girls have a long school day tomorrow, so maybe I can go out and see some good birds. BTW: I got two life birds this week: Least flycatcher, and a golden-crowned kinglet. They were both out by the feeders, but of course not eaying seeds, but bugs. Sigh...I love my yard. Lots of critters for other critters to eat. Okay, here comes a rant:
Nearly everyone on our street uses "Chemlawn" or "Scott's" etc, and they have these pristine, sterile-looking yards. And guess what? They also have NO BIRDS, or racoons, or deer or possums or anything cool to look at. Yeah, their kids can do a somersault on their lawn. Big deal. My girls can go sit on our lawn and find about 20 different kinds of bugs in about a minute. And Isabelle, my almost-five year old can identify almost as many birds as I can.
So, neighbors, you can just go on doing what you are doing. We will take ALL of the bugs, and we will have all the birds.

My heart has wings.