Baby Henny

Jack and I are currently visiting Baby Henny (thats what Soraya call Henry). We've been having a nice visit while Soraya stays with Grandpa and Grandma W for a few days. We will be leaving tomorrow morning to head to gma and gpas house. Catch a visit with the L side of the family then we will be heading back to daddy on Thursday morning! I stole this picture of Henry off of my sister's computer by randomly selecting a file. Looks like I picked a cute one :)

Tour de Northwest Ohio

Next week the kids and I will be going on an adventure. We will be touring northwest Ohio. We will be going to visit the grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. We try to do this once every month or two to ensure they are getting the quality time with their relatives. Poor Chad, is stuck at home going to school. But it gives him a nice chance to get ahead on some school work and really get to focus on it without the distraction the wife and kids tend to be :) So here is our schedule:

Monday- 2:30 pm (or whenever Jack seems to be in need of a nap and Soraya wakes up from her nap) depart to go to Aunt Michele, Uncle JJ and Cousin Henry's house

5 pm- arrive at destination. We will be having dinner with Grandpa Tom and Grandma Marj. Soraya will then be going home with Grandma and Grandpa while Jack and I stay at Aunt Michele's for some quality time.

Wednesday- 10 am (or whenever Jack seems to be in need of a nap) depart for Aunt Carol, Uncle Brandon and Cousin Marissa's house.

11:00 am- arrive at destination. My mom will be meeting there with Soraya.

12:30 ish- Depart for Grandma and Grandpa's house so that both Children can take their afternoon naps

5:00 ish - Go to Grandpa Gene and Grandma Barb's house for a visit??? Need to ask them yet :) Depart when Jack is ready to go to bed.

Thursday- 10am - (or whenever Jack seems to be in need of a nap) depart to head back home!

That is the tentative agenda...I'm sure it will change!!

Surgery Moved Up 1 Week

The eye surgeon called yesterday and had to move Jack's eye surgery up one week. It will now be on Monday, March 2nd. I am a bit relieved, that is one less week to worry about it. We will not know until next Friday what time the surgery will be. Jack has a physical tomorrow, it is mandatory to have within 30 days of the surgery. I am a bit excited though, to find out his height and weight. He hasn't been to the doctor since he was a few weeks old!

Still Trying!

Jack is still trying to sit up by himself. Well, really...I am still trying to get him to sit up by himself. He really shows no interest in sitting at all. Most of the times that I try he stiffens up as straight as a board. But I've been trying daily during his happiest times. So here is our practice session for the morning.

Sitting happily....not minding too much....

Getting tired of the sitting thing....


Just going to lay down here for a little bit....


Finally! To the favorite position...on the belly!

Infantile Estropia

Say what?? That is what Jack's eye situation is called. So I did some googleing and I'm really glad I don't regret that decision. I almost didn't do it, scared of what I would find...but I didn't find any negative horror stories about surgeries gone wrong. So that was all very reassuring. So I thought I would post some links on here for anyone wanting to better understand his diagnosis and the surgical procedure he will be undergoing. I just keep thinking about it all the time, I wish we could just do the surgery tomorrow and get it over with so I can stop worrying. But everyone has been very reassuring and it will be here before I know it I'm sure.

http://www.aapos.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=215

Sitting Up

Jack is working pretty hard at sitting up these days. He's never enjoyed it as much as his sister did. She was sitting up pretty well by now...but he is just now showing some interest. It sure goes to show that every child is SO different! Jack is a rolling maching and Soraya never rolled. So...so far they are exact opposites when it comes to everything :)

Jack's Eyes

Well, today was the big eye doctor appointment for the kids. It was a long, long day. We had to be on the road by 7:10, which meant waking the kids to get them out the door on time. My friend Halie went along to help me with the kids (HUGE lifesaver!) Not only did we have to deal with rush hour but there was also an accident to slow us down but we managed to get to our 8:30 appointment by 8:20 (they wanted new patients to arrive 30 min early! that didn't happen) So the doctor was actually pretty on time, we saw him by 8:50. He did some initial tests and determined that a patch would not fix Jack's eyes and that Soraya's eyes were perfectly straight. So they put drops in both kids eyes and we had to wait in a little waiting room for 50 minutes before the doctor was ready for us again. He did a few more tests and determined that Soraya's eye's were right on track. A tad farsighted, but that is to be expected for her age. He wants to see her again in a year, earlier than normal, because of her family history. Jack on the other hand....good news is he has good vision - wasn't near or farsighted. Bad news - since he wasn't farsighted glasses also would not correct his eyes. So the only option left is surgery. The doctor said it was perfect timing and great to get the surgery so young. So he is scheduled for surgery March 9th. I was pretty bummed, but at least we know what is going on now. Neither eye would look out toward the side. Like the left eye was looking straight and to the right but not to the left, he instead used the other eye to look over there. He physically could when the other eye was covered. But neurologically, he wasn't using both eyes together properly. So on March 9th we go downtown Cleveland to the Cleveland clinic for his eye surgery. It is an outpatient surgery, thank goodness!!! The procedure itself takes 20 minutes and we will have to be there about 1 1/2 hours before and after the surgery. The doctor also said 1/3 of children will also need a 2nd surgery and we won't know until later if that is necessary. So lets hope not!! But that's all. Oh yeah...then I managed to lock myself out of the house with the kids today...not fun...

Ooops! #2 - A Jacktastic Pooper

Well...my last oops entry had to do with poo. So does this one but this time it is Jack instead of Soraya. I was letting Jack play in the buff yesterday...you know...air out his pieces...he was on one of those water proof mats so I just let him play in his room for a bit. I was walking thru the other bedrooms collecting trash and I went back in and Jack had pooped all over!!!!! And I mean all over! He of course rolled a few times first so that he was no longer on the mat, then pooped, then proceeded to roll around in it. It really looked like he went swimming in poo! So we threw him in the tub and I still have a big toy and one of his dresser drawers sitting on top of towels over the stain trying to lift it out of the brand new carpet!!

BFF

Soraya has a BFF, Willow. I am amazed at how good of friends they can already be at 2. But they have spent a lot of their short lives together. Willow lives one street over and is the daughter of our really good friends, so they see a lot of each other and they are only 2 months apart in age. So Willow's mom and I decided to do weekly play dates for them throughout the winter. Once week Willow comes here, the next week Soraya goes to their house for a few hours. It has worked out wonderfully. Here are some pictures of Willow's recent visit.

The Great Wolf Lodge

Thanks again to following an academic calender, Chad had Friday off since he had finals this week. (He is half way done! Yipee!) So we took the opportunity to take our first ever family vacation. We decided at about 2:00 on Thursday afternoon and took off at 3:00 for The Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky Ohio. It was only a 1 hour 15 minute drive which is the perfect distance for a one night getaway. We got there about 4:15 and were in the pool by 4:30! They have an indoor waterpark where it was a muggy 86 degrees, it was wonderful! Soraya has never been a waterbaby, so she was timid at first but by time she left the pool at 6:30 she was running around in the water and going down the slides. So she was loving it.

We were a bit concerned about how everyone would sleep all in one room. We didn't know how well Raya would do...well she slept wonderful! Eleven hours straight without a peep..it was Jack who woke up every 1.5 hours all night long!!! What was that!? He didn't even do that as an infant...my only thought is that the 2 hours of swimming and activity were just way too stimulating for him because really every time he woke up he just wanted to play! Oh well. It was still fun.

Friday morning we were all up by 7. Had breakfast in our room and were at the "cub house" to play at 8. Went back to the room at 8:45 so Soraya and I could get our swim gear on and hit the pool at 9 while Chad stayed in the room to get Jack a nap. Soraya loved swimming ALL morning. We had to drag her out of the pool at 12:30 to head home. On the way to the car she asked..."swim one more time please??" She fell asleep holding her movie player on the way home because she was plum tuckered out.

Hide and Seek

Soraya and Chad like to play hide and seek together. Here is a picture of Soraya in one of her favorite hiding spots...the middle of the upstairs hallway. Chad has a hard time finding her :)

BTW...I made two posts today because I went to make this one and I realized I never published the post I started last friday!