Blogg-ed Issue

This week’s list #33 – #97.

For Lisa being able to pick Cayley up from kindy so Jos could sleep a little longer
Being able to catch up with Frank, and some of their kiddies
GPS on my phone making it easy to find places.
Playing at the park with Mrs Singleton and Calvin
Having fun on the front lawn waitin gfor Daddy to come home
Cayley’s love of animals
The companionship of Ookie
Bleach for wiping mildew
Prayer calendars for helping and teaching me to pray for my husband and children (03/08/10)
For Cayleyisms – princess camels and growing on your birthday
The way Cayley reminds me of me sometimes and the emotions that brings
Mug brownies
Pictures being hung on our bedroom wall
Checking for my purse before putting fuel in the car
Daisies from the children
Cayley trying hard to stay dry at night (04/08/10)
Elisha showing improvement with his patching
A peaceful family dinner time
Caroline’s cream
Playgroup
Homeplanning file
Back scratches (05/08/10)
For colouring in on the blanket outside
Dean the Bee Man’s honey
Story time before bed
Cayley going for a play at Olivia’s
Jos’ love of his big brother and sister
Brett, my after-work shopper
Op shops (06/08/10)
Jos’ dimples
That Jos looks like a boy, even when he’s wearing girls’ pyjamas
Exercising on the wii fit with the kids
Being able to see the McGlue’s before they leave
Visiting nan
Jos and Cayley enjoying a bath at Nan & Pop’s
Good talks with Brett
New jumper from Target
Boondies
Watching the boys enjoy DS together at Riley’s
Cayley getting tiny teddy bears wrapped up in a huge bandage and carrying them around everywhere
Jos’ obsession with his socks and shoes (07/08/10)
Having fun watching a movie with Brett last night
Church family, that it’s okay to cry in front of them and they love me anyway
Having a dvd afternoon with Elisha and Cayley while Jos slept.  Where’s Wally and Little House on the Fairy
Forgiveness, can’t imagine life without it (08/08/10)

See the full list at my One Thousand Gifts page

And it’s all about my family this month!

Yesterday, Brett was working at Curtin’s Open day.  Aafter lunch is always rest time.  Yesterday was rest time with a twist.  We watched some DVDs.

Dadddy: What did you watch?

Cayley: Where’s Wally and Little House on the Fairy.

Brett remarked to me later that it would have to be a very little house indeed!

Winter in Perth is lovely.  Yes, it can get cold, and yes, it rains… sometimes.  But, it doesn’t snow, and I’ve managed to keep the family in clean clothes without a dryer (a few emergency runs to parents’ houses to borrow theirs).

I love that I can still let the children play outside in the afternoons.

Sometimes we play out the front and wait for daddy.  This is a favourite for me, we get to say hello to all the neighbours as they walk past, or wave to them as they drive home from work.  Usually we just play on the grass.  But this week bikes, scooters and other assorted toys were taken out too.

Elisha was busy on the scooter trying to keep out of the picture…

It’s always fun waiting out the front and being able to greet Daddy as soon as he gets home.

We enjoy playing in the backyard too.

This week for something a bit different I let them take a blanket, colouring books and textas outside.  It was a hit.  Jos was somewhere around, gathering more weeds to put in the Tonka truck.

Yes, sometimes it’s cold in winter, but you can always put on another jumper.

Cayley still naps at three and a half, but it doesn’t mean she has to be happy about it.  This week she came out several times one day for this reason and then that.  Finally she came out and said she couldn’t sleep because the door was closed.

“It needs to be closed Cayley,” I said.

“But Mum, I reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally want it open.”

“Okay then,”I relented.

So she went back to her room, closed the door and fell asleep.

I’ve just had a look back through my archives and have realised that I didn’t ever blog about a fairly major thing that happened with Elisha a couple of years ago.

From memory it all started in May 2008, when Brett and I both became concerned about Elisha’s left eye turning significantly when he was looking at close objects.

We took him to our local optometrist, who then referred us on to another optometrist and a paediatric ophthalmologist.  The wait for an appointment was quite a while.  I remember that we saw the optometrist first.  We’d decided to take Elisha for his appointment and then to Scitech as a special treat.  Well, he (the optometrist) thought he could see something wrong with Elisha’s eye, but wanted to get a closer look at it, and was going to have to dilate his pupils.  We made an appointment for later in the afternoon so that we could still go to Scitech.

I remember being at Scitech, but not really being there, worrying about what it might have been there in Elisha’s eye.

Eventually we went back, Elisha had the drops put in his eyes, and we wandered around for a while waiting for them to take effect.

The optometrist had seen something.

This is what a normal retina looks like…

This is what Elisha’s looks like…

It is a very rare defect of the eye, called Wyburn-Mason syndrome.  Basically some of the blood vessels in the eye are thicker than they should be.  Most of the people we dealt with had never seen it before, only Dr Lam had, and only once.  Which meant that they were all quite excited by it in some ways.

He had to have an MRI to make sure that it didn’t extend into his brain in areas that could cause problems.  It does go to his brain, but not into it, or not into any problematic places.

Elisha is never going to have great vision in this eye, but is also a little short-sighted, and has had glasses since he turned four.  He has also had to patch.  He HATES it.  H.A.T.E.S.  He is like two different people.  Elisha with no patch and Elisha with patch.

Last year we tried some drops instead of the patch, so that he couldn’t cheat by pulling the patch open a little bit.  He ended up having a reaction to the drops, and we stopped both those and the patching for a while.  When we started up again, his vision was worse than ever.  He even walked into things a couple of times when we first resumed.  ?As much as possible he sits in a chair and does nothing.

I feel awful making him do it, because I can see by his actions how much it upsets him.  Yet, it is for his (hopefully) long term benefit that we are purusing it.  I pray with him about it, and we had a big talk about it this last week.  And he actually got off his chair and did a few things…

… including taking his bowl to the kitchen!  I pray and hope that the wearing of the patch will improve his vision, and also that it teaches Elisha about perservering through tough circumstances.

When I’m on time with my morning routine, I feed Ookie quite early in the morning.

Something wasn’t quite right the other morning, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Sometimes you have to stop and look a bit closer.