Apparently, Duckling is feeling quite well and she is playing and being her normal self!  Yesterday, her and Eagle were happily playing, but it quickly turned into Eagly screaming in pain as he ended up with a kick to the face.  I watched him for a few hours and he was in agonizing pain and he couldn't uncover his eye and would not let me see it because it hurt so bad.  Fearful that Duckling had scratched his eye....I put yet another call into the pediatrician and they said it should be looked at today.  Off to the ER we go again!  He had numerous Corneal Abrasions!  Ouch, it looked so painful, I could barely stand to look at it!  His entire eye is red and swollen and his eye looked absolutely terrible!  He didn't complain of any trouble with his vision when we were in the ER, but last night, he kept saying things look blurry! 

This morning, we went back to the hospital to see an eye specialist.  He is still unable to see clearly in his right eye and usually, a Corneal Abrasion heals within 24 hours...and poor Eagle's eye is not healed yet.  The doctor doesn't have any concerns about it healing and he has to go back again tomorrow to make sure that it healed ok.  He is however going to need glasses, so he will need to go back next week to have his vision checked again.  I asked if he needed glasses due to this injury, but the doctor said that there is no way to really know for sure and that a lot of times, they actually uncover a vision problem when there has been some other reason that has sent them to the eye doctor.  Since it's his right eye that he's having vision problems with, it's hard to think it wasn't caused by his injury, however...now Eagle says he actually did have trouble reading the keyboard before his eye was hurt.

Everyone always gives me such a hard time about putting my kids in a bubble and being so overprotective of them...but it seems my kids are ALWAYS getting hurt even on a quiet day.  History proves this fact, as once when Hawk was 3 he cut Eagle's finger with scissors just to see what would happen (this nearly resulted in doing skin graphing to fix his finger), Cardinal needed 7 staples in the back of her head when she decided to do a flip onto the couch at her grandmother's house, a week later Hawk dove onto his bed getting into bed at bedtime and hit the dresser and he needed stitches (again, at grandma's house), a few years later Hawk fell off our swingset when he was outside playing all by himself and he had bleeding on his brain and lets not forget Macaw being severly burned when she was a year old and touched the glass front on our gas fireplace...so why would it seem odd that Duckling and Eagle were happily playing one minute and Eagle had an eye injury the next and why would I be a parent who freaks out and overprotects my kids...because my kids can barely sit down without getting hurt!

I should really have never changed the way that I parent my children...not for an uncle, a boyfriend, a husband...not for anyone!  I used to forbid them to play with guns, swords, light sabers, etc. and they weren't allowed to watch tv or play games that involved "fighting or violence".  I finally caved in to the pressures of outside forces because I got so sick of people teasing me about how I was raising my kids.  So, now, I've turned into the "mean" mom and since I have to take responsiblilty for my kids and their actions, I will once again regain control of their influences and teach them more appropriate behaviors.  I will no longer allow my kids to play "fighting" games, watch 3 ninja's or the like on tv and wrestling and play fighting are off limits (even for a playful uncle or grandpa).  Kids just don't know the difference and now that my 3 year old has injured my 8 year old...it's time to learn that even play "fighting" is not ok because someone can still get hurt!

  I won't put up the guns or other "weapons" but they will once again be taught the proper way to use and handle them...we will point and shoot at targets, not people and they will be put in a safe place where little ones can't have access to them (whether they are toys or not).  We have to realize that our kids learn by example and it is up to us to set that example for them.  It is up to us to teach them what is acceptable and not acceptable and I have to stop allowing other people, tv or even video games to have such a powerful influence on my kids, afterall, they are my kids and their strongest influence should be me.  It's kind of hard to tell them not to hit or fight when a dad, uncle, grandpa, etc.  fight with them and make it fun...it's hard to expect that they aren't going to find a real gun and point it at someone and accidentally shoot them, if they've learned  that this type of point, shoot and bang behavior is acceptable with the "gun" they usually play with, but if they've been taught gun safety the risk of someone getting hurt with a real gun would be much lower.

So, tomorrow...we head back to the eye specialist for a eye that still seems to need time to heal.