To make an even longer story short, my father had cataracts as a baby, and I only found out that this was the cause of his poor eyesight AFTER I called my mother sobbing that my baby couldn't see.
Communication. It's a good thing, no? (But knowing this has done wonders for allowing me to relax about all the testing we've been going through.)
But I digress. I'm actually in a pretty good place about this (much better, than say, my stoic, Eastern European father-in-law, who cannot keep his eyes dry). I am guaranteed to be a wreck tomorrow when we had little Babel over to the nurses for the surgery, but I am ready. They'll take out one of his lenses tomorrow (with the other coming out next week), and it's the first step to getting him better vision. It's no coincidence that talking to him all week about his upcoming adventure has been to get BOTH of us ready.
Let's face it. Babel's a tough ass kid already. I famously say that out of all the babies that could have been, Babel stayed. Babel has always been a fountain of calm. When I would panic in the pregnancy, he'd happily kick me to tell me all was well. He's no different outside of the belly. He makes friends easily with his sweet little face, and he's not a big crier. Well, he's not a big crier unless he's in Month Four of Life (also known as "the crazies"), but since we're past that, he's a-okay again. He just wants to hang out and play. Not too hard, right?
He's not yet six months, but for the past two weeks, he's been up on all fours, rocking like mad, trying to figure out how to move his arms so he can GO. He has a mean downward dog, which he perfected over the weekend. (He also moves through plank!) He loves to stand, started sitting at 5 mos, and is just the sweetest little thing in all of NYC. So you say he can't see? Don't make a damn bit of difference to Babel. He'll snatch that spoon right out of your hands to feed himself, thankyouverymuch.
We do have a road ahead of us, but I think it's only as long and arduous as we make it. It's so much easier for me to keep my ish together for that little face, and as a result, I'm one of the few people who is clear headed going into tomorrow.
This baby is tough. Yes, we're about to embark on a new journey, but we're going to be okay. If I've learned anything, it's that we really are going to be okay.
