KDO Christmas Program

Caedmon’s first Christmas Program was Thursday at KDO. He was excited about singing on the stage. He’d been telling me about how he’d been practicing, and he was ready for Husband and me to come watch.

Of course, Wednesday night he complained about his eye hurting. But he did so while poking his finger into his eye. Being the loving, caring, merciful Momma I am, I told him that if he took his finger out of his eye, it’d probably stop hurting.

Then, on Thursday morning, he woke up with a swollen, red, crusty eye. At 6:00am. And he wouldn’t go back to sleep.

I really wanted him to be able to participate in his program at 9:30am. But I was preparing to be the bad guy and tell him he couldn’t go. I didn’t want him sharing that kind of Christmas joy with anyone else if it happened to be contagious. It was not going to be pretty. His Grinch pajamas were already laid out and ready for him to wear to KDO.

So, I waited until 8:01 and called his Ophthalmologist. I got their answering service. Staff meeting day meant that they wouldn’t be in until 9am. Ugh.

I almost called the pediatrician’s office next. But the last time I took Caedmon to the ped’s office for an eye issue, it was misdiagnosed. Of course, he was a tiny, tiny baby then, but if we hadn’t been going to the Ophthalmologist’s office soon after, we may have continued to treat his eye incorrectly.

So I called mine and Husband’s eye doctor. The poor girl who answered the phone listened to me explain how desperate I was to get Caedmon in to see someone before his program because he was dying to sing on the stage and was there any way he could be seen before then? She was so sweet. Obviously she has kids, because she understood how important it was to a little three year-old boy to get to be in his Christmas program and worked us in.

I was ready to go and Caedmon was half dressed, but Husband helped him get the rest of his clothes on and we ran out the door to the eye doctor.

We waited…and waited. Finally the doctor came in and I must say, Caedmon was a champ. He sat up in my lap in the exam chair and even when the eye doctor had to put his head in that weird contraption and use that super bright light thing that rotates, he didn’t fuss one bit. Then, she put the yellow stain stuff in his eye and again, he never flinched. And then we got the good news: bacterial infection, probably caused by the snot and junk he’s been dealing with for a while.

Why was this good news? Because it wasn’t Pink Eye. It wasn’t viral, which is highly contagious. Still slightly contagious – as in, if you stuck your finger in his eye and then stuck in your eye, you could get an infection. But as that wasn’t likely to happen, she said he was fine to go to his Christmas program and KDO. Yay!

But the prospect of putting drops in his eyes four times a day for the next seven days wasn’t sounding like fun.

We arrived at KDO just in time for him to get prepared for his Christmas program with his class. I was so relieved. On the way over, we talked about how Daddy and I were going to watch him sing on the stage. Caedmon kept asking, “Can I play my guitar on the stage?” I promised him we’d do that some other time. He cracks me up with his introverted little attitude wanting to do something as flamboyant as shred with his electric guitar on a giant stage.

I left Husband to find his own seat and planted myself in the floor in front of my friends Zach and Erin (Zach was running the video camera), and got ready for some pictures. I took just a couple…or 95.

My boy in his Grinch pajamas (thanks to Curly for finding those for us after Christmas last year), taking the stage with his class.

Nobody else had Grinch pajamas. We were special.

Here he is in the midst of everyone. Look at that poor, puffy eye on my happy boy.

Of course, he had to stand up and wave at me.

The kids did a great job. Caedmon wasn’t much into the singing, though he’d catch a word here and there. He also didn’t do many of the hand motions. He’s a boy and he’s three, what do you expect?

Husband and I were proud of him. He did great. He sat in his place, he didn’t pick his nose, he didn’t act like a maniac (even though some kid next to him kept whacking him on the head), and though he was proud to see us, he went back to his class without a fuss.

I have a feeling it’s the first of many performances we’ll be attending. I just hope we don’t have the same eye problems before each one.

Caedmon’s eye is much better. The drops are working their magic and he’s on the mend. Now if we can get rid of the sinus crud that started all this, we’ll be in good shape.