Cars go VROOM!

Formula 1 is the sport that is on my calendar. Most people are football, baseball, basketball, or soccer people. I am a Formula 1 fan. I love the races, the tracks on the circuit and their history, and the drivers past and present. Growing up with a father who spent his weekends at the track in Ennis, I fell in love with the sounds and smells of speed.

With that love for speed, it was no surprise that I immediately took to racing once I was old enough to drive. My father took my sister and I to racing schools as a way to bond and develop our driving skills. Some of my favorite vacations growing up were spent at a race track. My favorite was a Skip Barber class at Laguna Seca - seeing the infamous Corkscrew turn in person and driving it in an open wheel car is currently one of my favorite experiences I've had behind the wheel because it was the closest I have come to anything like Formula 1.

When I had Emma, I wanted to share my love for the sport with her. When she was young, I would watch races with her and give her play by plays as the race was on. She was much more interested in listening to me talk than watching the cars on TV. But once she started talking and learned the word "car," I taught her that cars went VROOM just like cows going MOO. As she got older and became more curious, she started to pay more attention to the races when they were on the TV and it became a time for us to snuggle and talk.

Last year, for the inaugural race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, I took Emma with me when my family went to see the race. She never went to the track as I didn't feel it would be something she would enjoy with the loud noises and fast cars moving that could be hard to keep up with. But after a year of incredible progress, I felt she was showing increased interest when the races were on television as well as a fair amount of improvement to her vision since her surgery.

So this year, I decided to let Emma try to see if she liked Formula 1 live. We had a set of head phones for her that we tried out prior to arriving to the track to make sure she would be comfortable wearing them for protecting her hearing. She was slightly confused by them but didn't try to take them off so now it was just a matter of how she would handle the noise. We got up Friday morning and made our way to the track for practice. We got to our seats and she sat in my lap looking around singing her songs and quizzing me on the different parts of my face like she tends to do right now.

Waiting for the cars to start.

As soon as we could hear the cars leaving the pits, the head phones went on and we waited for the cars to make their way around to turn twelve where we were seated. Once she heard the cars, she started to look around for what I can only assume was the TV as she knew that's where the cars normally were. It was hard to explain to her that we were there, but she figured it out as soon as she saw them after they had made a couple laps. But once she saw them, she started getting really excited and got the biggest smile. Lucky for me, she did it for a while so I have some great pictures of it.

Munchkin and Mommy both happy to see cars go VROOM!

While I will say that I really enjoyed the entire weekend and being able to attend the race again this year, my favorite moment of the entire trip was that smile. I loved seeing her face light up and her wiggle in excitement. She turned to me a few times and said something, but of course I could not hear her over the noise of the cars so I'm not sure exactly what she said. My guess was a high pitched squeal like she does when she is really excited. But it doesn't really matter to me that I couldn't hear her because a picture says a thousand words, and her message was clear.

eyePad

Today was a big day for my sweet little munchkin. We had an unusual morning that was far from her normal routine. I went in super early before she started her morning singing and offered her a bottle of juice. I'm sure she was thinking, "JUICE?!? Ok... Mommy must have gotten mixed up or needs to go to the grocery store cause this is supposed to be milk." All was forgiven because the juice was her favorite - diluted white grape juice. But then, at 5:30 the bottle was taken away (doctor's orders) even though there was still some left. Now that was less forgiveable, but when I told her it was a PJ day and promised lots of snuggle time, she smiled and said "I love you." At 6:00, we got into the car and went for a ride which was still unusual, but Emma always has fun in the car!

As I drove, we sang her songs the whole way there. It was her normal "singing time" so it was a mixture of "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "B-I-N-G-O," and "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes." We arrived at our destination at 6:50, which was perfect. I wanted to get there before it was time for her epilepsy medication at 7:00 so I wouldn't have to stop somewhere along the way. Plus, that way we had plenty of time with no fear of being late. I got Emma changed and mostly dressed again when we arrived and we went inside to do her medicine before checking in. This is when Emma first started to get quiet. We had arrived at the surgery center for her eye surgery.

Emma's ophthalmologist diagnosed her with exotropia which is the form of strabismus where the eyes are deviated outward. She responded well enough to the patching treatment that she actually started using her right eye to examine items even when she wasn't wearing an eye patch. Her eyes didn't completely correct themselves from the patching treatment so it was time to consider surgery. When we discussed surgery to correct the alignment of her eyes, her doctor brought up how (for currently unknown reasons) performing the surgery where they detached both outer and inner muscles has been show to reduce or even completely clear up nystagmus (the eyes shaking back and forth). So we opted to have him perform the extra step in hopes that it would improve both conditions. 

Knowing all of this, I was still nervous when we sat down after checking in. I knew I needed to keep my nerves under control so Emma didn't sense them and get nervous or uncomfortable as well. So we sang and texted a few family members that we had arrived there safely. Then, we went back to her room and spoke to the team that would be taking care of her during her surgery. They were all so wonderful and put me at ease because she would be in the best hands, as I expected. They gave her an intranasel sedation before taking her back so she would be relaxed and not stressed when she was wheeled away from me. She was pretty cute asking for "Itsy Bitsy Spider" repeatedly once it kicked in because she spoke much more slowly. They took her back at 8:35 and I went to the waiting room for what felt like way more than an hour. 

SPI-DER!

Once she was out and in recovery, her doctor came and told me that she had done wonderfully and the surgery went well. I was relieved and couldn't wait to hold my little bug again. But I had to wait another thirty minutes - not something any parent likes to do, but as Emma's mother, I feel I've become a master. I'm so grateful I got my mother's patience... My father is a wonderful man, but patience is admittedly not his strong suit. But the wait was worth it as all the stress melted away once I heard her say "Mommy" when I saw her and said "Hi munchkin." I was so proud of her for how well she did. She had no visible bruising and her eyes had very minimal redness, which was better than I had prepared myself for, so I was relieved. I gave her the bottle of her favorite juice I brought and she drank most of it. Shortly after she showed the nurse that she could keep her clear liquids down, we were discharged and were back in the car to go home.

Just after waking up from surgery

Sleeping soundly after lunch

I can already see some great improvements and am looking forward to seeing how her vision develops over the next six weeks as her eyes heal from the surgery. Until then, we'll just enjoy the journey of seeing the progress unfold before my very eyes.