We're Back!

For some reason, when we haven't posted to the blog for a long time, it's hard to get up the energy to jump back into the blogging world. I'm not sure what it is...maybe the feeling that so much has happened, I'm not sure where to start, or maybe the feeling that since it's been so long, the return to posting should contain something spectacular to make people glad you've returned. Well...I'm sorry to say that I can't guarantee anything especially spectacular about this post, but I did decide we better get blogging again before we disappear completely.

There is a good reason why we haven't blogged for so long though. June is always an eventful month in our family, if nothing else because three of the four birthdays in our family occur in June. Instead of helping us to post more often, though, it seems to have stopped us...too much going on. But we'll spend the next few posts getting caught up. Brian, Cole and I all had wonderful birthdays and we'll have to post some pictures soon.

Aside from the birthday excitement, we also made a long visit to our families in Utah. It was really nice to be able to spend some relaxed time with both sides of the family. My side of the family had been planning a get-together at the Bingham cabin near Kamas, UT for about a year...the first time we've all been together since Christmas 2005. We got family pictures taken, which was great...and, again, we'll post some soon. We actually don't have them yet. My sister was the photographer and is going to send us all a disc with the photos but it's a work in progress. We're eagerly anticipating them though because she worked some serious magic with the individual family photos. Cole was being a pill and I was certain not one of the pictures of our family turned out, but she actually got a few really good ones. So stay tuned for those.

For those who have been curious about the status of Weston's eye...he's doing really well. We're back up to patching him 5-6 hours a day and he's really being a trooper. I've learned that it's better to get it over early...he's continuously patched between naps until after his afternoon nap, and then he usually only has to do an hour or so and gets the rest of the evening off. It's still hard to say how much of the vision he'll recover but the doctors and specialists he's seeing are optimistic. He does have some related developmental delays...he's still not feeding himself, pulling up on furniture, that kind of thing. We're going to have Early Intervention over for an assessment to see if he qualifies for their Occupational and Physical Therapy services.

Anyway, stay tuned for more pictures and updates!

Update

Weston had a post-op appointment this morning with the retinal specialist who did his surgery. The good news is, his retina is reattached! I was really surprised and pleased to hear that. I thought it would take a long time, but he said it's "resolved". I asked, "Does that mean it's reattached, or just looking better?" And he said, "It's reattached." So, that's great news. Now the big thing is patching. We're supposed to have him patched for half of his waking hours. Actually this is going to seem like a break for us, because he's only awake 9 or 10 hours a day, and I was patching him for 6 hours a day prior to surgery. Apparently that was a little too much. Dr. Tawansy said that at his age, if you patch too aggressively you can actually cause the good eye to become lazy. So, we'll be patching him for 4-5 hours a day. He also referred me to an agency called the Center for the Partially Sighted. They will do an assessment and then help teach me activities that I can do with Weston to help rehabilitate the sight in the left eye. Unfortunately they didn't have an opening until August, but they did put me on a cancellation list so hopefully something will come up sooner. We're also going to have to go back to the Pediatric Ophthalmologist (groan...she's the one that left me in the waiting room for hours) to follow up on the eye alignment issue. And we're going to need to see an optometrist to find out if he needs glasses. So, all that will be keeping us busy.

Just thought you'd all like to know what the status is. Thanks again for all your support!!

Weston is Kind of Like a Smiley

Please pause for a minute to observe the disparity in the size of the pupils in the smiley below.

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Simply charming, no? Now, behold this striking resemblance (you may have to zoom in on this picture to get the full pupilatious effect):

So you can see, that aside from a pupil imbalance and a roving patch of red in the corner of his left eye, Weston is doing very well. He really was quite a champ at the hospital on Tuesday. Our doctor was an hour late to the surgery, so Weston didn't eat between 5am and 1pm. Despite it all, he was very good, and didn't cry much at all. Way to go kiddo! The doctor said the surgery went as well as he could have hoped for, and they were able to preserve his lens. We are very thrilled with the good news, and what a relief to have him home and happy. His biggest complaint is the eye-drops and goop that we have to rub into his eye a couple of times per day. Thanks to all for the prayers and support! We feel very watched over and blessed.

So, continuing with the smiley theme (I know that you have continued to read this post only in the hopes of more smileys), take a good look at this one:

Painful suspense
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Tense music
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Waiting
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Waiting
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Drum roll, please
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What a let down, no?

OK, now for the real deal:


I say the black patch all the way, but Karene is still undecided. I'm going to have her post a poll soon so that we can get your opinion on the patch with the most pizazz. And, finally, a picture of Cole (shameless proud parent child promotion, I know, but don't tell me you could resist posting this one, even if you didn't have any good reason to do so).