Lucky Day

G scored twice today.

A frog

And a toad

What a lucky day!

(For G.  I'm not sure that our amphibian friends considered themselves quite as lucky.)

Play

With his budding imagination, G has developed a new style of play.

He directs the whole scene.

For example, I'm playing cars with him (again) (andagainandagainandagain).

G loads up his dump truck, and tells me "Say: 'Go over there buddy.  Say dat.'"

I say "Go over there, buddy."

G pushes the dump truck over, and tells me "Say: 'Hey.  Back up buddy.'"

"Back up, buddy."

And so it goes. 
Hours of entertainment. 
For G.

I don't remember Joseph ever going through this stage.  Is this "typical"?  Or just one more amusement that's unique to G?

Eye Update

We spent all.day.long. at the hospital yesterday.  Lots of delays before anything could begin. 

Fortunately, G has fully embraced the art of imaginative play.  We spent a lot of time shoveling dirt out of the hole (prep room) and "wheelbarrowing" flowers in to the garden (hallway).  Love to see the creativity.  You'd think that G wouldn't enjoy planting since we never manage to grow anything.. but apparently that's not the point.  He also turned his bed into a boat and we sang 10,000 rounds of "Merrily merrily merrily merrily".  There are worse ways I could've used a vacation day.

Once they finally took G, I spent a bunch of time in the waiting room.  Every person waits differently.  I'm grateful to know God.  It makes for better waiting, knowing that He is in control.

The doctor was happy with G's progress!  She could see much more of the eye and was able to put more lasers in to hold down his retina.  The only problem is that his eye does have some scarring.  Scars can potentially pull back on the retina, detaching it.  So there's our new prayer request.  Otherwise, she was so pleased that she doesn't even want to see him for two more weeks!

Nice to report good news.

Dinner Time

G is goofing around - blowing air in & out of his straw.

I chastise: "G.  Please stop messing around."

G is exasperated: "Mom.  I am a elephant."

Ha!

Eye Update

The doctors remain amazed.  G's eye is healing great.

It's looking so good that the doctors want to do another exploratory procedure with G under general anesthesia.  They're going to check how those first lasers are holding up and possibly add more lasers if they can see more of the eye this time (i.e. if more of the blood in the eye has dissipated).  Those lasers are helping to hold down the retina.  Thanks for praying about all of that.

At the appointment, G was given permission
- to stop wearing the night patch (its tape was irritating his skin)
- to stop wearing the night arm bands
- to stop all of his eyedrops except one
- to go to the park
- to RUN

When we got home, Mr Jim was waiting.

G yelped for joy (as always) and ran to say: "Missah Jim, I run! and we go da park?"

I left for work.  And Mr. Jim took G to the park.  Twice.  Alleluia.

Our seed-growing experience

Another paralyzing defeat.

This from the package marked "Easy to grow."  Yeah right.

Guess Who's Counting?

Number 3 - Take your rightful place in the line up.


Numbers 7 & 8 - My apologies.  You no longer get a never-ending loop of "thethen, ayet, thethen, ayet, thethen, ayet".


I've been practicing counting with this boy for millions of months.  And last night - success!

A rousing celebration was held.  Finally my efforts paid off.


Or so I thought.


The next morning Mr Jim casually mentioned "I've been working with G on counting."

Is there anything this man can't do?

Designs

Joseph has been on a creative kick.

His friend Emily got an awesome graduation present.

Thought you might enjoy seeing what he's been up to.

Torture As We Protect the Eye

Me: "G, I need to run to my room for a minute."

G, with disbelief and great longing: "We gonna run, Mama?"

Me: "I'm sorry, G.  We're not running.  We are going to walk slowly and carefully.  When your eye is all better; then we will run."

This boy is ready to run.

One moment on a Saturday afternoon

I've heard there are 500,000 orphans in Haiti.

Today I watch my beautiful son eating a snack.

He drops a slice of orange.  "Das ok Mom."

He picks up another slice.  "My hands is juicy Mom."

And I think... If I hadn't adopted him, there would be one more little boy alone in Haiti this afternoon.

Lost in a crowd of children.
No narrated afternoon snack. 
Without a mama who adores him.

Just one more.
Compared to 500,000, that's hardly significant.

But it's huge for him.

And huge for me.

If I hadn't adopted him, there would be one more woman just wasting away a Saturday afternoon.  No narrated afternoon snack.

I watch my son and am aware of how blessed we both are.

The Eye

I've gotten a few questions on the eye.  I think everything is ok.  We won't know until our next appointments - and those aren't until next Thursday.  Thanks for asking!

Joy

Monnonk has a new motorcycle. 

And G got to sit on it. 

Bliss.

Old Habits

This weekend G came towards me, offering some treasure in his clenched fist.

"Oh, G, what is it?"

"A spider."

"A spider?!?!  Ahh!  In the toilet!  Put it in the toilet!!" 

I quickly direct/push him into the bathroom and shake open his fist.

His empty fist.

"Ahhh!!!  Where is it?!"

I start patting down his arms, stripping off his shirt, patting down my own arms....

and G laughs.

Eye Update

I heard a great new song on the way to the hospital today.  Here's some of Kristian Stanfill's song "Always":

"Oh, my God, he will not delay
My refuge and strength always
I will not fear, his promise is true
my God will come through always, always

Trouble surround me, chaos abounding
My soul will rest in you
I will not fear the war, I will not fear the storm
My help is on the way, my help is on the way"

If you want to see it on youtube.

Nice words to sing when taking your child to the hospital, eh?


The doctors were amazed.


How about that?

Have I mentioned how grateful I am for your prayers?

The retina is holding on!  The other eye looks healthy!  The doctors are starting to wean G off of his eyedrops. 

I asked about activities like going to the park or gardening, and got the big fat NO.  The doctors want G still (ideally sitting) for two more weeks.  So there's a prayer request.

The other prayer request is that the vitreous gel has some hemorrhage and it can contract.  That's what I wrote down.  I think it means that there's still blood in the vitreous and that if the vitreous pulls back it will pull back the retina with it.  The doctor said "we may eventually take G back to the operating room."  Thanks for praying about that.

You may enjoy this....  G has insisted that "there's something in my eye."  I shared that concern with the doctor.  She (nicely) was like "Yeah, we closed the hole in his eye with a stitch.  He has a stitch in there."  Not sure how I thought that hole had been closed.  The thought of stitches in eyes is amazing to me.  Pretty grateful someone knows how to do that.

There's more to tell from yesterday, but I have to go now. 

I'll leave you with a beautiful photo from a couple of weeks ago...

Looking forward to seeing that again soon.

Learning Social Skills

A humorous twist in our interactions with Jacob, the neighbor boy.

Jacob is not helpful in my ongoing quest to keep G in a calm state.

This weekend Jacob announced: "I have an idea (seriously - he says that every time, including putting his index finger on his chin)... we'll play the STILL game!" 

The STILL game quickly turns into the PERPETUAL MOTION game.  G gets so exclted that he embr*ces Jacob in a big bear hug and offers some klsses to his chest.  Jacob looks a little weirded out, but still doesn't leave.

"I have an idea...  I'm a robot.  You give me directions."

The robot game gets exclting and G embr*ces Jacob in a big bear hug and offers some klsses to his chest.  Jacob looks a little weirded out, but presses on.

"I have an idea...."


Later, Joseph & I try to help G understand rules about hugging & klssing.  We do simple explanations and elaborate ones.  We give demos.  We talk specifically about the Jacob situation.

Finally G interrupts: "No, Jajesh.  I say you.  I klss him lots."


Apparently, Neighbor Etiquette Classes will be ongoing at my house this summer.

A Force to be Reckoned With

There's been an invasion in our neighborhood.

Living behind us now is one adorable 2nd grade boy. 

A precocious boy.  A confident boy.  An "oblivious to social cues" boy.

"Jacob" (changing his name) is desperate for followers in his creative endeavors, and G fits the bill.

Last weekend we were engaging in our beloved "Watching the lawn mowing" activity, when Jacob came over.  Trampled right over my flowers.

Me: "Jacob, please move off of my flowers."

Jacob: "It's all right." (remains standing on the flowers) "I have an idea..." (putting his finger on his chin) "... do you want me to make a rocket or a robot?"

My favorite Jacob story happened last Saturday.  We explained to Jacob that G was going to take his nap and would sleep at least until 4:00.  But just because I felt a little iffy regarding the possibility of Jacob staying away, I posted a charming sign on my front door:

Taking a nap.

Do not knock or ring bell.

Welcome to my home.

Thankfully, G fell right asleep.  KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK RING RING RING RING RING... (pause)...RING RING RING KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

Joseph said, "I guess we know now that Jacob can't read."  I pretended nothing was happening and G eventually fell back to sleep.

At 4:00 I took G to cuddle in the front room until he really woke up.  KNOCK KNOCK RING RING KNOCK KNOCK RING!

Me: "Jacob, did you forget that I asked you not to come over during naptime?"

Jacob: "No, I remembered.  I saw your sign, but I thought maybe you woke up and didn't take the sign down.... and you didn't take it down!  I have an idea...."

3 Doctor Appointments

... 3 times the word "great" was used to describe G's progress!


1. Plastic surgeons seem pretty proud of their work.  Next, to prevent horrible scarring, they've given me my instructions:

I need to massage the scar, pushing as hard as possible on it...

          for 30 minutes a day!...

                    for 6-7 MONTHS!

Riiiiiight.  Sorry about your scar, Son.


2. The retina ultrasound showed he still has some "vitreal debris" but the retina is still attached!


3. The opthamologist decreased G's medicines.


Previously, the doctors always said that the chance of detachment was 100%.  When I asked them this time, they just said "There is a chance.  That's why we're monitoring him so closely." 

We've watched God do something that the doctors didn't expect.  Feeling very thankful today.