Two weeks ago Justin and I were in the car with the girls.  Avery was in the middle row and for some reason when we were at a stop light she told Justin and I her eyes were “broken.”  We questioned if she really said what we thought we just heard so we asked her to repeat it and sure enough we heard her correctly. It was like a knife in our chests but I really didn’t think Avery meant what she said.  I think she had a patch on at the time so part of me chalked it up to something regarding the patch or her eye being itchy but I certainly didn’t think she equated it to her eyes not working correctly.  While Avery hasn’t said her eyes are broken since, fast forward two weeks to tonight.  Justin was putting on Emerson’s “special sleeping shoes” for the third night in a row, and as he was strapping them, she said, “my feet broken”.  WOW….talk about not only a knife in the chest yet again, but also this time reality that girls are smarter than we were giving them credit.  Emerson then proceeded to point to her eyes, then Avery, and say contacts.  The girls absolutely know that contacts and patching are Avery’s special thing and that the sleeping shoes are Emerson’s special things and they both actually seem to enjoy their “special thing”…granted Emerson’s is relatively new and the first night was awful but has gotten a little better each day. So Justin and I were really taken back when we realized that the girls also associated each of their “special things” with being broken :(.  These are the moments that make being a parent tough!