Eli's Eyes

It's scary to think that something is not quiet right with one of your children. Thomas was in the NICU for 11 days after being born 6 weeks early. God once miraculously healed Lily of Meningitis, and now, Elisha needs surgery.

Bea, I, and many others have noted how cross-eyed Eli is. He is 5 months old now and his right eye tends to settle right up against his nose, while his left eye is tracking straight or off looking at something else in the room.

My sister, who also had a lazy eye when she was young, and currently has a son with a lazy eye, said, "Hey little brother, you need to get Eli's eyes checked out. They are a little too crossed." We didn't really pursue it initially because both Thomas and Lily had googly eyes that passed with age. A few weeks later Bea took Eli in to have a rash looked at when the Dr. noticed how his eyes were tracking differently. (They sometimes remind us of those plastic eyes that wobble all over everywhere.) She says they are "way too googly." It noticeably concerned her.

So, she made the arrangements for Eli to go see an ophthalmologist. I managed to arrange for some time off of work, and off we go.

The nurse that first examined Eli was wonderful. She had definitely worked with kids before. She was able to keep Eli's attention, and get all her initial testing done fairly quickly. She also worked well with Lily and Thomas in the room.




Then the Dr. came in and did several more tests (pictures below). After some discussion, the Dr. did confirm that Eli is cross-eyed, and that it is pretty severe. Ultimately, he recommend surgery to reposition muscles on his eyes. The surgery is more successful when the vision in both eyes is even. Of course the vision in his left eye is stronger. So in the interim, we will be using a patch about 3 hours a day to try to get the eyes to equalize for the next 2 months. In February we will go back to have his vision reevaluated and to see if the disparity between his eyes has improved. Surgery will probably be scheduled that day. It is possible but highly unlikely that patching alone will cause improvement enough for the surgery to be unnecessary.

We have been patching for a couple of days now, and Eli seems to be dealing with it well. He is starting to look at things more with both eyes, instead of just with the one.

Lumber Jack Family

Last week during some heavy winds, a mostly dead tree in my in-laws yard was blown down. A couple of months ago, I got a new electric chain saw. Fallen tree, Chainsaw... What better combination....

So, I start out triming limbs off and making my way towards the trunk. After a couple of hours, I have things mostly cleared up, except the main trunk and a couple of large branches. Thomas always wants to help with my tools, so I figure these logs are good, thick, and stable. It should be safe for Thomas to help, and learn how to use another tool.

First order of business, some talks about power tools safety. Note: Thomas has his ear and eye protection on. He was very attentive to the instructions, and I was there with him every step of the way.

He looks like an old pro now. He did a great job cutting carefully. He was safely able to make a couple of cuts, then he wanted to go play some more. Something about being at Nanny and Granddaddy's house that he wants to play as much as possible.


Well, Thomas wasn't the only one who wanted to get into the act.






Ggggrrrrrrrr!!!!


Bea decided she wanted to use the saw too. So, another safety lecture, a few helpful tips, and off she goes.





She made a couple of cuts as well. She too found a reason not to make any more cuts....




She got saw dust in her shoes... My wife, the girly girl :)


It was a fun time had by all. In the end we got most of the tree broken down and stacked. And, the yard was mostly cleaner than we found it. There was also lots of family fun. And that's the most important part.

BTW, does anybody need any tree work done.... I happen to know a crew.... :D

Beautiful Minds

My husband is brilliant. Plain and simple. He can have entire conversations in nothing but acronyms and numbers. He can tie a hundred different knots. He has an uncommon amount of common sense. He can tell which spiders are poisonous and which aren't but he kills them all for me. He is just awesome. He astounds me sometimes with what his mind produces.

Which is why this quote is so funny......

Tonight we were driving home trying to be cryptic with our conversation so we could get surprise plans past Thomas because spelling doesn't work anymore. I told Thad we were going to have to develop hand signals or facial expressions or something.

His reply?:

"Yep. I'm thinking we should go to the Tennessee School for the Blind to learn sign language."

It doesn't get any better than that! My near-genius husband gets the prize for quote of the year!

However, I'm pretty sure I have the second best quote locked in with this:

I was getting ready to pump breast milk for Elisha while Thad was making dinner. I don't like when he has to do one of my jobs because I can't so I say this:

"Sweetie, I can finish dinner if you want to do the pumping."

This just goes to show that no matter how intelligent people are they can still suffer from flatus of the cerebellum!