Evie is doing great!!!

Evie has been doing so well these past few days. We've had virtually no screaming temper tantrums and she has been such a kick in the pants to be around. We are definitely having some good times right now. I know it's most likely not permanent...yet. She still has sadness and crying that comes out right before bed time and anytime any other female comes over to the house (grandmas, friends, etc) she pushes me away very hard. You can tell that she wants to be close to me but she is just not completely ready yet. Shane went back to work yesterday and Evie did really well. We ordered a few books from Amazon to help us with attachment and bonding, and one in particular has made a HUGE difference. It's called Holding Time. The author developed this technique for holding and bonding for children with autism and found that it works on all kids. It has been so beneficial for Evie and I. It encourages eye contact and letting your child cry and yell to get out the sadness and anger that they are feeling. So everyday Evie and I (also Jaili and I)have holding time. The first time with Evie was more like a small wrestling match. She didn't want me to hold her much less have to make eye contact with me. It took about 1 hour and 15 min of having her scream and yell at me and then all of a sudden she stopped screaming looked me in the eyes patted the side of my face and said "momma". She continued just stroking the side of my cheek saying momma and then fell asleep. Since then each holding time session the crying has been less and less, today she in fact did not cry at all. She actually smiled stroked my cheek 3 times and said momma as soon as I held her like a baby.
She is stinkin adorable. I love that she is feeling comfortable enough to let her personality shine through. She is very sweet and loving and babbles like crazy. Now that she is beginning to feel comfortable she is actually quite an easy toddler, generally happy most of the time. Don't get me wrong it's not all bunnies and sunshine, she is still the loudest screamer I've ever heard but now I don't mind it so much. I'm really beginning to attach to her also. Which is so Awesome. Most days I just want to kiss her squishy little cheeks until I could eat her all up.
Jaili (mommy #2) amazes me everyday with her capacity to love and help. She has taken everything in stride. She is so well spoken that even if she is having a hard time she comes right out and tells us. She told me the other day that she was feeling very lonely because Daddy didn't carry her like he used to before baby sister. It's so nice to have a 4 year old able to verbalize her feelings so well. We had a good talk about everything after that and I just let her know that everyday we would have a time for her to talk about how she is feeling to get it all out.
We had Evie's eye appointment at Casey Eye Institute last Friday and the Dr.Reznick pretty much said everything we assumed.In a nutshell Evie's eyes are pretty crappy. She has nystagmus, strabismus of both eyes, small optic nerve, astigmatism, head tilt because of her null point and something else that I can't think of the correct name for. Everything is pretty common with OCA1 albinism. The Dr. is going to have Evie wear glasses for the next 4-6 weeks then reevaluate after that to see if glasses helps her crossed eyes, head tilt and slows her nystagmus. If the glasses don't help we are looking at doing surgery for her crossed eyes (strabismus) and dampening her nystagmus this year. Again none of this caught us by surprise. It's pretty much everything Shane and I were anticipating with her eyes. Although I didn't realize how dorky the glasses were for infants until we started looking for them. Seriously, I realize she is just a toddler but these glasses they have are REALLY bad. We are looking for the least dorky of the bunch. Yes, I realize Evie won't care nor will she even know that the glasses are bad. If I have the option of finding something a little cuter and less goofy I'm going to go with that option.
Anywho, I will absolutely try and get pictures up today of the little ladies. I know I keep saying it...it's just a pain in the bum for me to try to get them on her, but I will at least attempt it today.