Bolt... away

Bolt is the new favorite movie in our house. The kiddo watched is every morning. If you haven't seen it I'd say that it's definitely worth a look. Even the Man enjoyed it and chuckled a few times, he especially liked the guinea pig. I'm glad it's on perma-loan so I wont have to return it anytime soon as it's making the morning eye patch transition easier.

Speaking of the patching, it's going okay still. The Kiddo argues a little every morning but he doesn't fight or whine. Sunday he was trying to be sneaky by peeling just the inside corner of it up and peaking around that. He got his hand slapped a few times and a stern talking too... yesterday he did MUCH better.

I will be so glad when we're done patching, for him and for me!

I said a few weeks back that occasionally I'd be posting a few pictures from my sisters wedding. I thought I'd put one up today. One of my favorites, and one that's hung on the kiddo's "people I know" board in his room. The trip was so great for him (traveling part included) that he really wants to go back! He really loves his Grannie and Grampie. I'm not surprised, he had a good time and loves everybody in my family.

Officially WILD

I knew the Wild Things movie was coming out soon. I thought it would be this summer (it's been since last Sept that I looked into it) but apparently it will be October 19th. I'm excited, the trailer looks great!

If I'm smart I'll start squirling away little bits of cash to buy fabric with, and then start mass production of some wild things costumes. Something tells me there'll be a run on them this fall *grin* Especially since my version of the costume is pretty darn close to the movies.

If they're tired...

...I'm exhausted. It's sad when you're young (ish) have a child, desperately want another, but look at the world and are forced to think about how selfish it is to bring a child into a situation like this.

Via Breda

Literally?

The Kiddo was bugging the heck out of me this afternoon. Everything I had he wanted...

I had some soup, I gave him a sip and he said "no it's my soup, I want some soup!".

I asked him to please leave me alone and told him mommy needs some me time and to take a break. He said "no I want a break, it's my break, it's my me time"

I said he was gonna get thumped... he said "no YOU are gonna get thumped, I'm gonna thump yoooou"... ... ... ...

He stuck out his thumb and poked me with it, then said "there now you've been thumbped"

aaar maybe

There's a lot of stuff I would post on if I felt like griping about the world. The government is doing some really not so cool things, for example I just read a story: The Obama administration is considering asking Congress to give the Treasury secretary unprecedented powers to initiate the seizure of non-bank financial companies, such as large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds, whose collapse would damage the broader economy. Or if I want to look somewhere besides the United States for stress the Violence in Mexico seems to be getting way way out of control. I worry about that, the Man looked at doing border patrol not so long ago and he hasn't removed it from his list of possible future jobs.

But with the Kiddo taking up my time it's hard enough to post anything let alone those things. I'm keeping my focus a little closer to home this week. And who isn't going to smile at a 4 year old saying "aaaaar maybe" (for some reason he refuses to say matey).

Monday updates

First I have to get this off my chest...

SNOW!! For the love of all that's holy can't summer just come already yet grrr

Okay now for the updates. The Kiddo is doing amazing. I know kids adapt, but he's adjusted so quickly to having to wear an eye patch. Yesterday I went to put it on his face and he quetly asked me not too. He asked if I would please put it on his left eye instead of his right. It made me so sad, but I explained that it had to go on his right eye in order to make his left eye stronger. He grumbled but let me put it on him. This morning we put patches on both his Little Einstein boys so they could be like him. He didn't even try to talk me out of it, he just closed his eyes and said "go ahead". We really haven't had any fits or any attempts at removal since the first day we used it.
Lady D mentioned that I should try to explain what I've learned about why we are putting on the patch (from my dad, and my research) a little more here as an update. I think she might be right so here goes...

My dad explained that the Kiddo's brain has probably not been "listening" to his left eye. Since his right eye is so much stronger the brain has been using that as it's primary source of information and slowly ignoring the left eye more and more. The patch forces the Kiddos brain to start listening to the Left. Sure the images it gets from the left are minimal at best but as long as the brain is trying to listen to it the vision in that eye will improve. The optic nerve itself will not grow any larger so THAT part of his condition wont change. However as long as we make sure the brain is using the eye then the other parts of his eye are going to continue to develop until he's nine (just like his other eye will)... It will take awhile for his brain to stop trying to use the right eye and start using the left (which is why we have to do a full four weeks with the patch before we can check to see if there's an vision improvement).

I added a link to my side bar for a really good Optic Nerve Hypoplasia site. It's a membership site for families of kids with ONH. Yes to get all the features I'd have to pay money (which I don't have right now) BUT there's plenty you can read there without paying the membership fee. The link should take you strait to the ONH general information page. On the right side bar are several links that talk about growth hormones, how they test to see if they are needed, how they are administered, for how long you have to give them, and what possible side effect there may be (which is good reading since we may end up looking into, though I really hope the kid is just a late grower).

Anyway the Kiddo seems to be adjusting. He still walks around and plays as though he can't see anything at all. Every day I challenge him a little bit more... making him try to play by himself for longer periods of time. I ask him to give me high fives or make him reach out and take whichever toy he's asking for. After hearing what my dad said I feel far more comfortable (and less cranky) about patching the Kiddo, and really have only one big concer... When we take the patch off at night (30-60 minutes before he goes to bed) his left eye wanders to an extream I haven't really ever seen it go too. I'm assuming this is due to it being very tired. In the morning (prior to patching him) it is back to a minimal drift but I find myself worried about the pre-bed time drifting... I suppose if it continues to worry me I'll just call the eye doc to see if it's normal.

The eyes don't quite have it

Today was the Kiddo's yearly eye doc visit. It was... well... it was unusual.

I'm going to do a little background here so you can understand better why I am so frustrated with today's visit...

Two and a half years ago, when the Kiddo was 1 1/2 years old, we took him to a ophthalmologist (that's an eye doc with a MD behind his name). I don't remember a lot of what the doc said that visit. I know we discussed possibly darkening the lens over the good eye of the kiddo's glasses but decided against it for some reason or other.

Last year because I wasn't all that big of a fan of the first doc and because I didn't know there was a difference between an ophthalmologist and an optometrist we took him to a different eye doc. I loved the guy, so did the Man.

The part that made me the happiest with last years doc was that that I FINALLY understood what it is the Kiddo sees when he is looking through his left eye. He's got Optic Nerve Hypoplasia (for those of you who don't know... that means the left optic nerve is severely underdeveloped and the right one is very slightly underdeveloped). When you cover the Kiddos right eye his left one rolls around... I thought he couldn't see at all with it because he never "focused" on anything. The doc explained that the reason he does that is because he's trying to "find" what he's looking at. He can't see the central focal point, just the peripheral so he looks around trying to find things with that peripheral. Does that make sense? It's like if you put a fuzzy thing in the center of your glasses, you'd have to shift your head (or eyes) so that you could see "around" the fuzzy part. There is no fix, it's just like if he had been born with a club foot or shrunken arm ... they can't "make" a foot grow where there never was one, they can't "make" the optic nerve grow when it never did.

He said that the most important thing for us to do is to protect the eyes (i.e. polycarbonate lenses), because he can't always see things coming at it fast enough to protect it and to realize that it is probably a bit more sensitive to light as well. He also said that fuzzing out the right eye would do more to frustrate the Kiddo then it would to help. The "lazy eye" problem isn't muscle it's focal point so he'd just sit there rolling around his eye and fighting us and would accomplish nearly nothing.

Now that's I've covered that, I can explain my very emotional frustration with todays eye doctor visit. Last week when we went to the pediatrician she told us that she would really prefer we take the Kiddo to an ophthalmologist because of the ONH. I double checked and the eye doctor we took the Kiddo to is only an optometrist so with a grouchy sigh I called up the place we took him to two years ago and set an appointment for this afternoon.

We took him in today and spent 2 hours there. They did all sorts of testing on his eyes. The end result was that they say he is now a +.5 in both eyes!! What!?? He went from being a -3 something in the right (and a -5 something in the left) to a +?? The doc tested him three to four times to double check this because it isn't something that happens (kids don't go from being nearsighted to farsighted). Then told us that the Kiddo didn't need to wear his glasses anymore. That right there had me fighting the urge to sell my left arm to pay for a second opinion. Yes vision changes, yes he's a kid so his eyesight is still developing, and yes he's always been an odd one medically but c'mon that's quite the change! And whatever happened to needing to wear glasses to help protect the left eye?

The kicker, the part that has me hugely upset is that we are now supposed to put a patch over the Kiddo's right eye. All day, every day, for the next four weeks. We're doing this to see if there's any improvement in his vision. Four weeks is long enough for something to change if anything is going too. Alright, this makes sense for most normal patients who have a lazy eye problem. Except the Kiddo's issue isn't a lazy eye and what happened to what the doc last year told me? The part about how fuzzing the right eye would do nothing but frustrate the kiddo because it isn't a muscle issue.. ..???

So today we put on a patch. I spent the entire day trying not to cry as I watched my beautiful son, my amazing handsome strong boy... walk around like he was blind! Play with toys without watching them (because he couldn't' see them). Grasp around for the cup to get a drink and having to have me take his hands and place them on it in order for him to find it. He's so smart he figured out that if he walks with his eye looking at the ground he can almost barely see where he's going out of the top of his eye with his peripheral vision. By the end of the day he was rubbing and rubbing at the eye patch. He would NOT leave it alone... he just so desperately wanted it off.

The man says it could help, and that it's worth the effort to TRY. I'm thinking the whole thing is a really large pile of extra stinky bs. Granted the doc last year didn't have an MD after his name... but it sure seemed to me like he knew MORE about this condition and MORE about how to help it then the doc we saw today. I'm baffled and confused about how having him roll his eye around trying to see, having him stare at the ground so he can even attempt to walk... how any of this is supposed to help him "develop" better vision.

A couple random things...

First tomorrow is the first day of spring!! Of course it arrives just in time to usher out a beautiful week and usher in a crappy couple of days of much colder (20 degrees or so) weather. March has got to be my least favorite month, by now I'm more then excited for summer temperatures and more then tired of the cold. The spazticness of the weather this month makes my multiple personalities look like sedate sleeping puppies.

Second, the kiddo has started to narrate. Last night I was watching the news (a good two hours after I had put the kiddo to bed) and I saw him peeking around the corner. Before I had a chance to say anything he had run back down the hall and gotten back into bed. I went to re-tuck him in..

Me: Hey Kiddo, what are you doing still awake?

Kiddo: I was watching tv, and then I ran back to bed, and then you came and snuggled me, and now I'm going to go back to sleep. Can you leave please?

Yeah, that's the kid... strait to the point *chuckle*

Tomorrow is his eye doctor visit. I'm going to ask the doc about color testing, I don't really think the Kiddo is color blind but if we could test it to make sure then when people suggest it I can say with certainty "no, he isn't, we had it tested".

First things

The first thing said to me this morning went something like this:

Kiddo: Mom you spilled my pizza. It was a good pizza and you spilled it. But that's okay, it's just okay, you can make me a new one. We should have a new pizza because you spilled mine.

Me: What??!! Jeez I need to stop feeding you before bed kid!

His dreams are as weird as mine! oh and btw I'm making him pancakes for lunch because I don't have the ingredients for pizza... go figure.

Good Heavens...

Well here's a good reason to be in Utah! We all know (if we watch or follow the news at all) that the space shuttle Discovery finally, after a month of delays, blasted off yesterday. Apparently this evening we utahns can see it!!

I think I'll be heading outside at 8:20'ish to see if I can find the shuttle. It's supposed to be pretty bright so I'm hoping even with the city lights I can.

In the comments section of the article one of the people gives a link to the Heavens-Above home page. After some very easy setting up (register and then input your location), you can be shown all the visible satellite passes up to a week in advance. The shuttle and the space station are the brightest, but the Hubble Space Telescope is supposed to be pretty easy to spot. Not to mention updated star charts for your area and time of year.

Someday when I'm rich and have won the lotto (which doesn't exist in Utah) I'm going to buy a telescope so I can do some real star viewing!

The gimp walk...

otherwise known as "I am not a good person"...

Oh and just in case you're wondering here's the picture he took of his dinosaur...

I think, perhaps, he needs to work on the distance between himself and his subject.

I'm not a lier...

I told him on the way to the doctors office that we were going to meet a new friend for him. Thank goodness I wasn't lying...

I absolutely love the Kiddo's new doctor. She is young'ish, cute (not that that's a prerequisite but the Man and Kiddo appreciated it) she paid attention to us and our concerns and asked a lot of questions.

We filled all the new patient paperwork out, and they gave us TWO forms for previous medical records requests. Thank you, yes two. One for his doc here (the one I was not quite so fond of) and the one for his doc in AZ (whom I really liked). Not only that but the doc said there is another kid they see there who has ONH as well, and that she'd do some reasearch on it so she knew more exactly what the Kiddo was dealing with. That right there is almost enough for me to want to stay here forever and let her be his doc till he's all grown up. A doc should never be afraid to learn, and should WANT to learn more when it comes to their new patients conditions.

He was weighed and measured and apparently my scale isn't made for a four year old. Theirs said 32 lbs (vs mine saying 31) but their hight measurement was pretty much spot on to what mine was (36 1/2 inches). I guess he's in the 50th percentile in weight but the 5th percentile in height. I'm not sure what that means really, I mean if you look at the numbers you'd think he was really a chunk monster *chuckle*

The nurses we met were very nice. The one that gave him his shots (4 of them, he didn't really need them this year but as it was this or next we figured we might as well get em done) was very gentle and quick. He was upset for all of 5 seconds and then was ready to play again. He was very gimpy this evening, limping on both legs... poor kid two sore thighs makes it hard to walk. I wish I'd gotten video but I felt mean laughing so didn't. If he's still gimpy tomorrow I will for sure, it's hillarious seeing him man it out while he staggers around playing.

In the end the most important part is that the Kiddo adored the doctor, when she left the room after the visit was done he wanted to go with her. I'm glad we've found a doc that we all feel comfortable with and like. It's a very good thing.

Today means shots

Today is the day we are taking the Kiddo in to the Dr. He's got his four year shots and it's also a well visit. It's a new doc for him so we're keeping our fingers crossed that he likes her (and, more importantly, that we like her). I'll post something after we get back to tell y'all how it went.

Till then here's a slightly amusing story: Yesterday the kiddo woke me up in his usual brute manner. He clambered all over me and gave me little kisses telling me to wake up, open my eyes and wake up. I growled at him (I was tired, he had woken me up at 4am so my sleep deficit was bigger then usual). He giggled at my growl, perched on my chest looking down at my face he flexed his hands he said (with a very impish smile) I just want to pinch your cheeks mommy, and make you smile!.. and he proceeded to do just that, pinch both of my cheeks and pull them up so I was "smiling"...

kids!

Tuesday Photo Prompt

Todays photo prompt over at HS/HS/MS is Travel: To go, to move, or journey from one place to another, by foot or private or public transport...

If you've been following my blog you know that the Kiddo and I recently took a trip down to AZ. We went by plane, it was his first plane trip ever and he loved it.
He's very good at understanding the things that are happening to him and expressing himself in positive ways. On the flight back here to UT we sat next to a very nice slightly older woman. She was fine until we hit the Wasatch valley at which point we had quite a bit of turbulence. And she started to get a little stressed out, I asked the Kiddo how he was doing to make sure he was okay. He smiled and laughed at me and said "the airplane is hitting speed bumps mommy" then he took his hand and had it fly through the air and bump around. He is definitely a special sort of kid.

Consume

Now that I'm back from my vacation and I've had my week to re-adjust to the stresses of normal life I figure it's about time to get back into the daily photo challange.

Mondays photo prompt word over at Her Space My Space His Space (HS/MS/HS) was Consume: To eat, drink, use up, obsess, or expend.

The Kiddo's birthday cake this year was Pineapple Upside Down Cake, and it was goooood! As usual (it's pretty much tradition at this point) he ate way to much dinner to eat any cake during the celebration so we had leftovers the next day. He gobbled the whole thing up, along with some extra yummy specially made hot cocoa his Grampi made him.

a learning experience..

I didn't want to have to make the Kiddo another cake. Call me lazy but one (make that two, since it takes two pineapple upside down cakes to feed 12 people) is enough every couple of months.

Because I didn't want to do the work of making one myself I went to the bakery near my mother in laws house and ordered a dozen cupcakes. I figured little extra I'd pay (they charge 5 and change for 9 on the 'pre-made' rack) would be comparable and I could get what I wanted written on them.

My words to the lady (when placing the order Saturday afternoon) were that I'd like 12 cupcakes, half of them chocolate and half vanilla. I wanted thinner icing (one reason I didn't want pre-made was the inch of frosting on the top). I wanted half of the cupcakes to have the number 4 on top, and the other half to have "old" written on them. She wrote all that down and assured me that the decorators they have there are all "very very good at making things cute and will add some fun decoration too".

I left thinking we'd get exactly what I wanted with maybe a little extra cuteness and was, naively, very excited to pick them up on Sunday.

6 bucks and some change later this is what we picked up. I'll give them credit, half of the cupcakes were chocolate and half were vanilla. The rest though... yeah I was cranky. That's a good inch of icing, and sprinkles (oh yeah they know how to decorate cute alright). The word old apparently wouldn't fit on each cupcake so she spread it out over three and left it. That meant she better do a four over two cupcakes or gosh it might be unbalanced.

I take sollace in three facts. First I didn't have to bake the things. Second if 9 cupcakes cost 5 and a half, then I am going to tell myself I paid the extra dollar for the extra three cupcakes and NOT the bakeries steller decorating skills. Bonus fact is that my lesson is learned at a time and event where spiffy cool cupcakes weren't really required.

My first camera..

I can't remember actually what my first camera was. That's pretty bad (but considering I have the memory of a gnat isn't all that surprising).
The kiddo's was given his first camera yesterday. It's a blue vtech kidizoom and I was lucky on Ebay in order to be able to get it for him. It was a late birthday present (since the Man couldn't be in AZ with us when we celebrated we saved our gifts for him till we were all home). He loves his camera. He's taken at least a hundred pictures with it and every time he takes one he figures out a little more how to get what he wants. It's really fun to see the world through a 4 year olds eyes.
The other present we gave him was a little einstiens vtech laptop. You can get them at target for not to much and the Kiddo looooves his little einsteins. It's a cute computer and he lugs it around everywhere. I think we did very well this year staying in our price range and finding things he really loves.

speaking of

The last time I weighed and measured the Kiddo was November 28th, he was 30 lbs and exactly 3 ft tall.

While that WAS only 3 months ago I still thought I should get his stats again for his birthday. So, for you folks that are curious yes the little man IS growing.

He is (at 4 years old)
31 lbs
3 ft 3/4 inches tall

*sniff* they get big so fast

Saving... no s

Like pretty much everybody else around heren I really dislike daylight saving time. It makes me cranky. Maybe it's the fact that all the sudden my day is one hour shorter when it matters (the morning). That or it's trying to get the Kiddo to get to sleep when his little brain is telling him it isn't really bedtime yet.

Either way it stinks, but it happened this morning at 2am and thank all the deities that be the Kiddo let me sleep till 9 anyway, which was actually 10, so if I make an effort I can glass half full thins and say I really finally got to sleep in woohoo.

Yet one more reason I'd sell my pinkies to move back to AZ..

The weekend isn't mine

This weekend isn't mine. It isn't the Man's either so I guess I shouldn't complain. Today, saturday, is his mothers birthday. We weren't going to make a big deal out of it but withing each of the daily phone conversations I've had with her this week she mentioned it and sounded a little down sooooo we will be going over this afternoon with a couple gifts and cards (from the kiddo and from us). These short visits sometimes aren't so short so if I don't post again today that would be why ;)

Tomorrow is the Kiddo's mini party, for the inlaws. His PHX party was the best one he's every had. It was ALL about him, 11 adults all there playing with him... horsey and foam sword fights, wii, etc. He giggled from the time he woke up till he went to bed at 11! We overfilled my moms table and laughed and chatted while stuffing ourselves with grilled burgers and hotdogs (thanks daddy!). Then we topped it all off with pineapple upside down cake (mmmmmm). My moms house is always so warm and fun and full of positive energy.

The mans mom wanted initially for me to do another full party for the Kiddo. I balked. Not only do I not want to do the work, but selfishly I want this year to be my families year... I want that one to be the party he remembers. So we're going to do a lunch get together vs a party. We're having mini subs and chips. And I'll buy some store bought cupcakes. Still is a party, but it's a good compromise between what she wanted and what I wanted and makes us both happy.

So happy birthday to both of them, and here's to hoping the Man and I can squeeze in a little rest and relaxation somewhere in between.

Roast Beef...

Roast beef is pretty darn good I must admit, so when I get an excuse to go eat at Arbys I take it! The excuses don't happen often, eating out (even fast food) tends to be more expensive (and fattening) then it's worth.

As most of you know I flew back to Utah on Monday evening and since the Man worked in the early early AM on Tuesday we went ahead and ate Arbys for dinner (fast and easy to get him to bed quicker). Their menu was all sorts of different from the last time I went. The sign said that they have burgers??!! Well more specifically they have roast burgers, and if you watch tv then you guys probably all knew about them already.

The whole point of my rambling being that there is a cupon out there for a free Roastburger with a purchase of a drink. mmm I haven't tried it here in UT yet, but I know Lady D used it down in AZ and ended up with a 1.25 burger and drink lunch.

Free Arbys Roastburger

Last Dance...

Well my random sickness lasted one day. Then I spend a day catching up on the finances (shudder worthy stuff but not actually as bad as all that). I have no excuses for not posting yesterday except to say my muse is on vacation still and I was lazy.

My sisters wedding was absolutely beautiful. She looked very happy and very much in love, I wish her and her new husband all the best. I have several hundred photo's to sort through (I only really plan to keep a small percentage of that number) and am not exactly looking forward to it (I never was very good at the "which one is the better photo" type questions). I'll post a few of the better pictures throughout the next few days though so keep your eyes open for em.

Home again Home again..

jigity jig...

Well we're back. Flew in at 7 last night and stopped for some Arbies on the way home (late dinner for the Man so had to be super quick). Bad news is that at 3 this morning my stomach decided it wanted to be empty and went on strike. So, the planned humongo posts with fabulous pictures of me and the kiddo will have to wait till tomorrow. Till then just be happy you don't have whatever it is I have and remind yourself that one more day wont kill ya ;)