The Rest

So, remember that whole trip to NYC for the Buddy Walk?

Well, when our fun-filled Saturday was over, we still had most of Sunday to spend in the city.

After, once again, housing the breakfast buffet, we headed out. We had decided that we'd keep the day pretty Playette-centric.

First stop, FAO Schwarz.

It was a long walk from our hotel to there, so it was a welcome surprise to come across a market all down 6th Avenue. We stopped at a couple of places, drooled over some of the food being sold (only not partaking because we had just eaten) and ended up with new sunglasses for the bigger two of us. Five dollar bucks for mine. And they're cute. Score!

We eventually made it. I was whooped. Playette was rearing to go.


Check her out. This makes me laugh. "Dreeessss. Dreeessss. Dress! Cheese. (strike a pose)"


I have no idea who taught her that little pointed toe move, but she likes it. A lot.

Once we moved past the dresses, I just kept the camera rolling because she was funny to watch as she explored.


Don't worry. I went back and put everything back.

When I found my fam again, they were here:


Playette and I got down to our socks right after this and did some horrible big piano playing of our own for a while.

We thought about purchasing the floor model for the low, low price of $250K, but decided that eventually owning a home might be the more fiscally responsible option.

We are such dillhole killjoys.

To get the festive mood back, we played around some more before heading over to Rockefeller Plaza to tour an exhibit on education...


(I couldn't resist the scramble board.)

...back to Times Square for a Thai food lunch, people watching...


...and, finally, the pièce de résistance:


My little cell phone camera does this lighted mammoth no justice. Playette was excited as we stood in line (translation: she thought she was too good to wait and tried to bust ahead) and quickly pointed out the car with "Lala" on it.

That stumped us. We kept looking and looking, seeing Dora, well, nowhere.

Finally, I spotted her. Way up at the top, in the tiniest corner of a Nickelodeon-themed car. I can't believe this kid is supposed to need glasses. She wasn't wearing any at the time. Hm.

So, lucky us, for the next 15 minutes, we got to hear "Lala! Lala!"

And of course it's first come, first served. You can't just want "Lala" and get her.

I felt really bad by the time we boarded and missed it by one. She had to watch "Lala" go round and round in front of us the entire time. Womp, womp.

BD and I were ok with what we got though. What self-respecting child of the 80s wouldn't want to rock the Mystery Machine?! I mean, really.


They got a really cute picture of all of three of us in the ride, but, uh...it would have cost more than our lunch so...sorry.

It was another great day. We left there, grabbed our bags from the hotel, I went to get some bagels to bring home, we boarded the bus, and actually had a really decent ride back home.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Now that's it's a week past our local Buddy Walk, I hope I can get that in sometime soon, before we head to our third and final for the year.

Snippets

I believe that I owe you all another video. Not that anyone's asking for one, but I kinda prefer telling the school stories "in person" now. That saves me a heck of a lot of writing, for one. Yesterday and today, there were some new developments. And I'm proud of myself.

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On Saturday, I had a commitment with the Navy Reserve. As I've mentioned before, this is not a frequent occurrence, but this summer, there seems to be a lot more going on than usual. In fact, I have meetings this coming weekend as well.

So there I am, early in the morning, putting on my khakis, and Little Miss Possessive herself (no, really, she doesn't want servers to take away our plates, people to come too close with their carts in the grocery store, or luggage handlers to take our bags in the airport) starts giving me the "No! No! No! No!" complete with hand gestures. I'm wondering what in the world I've done to get this treatment and then she says, "Daddy's pants!"

Ah, yes. Of course. She thought I was stealing her dad's clothes since this is what she always sees him wear and never sees me wear.

Smart kid.

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We went to the ENT last Friday for a follow-up to the sleep study. Apparently, her episodes were extremely insignificant. No T&A or CPAP for her, for now. We go back in December.

That reminds me. It's about that time to start scheduling the next round of appointments. We haven't been to the Cardiologist since moving here so I think that visit should get some priority. Hopefully, it'll be just as uneventful as our past visits have been. But it is always nerve-wracking to go to someone new. Who knows if they'll agree with the other doctors? What if they want to do something we're not expecting?

Ugh. Why did I just go there? Borrowing trouble.

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Playette got new glasses when we were in San Antonio and the lenses are finally in. So stinkin' cute. I like them so much better than the sports goggles on her. I guess now you want a pic, huh?

All the ones I have in my phone are blurry. I'll work on getting a clear shot posted soon.

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In the meantime, here she is this morning, sans glasses, after deciding that she was more than ready to head out to school. She grabbed the garage door opener and the car keys, along with my sunglasses that she promptly placed in the headband position. Good thing I was right behind her because the garage door was up and she was out and at the driver's side door in no time. I guess she thought she'd do the driving today.

I know, I know, but still...

In what was probably the early 80s, I recall watching an episode of Donahue. The topic was surgery that would correct one's vision. I remember being riveted, swearing that one day, absolutely before I got married, I would have this done. There was no way I was walking down the aisle in glasses.

Always a thinker, I decided in my approximately nine-year-old mind, that by the time I was ready, enough time would have passed to ensure that the procedure was safe.

It would be many years later, but when the opportunity arose, I bought myself some perfect vision. 2003. I beat my self-proclaimed deadline by almost 3 years.

And that's how much I hated my glasses.

I say all of that because, as shallow as it may sound, I really, really didn't want my daughter to have to go through those feelings.

I've stated before that I know what it's like to grow up Black and female. In a lot of ways, that's difficult enough in my mind. But I don't know what it's like to also have developmental delays and a diagnosis that's written all over my face.

I don't know...it's little and common and silly, probably, to even devote this much thought to the issue, but...it's just one more thing to add to the pile of reasons for people to look at/treat her differently.

Today, after three hellish hours in The Most Popular Opthamologist in the World's office, we came out with a prescription.

And I ordered my baby some glasses.

I'm not normally mushy about a lot of milestones, but this one got me. It didn't feel good. I felt like I had let her down. She's not quite four. It's so early. I'm the one who passed this on to her. guiltguiltguilt.

The doctor showed me what her vision is like untreated. Ugh. Why didn't we know sooner?

She didn't want to try the frames on and I didn't blame her.

But we did the right thing and in two weeks or less, her world will be that much clearer.

Gag.

#shallow
#movingon