First Day of Preschool

Christian started a new preschool this fall and he loves it. LOVES it. And he's thriving. Of course I had to take some first day of school photos.

Owen, Six Months

Owen turned six months on Sunday. Where has time gone? Has it really been six months already? Owen, you are growing up way too fast and charming us all while you're at it! Right now Owen is:

-eating solid foods! And he loves baby food, which is awesome. It makes him fun to feed! (especially since I had been dreading this because Ethan refused to eat baby food)
-rolling over, both ways
- reaching for and grabbing everything
-laughing a lot. It's so much fun to make him laugh! He laughs the very hardest at his brothers. And they LOVE when he laughs at them!
-still loving his binky, and blankie too
-growing out of nine month clothes!

-blond and blue eyed. And today the pediatrician said he had perfect little lips. Where did I get such handsome little boys from?
-putting up with his crazy brothers, especially Ethan. Ethan has gotten a little rough with him and lately I've caught ethan wrestling with Owen! Owen just goes along with it though. But Christian is a great helper and "babysitter" while I put Ethan down for a nap or take a shower. And Owen loves Christian!

-having a hard time going to sleep on his own, but we're making progress again.
-starting to be nervous without mommy
-cuddly. Oh I just can't get enough of him. I could kiss those cheeks all day. Usually I do!
-the most popular item in the house, especially right after he wakes up. Both Christian and Ethan love running to his room and playing with him in his crib. Ethan always climbs in.

-so cute, he even has a couple nicknames already--Owes (Oh's) and Owee (Oh-wee). :)

Owen, you are SO sweet! and now you are a half, as I was explaining to Christian. :) We LOVE you!

Owen's six month stats:
Length: 27 inches (65%)
Weight: 17.13 lbs (38%)
Head: 17.4 inches (60%)

Owen, Five Months

Love, love, LOVE this cute baby! His biggest accomplishment at five months was that he started rolling over! We love our Owes!

The Story of Ethan's Eye

On August 25th Ethan slid off our bed right before bedtime and smacked his chin on my nightstand, splitting it open and sending us to the urgent care to get four stitches. Congrats, Ethan--you succeeded in being the first of our children to need stitches. At least the pressure is off now. :)

Showing off his stitches (you can see the difference in his pupils in this top picture)

They told me to keep his stitches dry for 24 hours...yeah right. Try to keep a two year old little boy's chin dry for a day--cereal for breakfast=milk dripping down his chin, helping mommy wash dishes=water all of the place, including his chin, eating watermelon for a snack=watermelon juice constantly dripping down his chin. Let's just say I failed miserably at the one instruction they gave me. Luckily it all healed just fine. :)

As we were waiting for the doctor to come and stitch him up, I was noticing that his eyes just didn't seem right. I had been noticing that his pupils were different sizes for about a week, but not thinking much of it. But in the doctor's office that night, sometimes when he looked at me, it also appeared that he seemed to have a "lazy eye" in one of his eyes. But not all the time. So again, I kind of forgot about it. By Monday, I was noticing his different pupils a lot more and finally mentioned it to Jake, who googled it and then we panicked. You know, you google something and you can find anything from mild to severe to death. I even made the answering service page the on-call pediatrician that night we were so worried it might need immediate attention. But alas, we were told to just go in the morning and get it looked at.

So on Tuesday, August 30, we headed to the pediatrician's office. It just so happened that Ethan also needed his stitches out that day, so the pediatrician first took care of that (of which Ethan held perfectly still and didn't even cry) and then he examined his eye. He looked at it and did multiple tests with his light, then looked it up on his computer and did some more tests, then read some more, explained it all to me and eventually decided we needed to see and ophthalmologist. He said that Ethan has anisocoria, which is a difference in the dilation of the pupils. In Ethan's case, his left pupil is much larger than his right. So he called one up right there in the room with us and told them he wanted Ethan to be seen right now and that we were on our way over. I was so grateful that he did that! He said, "It will just be a lot easier if I call them." :)

At this point I still had all three boys with me, so I dropped Christian off at Jake's office and then headed with Ethan and Owen to see the eye doctor. They were wonderful there. I was so impressed with how they treated us and how thorough they were at examining Ethan's eye. The tech did a bunch of tests and made some notes and then the doctor came in and did some more tests. He confirmed all of the techs findings: that Ethan had a larger pupil, a drifting eye, and a dropping eyelid all on his left eye. He told me that these three things possibly point to something being wrong with the third cranial nerve--an inflammation, damage to the nerve, or something pressing on it, like a tumor. Ugh. That hit like a rock. But I knew it wasn't for sure, just a possibility, so right then, it s okay. The doctor decided he wanted Ethan to have an MRI of his brain to verify if there was anything wrong. So he ordered it, they called and scheduled it right then, and then off we went. I called Jake on the way home and relayed all the information. Whoa, it was scary to imagine the possibilities, and humbling, and gratifying. So grateful that we had Ethan.

So that was Tuesday, and we couldn't get in to get an MRI until Thursday. At this point, my whole world just stopped. I couldn't function. The only thing on my mind was Ethan and what the future held for him and our family. Whenever I let myself really think about what could be, it brought tears to my eyes and a deeper love for my sweet little Ethan. But watching Ethan, you never would have known...he was as happy and active and jumping and throwing as ever. Which brought us great hope for the results.

On Thursday, September first, Jake and I (and Owen) headed to Primary children's hospital with Ethan for his MRI. He was such a trooper! He was so brave the whole time. The only time he cried was when they put the IV in, but then he got to choose a prize, so he was okay. To the nurse's surprise, he chose a green frisbee out of the treasure box, and then played frisbee with Daddy until it was his turn to go back for his MRI. It was the perfect prize. :). And his bandaged hand didn't slow him down one bit.

The MRI went well, except that Ethan's legs twitched the whole time. The nurse said that some kids have that reaction to the sedation drug. This didn't mess up the pictures, but it seemed to cause him great discomfort when he came out of his anesthesia. Poor little guy! But all in all, he was so brave and so cute through the whole thing. As the mom, it was heartbreaking to watch. The hardest thing to see was watching him go under with the anesthesia. We were standing next to him as he drifted off into sleep, and watched as they got him all strapped into the stretcher that would take him into the MRI machine. It broke my heart to see him like that. It made him look sick. He didn't have much color. It gave me a tiny glimpse into what some parents go through day after day. I feel so blessed.

We received the results of the MRI before we even arrived home from the hospital (we had to pick up Christian on the way home), but didn't realize we had a message on our machine until the next morning. But the news was good! EVERYTHING was NORMAL! Which meant there was nothing wrong with the third cranial nerve, and no tumors. Ahh, a huge sigh of relief.

We were told to follow up with the ophthalmologist in a couple weeks, and we just had that appointment this week. People keep asking me if Ethan's eye is getting better, and I always say I don't think it is. Not worse, but not better. The doctor agreed. After doing some little tests with his light, he didn't think there was any improvement, although he didn't feel like the eyelid was drooping like he'd thought previously. He told me this was SO unusual. He said he sees a difference in pupils on a weekly basis, that it's very common to see a 1mm difference. But Ethan's is a 3mm difference and he almost NEVER sees that. He just doesn't know what is causing it. So he wants us to get a second opinion, and see a neurological ophthamologist.

And so the story continues. In a few weeks we will go see another specialist to see what they think of Ethan's eye. Because the MRI was normal, it's not an urgent appointment. Ethan can see fine, and for the most part, his eye doesn't seem to bother him too much, although he often squints that left eye, and rubs it when he's tired. The nurse from the neurological ophthalmologist said the appointment will be a few hours long...so here we go again! I'll keep you posted.

Sweet moments

Christian started preschool this week and he loves it. LOVES it. He has grown and changed so much in just five short days, I want to blog about it all. About how he goes three times a week, but he wonders why he doesn't go every day. About how he got so nervous and overwhelmed at the orientation he was in tears, but how he was so brave and went all by himself on the first day. About how he has more patience with Ethan or how he is excited, in his quiet way, to go each day, and how he smiles. A lot. And he smiles because he's proud of himself. He gets excited to show me something he has learned or show me a way they do it at preschool. His teacher says he's doing great. She says he's a star student. I am so proud of my little guy, all grown up and going to preschool. I want to blog about these things, but for tonight I want to remember a sweet moment when we picked Christian up from preschool today.

As soon as Christian got in the car when we picked him up, Ethan asked, "How was it, Christian?" (this is what I always ask, but Ethan beat me to it.)

And then a few minutes later on the drive home Ethan said, "I miss you Christian. I miss you."

Christian, I hope you always know how much your little brother loves you. While you're at preschool he often says, "Let's go pick up Christian now.". Even when we've just arrived home from dropping you off. I thought Ethan would revel in the time alone to play and do as he pleases at home, without you there to boss him around and tell him what he can and cant play with, but it doesn't appear to be that way. He misses his playmate. He loves you. :)