Sunday, August 24, 2008

More summer happenings...

I've definitely been more absent these summer months! I can't believe how fast time is flying by. I know this always happens though. Today was the most perfect summer day ever! I enjoyed it a bit by sitting on the deck and reading book, just enjoying the warm summer sun, bright blue sky and the best part...low humidity! Thankfully, we only get bursts of humidity here in the summer. It would not make me happy to live in an area that is humid all the time.

The first day of August was one of those humid days and we spent the afternoon over at great Aunt Sherri's house with Lindsey and Sydney's second cousins. They had a lot of fun floating around the pool and trying out the slide. We were intending on getting another week's worth of private swim lessons this summer, but time just ran out. Here are a few pics from that day:

Lindsey, Sydney, William and Ryan at Aunt Sherri's house

Sydney floating Lindsey floating

Sydney down the slide! Lindsey down the slide!


AwardsThen, later that weekend, we were invited to an Awards Celebration for the March of Dimes which included attending a Minnesota Twins game! We had the picnic right at the Dome and then proceeded to head down onto the field for a "march" around the basis. We brought Lindsey and Sydney's cousin, Chelsea, with us, as she is an AVID Minnesota Twins fan. We all had a wonderful day!
Getting our awards for Top Team and I was the #10 Top Walker in the State of Minnesota! When we first arrived, we picked up our awards for Top Team and I also received an award for Top Walker (#10 for the entire state of Minnesota)! We are very proud. We work hard, all of us. I'd like to thank our team for all the efforts as well! We couldn't do it without you!

More pictures from the day:

Chels, Syd and Linds heading into the Dome

Lindsey & Sydney with their cousin, Chelsea, on the field

Here we are walking down on the field, pre-game.

My name listed on the board at the game!

Happy girls!

Game over, Twins win and we had an AWESOME time!


Now, we are starting the countdown to KINDERGARTEN! Only eight more days! We had a parent meeting last Wednesday and we have Open House this Wednesday. They already know their teachers, but this will be fun to go in and see the classrooms again.

More updates soon!

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

The "S" Word

Possible Surgery. The "S" Word.

Lindsey had a follow up eye appointment today with the pediatric ophthamologist. Just a little background: just about two years ago, I noticed her left eye turning in once in awhile and thought we should get it checked out since she had (well, both girls had) ROP or Retinopathy of Prematurity while in the NICU. They had weekly eye exams by the retinal specialist from six weeks on an at approximately 36 weeks, they crossed the "threshold", having progressed to Stage III with plus disease and had laser surgery (Christmas Eve for Sydney & New Years Eve for Lindsey). Thus, they will always be at risk for problems of the eye. The surgery went well. We had regular follow-ups and then were released after a few years, until I noticed the turning in.

So, that began our journey with glasses and a diagnosis of Amblyopia or "lazy eye". She got her glasses in January 2006 and we started patching her good eye in May 2006. We did a short stint with drops instead of the patch for awhile, but that did NOT go over well with Lindsey, plus her good eye seemed to wander then. Very freaky. So we went back to patching.

All in all, the patching has been going well. She had quite a disparity in vision between her two eyes and with the patching and glasses, she has improved with every follow-up visit (approximately every 12 weeks). Today, she tested 20/25 with her bad eye and even got three letters right on the 20/20 line, so THIS we are excited about.

The not-so-good news is that her "turning in" or crossing of the left eye is getting worse. Without her glasses on it's REALLY bad. We are doing one more thing before we seriously talk about surgery. We made an appointment for next Tuesday and she will get five doses of Atropine before the appointment. It's a different type of medication for dialation and the doctor will be better able to tell if her current prescription is 'right-on'. If it isn't, we'll get new lenses and see how that goes. If it is, well, then we'll discuss more about the surgical route.

I'll have an update on all this next week. Until then, I'm not really thinking about it, although, I do have an underlying feeling that we will probably end up with the surgery.

You may even be able to see in a couple of the following pictures how her left eye is turning in with and even more, without her glasses on.

To some fun news...last week, we finally bunked the beds! The girls were so excited! Of course, my underlying motivation was I wanted to do something about their toys in the playroom that never seem to get picked up. I thought that it would be much more likely for them to pick up the toys every night if the toys were in their room. So, we bunked the beds and moved a bunch of their toys into their room. I'm happy, because now I'm going to be using some of the space in our extra room too!

Here they are the first night:

Lindsey's happy about getting the top bunk the first night! Sydney was giggly too.

We finally BUNKED the beds!


A couple weeks ago, the girls also had a fun day with dad and grandpa. Dad took a day off work and he and the girls headed out to the lake with grandpa for a little fishing fun! Not too many fish were caught, but Lindsey and Sydney sure had a good time and can't wait to go again. Their mom was a young fisher too and I still love to fish! I could spend a whole day in the boat then, and even now!

Getting ready to go...

Lindsey checking out the dock. Sydney says, come ON, already!

We're off!

Lindsey Sydney's excited to be going!
All dressed up and ready to go! Just hangin' with grandpa, eatin' my cookie!

We caught one!

Okay, I'll touch it, says Sydney. I'll just eat my cookie, says Lindsey.

Hmmm...maybe I will touch it!


Again, I feel terrible for the long time between entries. Summer is just getting away from me and we've had so much going on, so much fun and lots to tell! Stay tuned!
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