*** This was originally written as a Guest Blog post for Momstown.ca. ***

I believe that parenting is a group effort.  And so the saying goes:

So when my 2-year-old daughter was diagnosed with amblyopia last month, I turned to my village.

* As an aside, amblyopia is an eye disorder that involves decreased vision in an eye that otherwise appears normal. In her case, this visual impairment is severe, and she needs glasses and daily eye-patching to ‘teach’ her left eye to function.

Someone suggested making a book for her to illustrate the process of what was happening to her.  Brilliant.  At just-barely-two, her comprehension is much higher than her verbal communication skills, and a book seemed like the perfect option to explain this experience.  So, with some construction paper and a smile, I made her this:

And it worked like a charm.  It’s her favorite book, we read it multiple times a day, and she gets it.  Her glasses are helping, her eye-patching is helping, and we’re gonna be just fine.