Ben update

Today Ben had a follow-up eye appt. At the first one it was confirmed that he has strabismus, and that a follow-up appt. would be needed to double check the doctor's measurements. Given the severity of Ben's case (his eyes are malaligned horizontally and vertically), eye glasses won't correct the problem so eye muscle surgery will be needed. The doctor today felt that Ben's eyes were worse off than last month's measurements, so they will do a third and final measurement next month and we will schedule surgery then. In the meantime, Ben is to wear a patch two hours a day to help strengthen the left eye. This won't correct it, but will improve the results of surgery when it happens. Today we tried the patch and he did great for an hour, a good start.

At the appt. today they tried black/white image flashcards, this is what Ben said...

picture of a teddy bear="mouse"

picture of a car="boat"

picture of a tree="moon"

picture of a birthday cake="hot"

Surgery will most likely be late October or early November. We are nervous but glad this can be corrected for Ben and he won't feel any pain. I also heard #2's heartbeat today--loud and strong!

August thus far...

We headed to the aquarium Sunday with the Virnigs. The highlights for the boys were the "feesh," of course, and the seals--Matthew squealed long and loud while watching them. And, Drew and I had a great time in Vegas--food, friends, sun, and the show O was all fabulous. Ben stayed with Nana and Papa. They had a great time together and my parents were pooped by the end of the weekend. Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes and gifts, I've been officially spoiled!

Ben helping Nana put together his new cart

Of course, Drew and Ben brushing his teeth

Superman

Ben loves his new chair--it is half chair/half jungle gym. And, Ben's got some big shoes to fill!

Ben waters Nana's plants and himself.

19 months

Ben is 19months and busy. The new things include...a snicker-laugh, a love for pickles(I love the way he says pickle), answering "no" and now "yeah!", always saying "boat", giving a hug and kiss at the same time, calling Uncle Tim "uncle", playing "hide", avoiding bedtime by saying "book"(of course we can read before bed) or hiding.

More Priest pics

One morning we got up super early and made the trip to Upper Priest. We go in search of wildlife, not much this year (one year we came across a huge moose), but it was still a gorgeous view from the boat the entire way.

Best Friends and relaxing chaos

My mom got these shirts for Owen and Ben. Pretty cute. Sadly this is the only photo I have to document our first weekend at Priest with the Whitfields and the Minahans. Elizabeth opened her family's amazing cabin to us all and it was indeed a funny and relaxing weekend. Elizabeth and Doug are both great with Owen and Ben. They didn't seem to mind our invasion. I call it relaxing chaos because we spent a lot of time tending to the boys, but we had a blast doing it with our friends. The weekend highlights: the food, hanging out on the dock all together, and the laughs. Ben started calling Owen (and Jenn) "Owee" and he continued to say "Owee" the rest of the week.

I'm counting on the Minahans to post more pictures!

Heading to the Lake...

We traveled to Spokane last week and then on to Priest Lake for a week plus. We were there for 10 days and we enjoyed every minute of it. We apparently picked a great week to be on the water and not stuck in our lovely, charming, sweltering house in the Seattle "Heat Wave 09!"

Our night at my parents--Jenn, Al, and Owen stayed with us to break up the drive a bit.

More Summer Trips

It seems every weekend this summer we have been out of town. And, we have been spending all our weekends with our fantastic friends and family. At this point we could put Ben's pac n play about anywhere and the kid will sleep. Either we are really lucky or he is just used to it by now. Ben is an awesome traveler and it has allowed us to see and do a lot of amazing things this summer. As long as we have "mo nacks" we are fine.

July 18th-19th we got to spend Friday evening with Aunt Sharon at the Heidergott's, a picture to come!, but it was a nice evening with the family. Then, Saturday we headed to Bainbridge Island with the Virnigs. We stayed at a friend's beautiful "farmhouse" and it was pretty much anyone's dream loghome. We also got to share in the joys of parenting with the Virnigs--teething and child-proofing vacation homes. Apparently I took very few pictures on the ferry ride over and that was it, woops! You can check out the Virnig blog for better coverage.

Later that weekend we had the Los over for dinner. The boys had a good time playing in the yard.

At some point that weekend--Drew completing a successful car to crib transfer.