The Chiao-Lin War

this is what my morning looks like everyday.

as most of you know, caleb has congenital ptosis. the doctor wants us to patch his eye for at least 1 hour per day (thank goodness it's no longer 4 hours) to try to strengthen his weaker eye.

caleb generally wakes up in a good mood, and is especially happy after he eats. but after the first feeding of the day, the patch goes on and i work so hard to try to keep him calm and awake, both of which are necessary for his right eye to remain open. as soon as the patch goes on, caleb starts to swat at his eye (trying to take it off) and furrow his brow. after about 20 minutes, he starts to get a bit cranky, and by the time 40 minutes has gone by, it's a fight to keep him awake and happy. he usually falls asleep after having worn the patch for 40-45 minutes. when caleb wants to sleep, there's no fighting it, so he sleeps. but then the last 15-20 minutes of wake time with the patch become sheer torture because he wakes up and realizes that he can't see anything. the battle begins (see picture above). angry caleb appears and the last 15-20 minutes of wake time turn into a 45-60 minute battle with him screaming, crying, and turning purple, and me begging him to keep his eye open so that the insanity can end.

finally, after what seems like an eternity, we are able to take off the patch. about 15 seconds after we take it off, this kid appears: (see below) it's like dr. jeckle and mr. hyde.