Eye Appointment

The Boy had his second eye evaluation with the specialist this last Friday. She confirmed what we already knew: He will require surgery in order to open up his tear ducts. The actual surgery is not that invasive; putting him under will take longer than the procedure itself. It will be done as a day surgery at a local hospital. The doctor usually does surgery on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month and we are hoping for the 2nd week of August for him. We should hear from the scheduler later this week. We're unhappy this has to be done, but it is time. The older he gets the more invasive the procedure becomes and after age one it is very unlikely they will open up on their own. His eyes are chronically teary, tears stream down his face at all times, he is extra sensitive to light due to the extra moisture (reflects light) in his eyes, and he fights monthly eye infections (he's got one now, as a matter of fact). Oh, and he now greatly resents and fights us having to mess with his eyes several times a day. It is time.

Weekend Round Up

On Friday The Boy and I went for a really long hike on one of our local trails. He fell asleep pretty early on so I ended up doing SIX laps around the upper trail. I didn't want to try to transfer him into the hot car while he was asleep and it was such a great treat to have him sleeping and me be free to move around that I milked it for everything it was worth. It was about 95 degrees though...that's hot for the PacNW. I went through two bottles of Gatorade and he drained his juice cup shortly after he awoke. We were both in a great mood after the outing though.

Friday night we went out for Mexican food. The boy ate his weight in tortilla, shredded cheese, avocado, rice and beans. He was a sight to behold...two fisted eating at it's finest. We had to leave a big tip and avoided eye contact as we were exiting the building. The aftermath looked as though a small food bomb had exploded under our table. At least they had concrete floors...?

Saturday morning I was out watering and then photographing my container garden. Apparently I interrupted a rogue, hot headed bee while doing so. The sucker landed on my toe and stung me before I even knew it was there. It hurt like crazy for over an hour and my right foot swelled up. Two days later a couple of my toes are still swollen and itch like crazy and there's a faint rash half way up my foot. Not fun. The good news is, we now know for sure I'm not allergic to bee stings...so there's that. My morning plans of going to the farmer's market were thwarted and instead I sat around and complained and texted FB (facebook) about my misfortune. That afternoon I went and got my hair done while the guys played and napped. I then did a little shopping and treated myself to frozen yogurt for lunch. The Boy refused his afternoon nap so I packed him up and took him out shopping that evening for two hours instead...I think he learned a valuable lesson. If you don't want to be trapped in a stroller and forced to give opinions on whether or not ten different shirts will pass Fox family scrutiny you should take your nap. He did fine and I came away with four new shirts I think the women in my family will approve of (?). We'll soon find out, eh ladies?

Sunday was spent putzing around the house, grocery shopping, and wandering around our huge, local gardening store looking for some sort of hanging solution for my wonderfully humongous tomato plants. Also, The Boy had his first taste of real ice cream. He thoroughly enjoyed it (his face in these pictures does not reflect his joy over the dairy but trust me, he enjoyed it.).

Lesson of the day

All week I have been looking forward to taking zeke to pump it up. We've been a couple of times in the past and its a blast! You only pay for your kid to play in the bouncers but the parents get to play too. So fun! Craig took all week off of work to do projects on the house, but we had determined today would be a day to play. I made a bad mistake last night though and stayed at the folks house too late and didn't get him to bed until after 10. I thought Zeke would fall asleep on the way home, but I was mistaken....... I was determined to make it work though, so I woke him up at 9 to get ready (pop in time is only from 10- 11:30.) It's true what they say though.....you should never wake a sleeping baby! He seemed ok at first, but continued to melt down as time went on. He even said he wanted to leave half way thru and go home?? It was a bummer, but now I know. You can party at night or party in the morning, but you can't have both!

On a different note- Isaac is now addicted to the movie Cars. He has quite the extensive collection of the diecast cars and he plays with them from the time he wakes up until the minute he goes to bed. They, by far, keep his attention far longer than anything else ever has. He role plays with them and has them act out scenes from the movie. (Which funny enough- we don't even own yet.) He asks me everyday if we can go to Target to get some character he is missing..... I tend to oblige him more than I probably should because I think it's adorable how into he is. His first real passion! =)

Teething

This beautiful child is teething. He's currently cutting three new teeth, two on top (still? again?) and one on the bottom.

I am getting bit a lot. It's unpleasant but understandable.

Summer, Finally!

The PacNW finally got the memo about it being summer. I've been making a concerted effort to soak up the sunshine and get out and move around every chance I can get this week.

It's been lovely. The Boy is enjoying it too.

Toothless Birthday Boy

Connor is officially 8 now, and it seems his mouth had decided to celebrate the change...he has lost 3 teeth in one week. He has gone from super whimpy, let them fall out of natural causes even when you can no longer chew your food and you have the most un-attractive dangling by a thread tooth hanging from your mouth..to going into the bathroom and ripping one out that was barely loose a couple of days ago. My baby! Growing up. Love the new lisp, the way he gingerly chews his food with broken up bits of food on his back teeth, and of course the pride as he tells his story over and over to anyone who will listen..of how he bravely yanked all 3 teeth out un-assisted (because he screamed every time we came near him), how the toothfairy visited him even while camping..and of course "look, grown up teeth already coming in". He is so sweet, and innocent, and fun still!

All in all, Connor had a great Birthday, and we thoroughly enjoyed our camping trip up in Greer this weekend. Greer is absolutely breathtaking, the camp sight was amazing (especially as compared to last year when we camped right off the main road, and pretty much on top of our neighbors). The spots were big and luscious, there were several forms of water within a short drive distance including a couple of lakes and a river that is narrow enough to hop stones or broken tree limbs across. The boys had very little patience for fishing, and although I was really hoping that especially E would catch his first big fish..I found great enjoyment out of watching them be brave and explore their surroundings instead. They even crossed the river at a point that scared me. I had to get down on my hands and knees to cross the thin stick logs they had just journeyed over while Connor held them still and they both egged me on from the other side. I had absolutely no desire to cross the river myself, but the thought of my boys on the other side with no one to help should they need it overtook any hesitations. I felt two things 1. old 2. proud. I so remember camping at 8 years old and how old and independant I felt. I look at Connor now, and think..he's just a baby. I must have been much bigger and more mature at that age. Funny how perspectives change. I love how involved Grammy and Papa are..they seem to really enjoy re-creating some of our childhood memories, and although they may belly ache about sleeping on hard grounds from time to time..they are still so fun and active and cool. I have learned much from their let go, and let live style of parenting (not that I have perfected it, just that I have taken notes, and can occasionaly follow suite)

Now it is back to reality. I am trying desperately to get my house back in order. Stay cool. Connor had his first swim lesson today (E was supposed to go to, but has some type of bug..low grade fevers and belly aches), and continue getting a work system going.

Thanks Mom & Dad for a great weekend..wish you girls were there, and hope we can all go together sometime in the near future. I predict we will have some crazy boy cousin camp trips in our future. There will be lots of mud, talks of belching and farting, competitions on who is the bravest, strongest, fastest, and fire...lots of fire. Bring your medical kits. :)

Celebration

P has been studying for his 3rd of 4 CMA (certified management accounting) exams nonstop of late. The exam was this past Monday. He passed (of course he did). He's attempting to complete this course in 5 months when it usually takes about 18 months to do (of course he is) so he seems surprised each time he comes away with a passing grade. We decided to celebrate by going out for frozen yogurt. We loaded The Boy up in the car and headed over to the dinky mall...The Boy could show daddy his tricks while we enjoyed the fro yo. Perfect plan. And it was. The mall was pretty much empty, we enjoyed our snack, and The Boy had the run of the little play area. Good times.

(Did you know you can usually click on a photo to see it in enlarged form? Click your back arrow to get back to the blog once you're done inspecting the enlarged photo.)