A Prayer Request

Once again, it is another sleepless night for me. I am up and feel the need to ask those of you who love and care about our family to send up some extra prayers for Asher. A few weeks ago we took the boys in for their well-baby check ups and our Pediatrician (who I love) pointed out some irregular eye movements with Asher. I had noticed these eye movements, but was hoping it was just me being a paranoid mommy and tried not to worry about it. Our pediatrician referred us to a Opthamologist that specializes in Pediatric care for a more in depth exam. I took Asher to the eye doctor on Monday, and by then I had resigned myself to the fact that he may have to have glasses. This is not totally unexpected, considering both of my parents wear glasses, I had eye surgery at 18 months and have worn glasses and contacts since and there is some general vision problems on Jeremy's side of the family. I was not, however, prepared for the diagnosis I received for my sweet little boy. The doctor recommeneded I get him in glasses ASAP to prevent any sensory or motor skill development issues, because apparently he is extremely far sighted and not seeing much of anything. In addition, he has a condition called Congenital Nystagmus (google it and you'll find all you need to know) which causes a seemingly continuous pendulum like movement with his eyes. The Nystagmus has a variety of forms and the doctor said there is more than even the far sightedness and nystagmus going on and they have now referrd us to Oregon Health Sciences University to the Casey Eye Institute for additional services. There is a whole laundry list of issues they are going to be screening him for and there is some concern that his vision problems may not be correctable with glasses, meaning he may need to learn to function in his daily life with low vision. I have an appointment at the Casey Eye Institute on Tuesday 11/25 and I am praying we will get some answers then.
As a Mommy, I have a million concerns, and I am torn in a hundred ways...I am so very thankful that the technology exists to catch these vision problems before he starts to really suffer, and so very sad that my sweet baby boy has to face hardships that frankly just don't seem fair. Asher's glasses come in next week and hopefully he will find some relief from the blurred vision he is experiencing.
Please pray for our baby, that the diagnosis will be better than we are prepared for and peace for all of us.

Trick or Treat

Halloween at our house took on a whole new meaning this year. Bryant really got into the pumpkin carving with Daddy and wanted to participate in every detail of the process. He carried around the pumpkin scoop (or shovel as he calls it) all weekend, and is still very excited when we go in our out the front door and see the pumpkins. I was pleasantly surprised that he actually tolerated and was extremely patient with his little Halloween costume too. Jeremy's sister, Jill, had a little puppy costume that she bought for her youngest son Baylor to wear, but Baylor wanted nothing to do with the puppy costume and so Bryant got to use it this year and he looked adorable. We dressed Asher up in this sweet little green dragon/monster sleeper and they were both darling (of course!) :-)

I think I mentioned in last year's post that Sister's does this little trick or treat parade for kids under 7 and it is a late afternoon outing, so little ones aren't out in the dark trick or treating. The weather was threatening all day, but beautiful while we participated in the parade. Bryant rode in the new wagon he got for his birthday, and he really seemed to enjoy the whole process of saying trick or treat and thank you, and best of all, he got a lot of sucker balls (or for those of you who don't speak "toddler", he got a lot of suckers in his candy bag!)

Asher spent the whole parade sleeping in the baby pack, but I am pretty sure he thoroughly enjoyed his first Halloween. We have LOTS of candy at our house, so if you are in the neighborhood and need a little chocolate boost, stop by, we would really love to share.

Below is a shot I took of Asher Halloween night playing on his changing table and short little video of the excited baby. We have this cute little mirror that he loves to look in and we always get big smiles when he is looking up at the darling baby in the mirror~