It's All About Evelyn

Evelyn L-O-V-E-S school! She's learning all the sounds that accompany the ABC's (I'm going to video record her sometime showing the sounds--it's hilarious). She's learning how to write all the letters too (and doing a really good job!). She brought home this huge poster to fill out. We had lots of fun looking for pictures to use and then thinking of different answers. When it came to coloring, she flat out said that she wanted to make a pattern. :)

I find it funny that she claims that she likes to go toMcDonalds--I can't remember the last time we've ever gone there. When she eats "crabby patties", if we don't make it at home, then it comes from Burger King. :)
Like her handwriting? I do. How about her fav subjects? Recess was always high on my list when I was a kid.
If you can't read it, at home the answer is slip'n'slide. In the community is looking for rainbows.
I overheard the kids in Evelyn's class each picking out a song to sing at the end of a school day. They were to sing as a class. Evelyn ended up doing a solo when she picked her song: My Eternal Family.

Glasses

So last week Marcus had his eyes dialated at the doc's office. He wasn't too keen on wearing his sunglasses--til we were in the car on the highway and the sun was shining in his face the whole way home (and I couldn't reach him to put his glasses back on--I couldn't pull over either. I was lost somewhere in downtown Honolulu. I'm NEVER living there!). He was more than willing to put them on once we were home and the lights were on everywhere.

Today we picked up his new glasses. Julia was all for getting him Harry Potter looking ones. :) I basically just let Marcus try on whatever pairs he took a liking to. He had quite a bit of fun doing that. He must have tried on about half a dozen when he finally chose these:

Not Harry Potter ones--but that's OK with me. I'm not about to fight with a 2 year old (who is quite tired of people looking at his eyes with lights, making him look into things, touching his eyes, ect). You can tell from the above pic what his left eye is doing. Wearing the glasses is supposed to fix this problem. If it doesn't stop doing this while he's wearing them, then I'll be calling the doc at the end of the week to go back in.

So far he's doing pretty well. He's told me once that he's "done" with them and tried to take them off (nothing doing, I bought one of those string attatchments that goes around the back of his head).

On another note, I received a call from the speech dept at the hospital--they're going to see him Oct. 15 (FINALLY!). His speech has really started picking up over the past month. We finally are getting the gist of what he's trying to communicate to us (and when we can't, we just take his hand and have him show us). Personally, I still think he needs speech and am hoping he's going to get help. Let's all keep our fingers crossed!

Strabismus

Strabismus is a visual defect in which the eyes are misaligned and point in different directions. One eye may look straight ahead, while the other eyes turns inward, outward, upward, or downward.

The eye turn my be constant, or it may come and go. Which eye is straight (and which is misaligned) may switch or alternate.

Strabismus is a common condition among children. About 4% of all children in the United States have strabismus. It can also occur later in life.


MARCUS'S TYPE:




Accommodative Esotropia--common form of esotropia that occurs in children usually 2 years or older. In this type of strabismus, when the child focuses the eyes to see clearly, the eyes turn inward. This crossing may occur when focusing at a distance, up close, or both. Glasses reduce the focusing effort and often straighten the eyes.

So last week I noticed that Marcus's left eye was turning inward--he looked like he was going cross-eyed with his left eye. It wasn't constantly like that--but it would happen every other minute or so when he was looking at something. I was able to get him in to see his pediatrician two days later and she noticed right off the bat what his eye was doing. She referred him to a wonderful eye specialist in Honolulu. We saw this doctor yesterday and she did a number of exercises with Marcus to see what's going on. She explained the whole time what she was doing, how well Marcus was behaving (ha! it was in the middle of his nap time!), and also explained the entire time what is going on with his vision. She gave him a prescription for glasses (which I purchased from Walmart today--we looked through tons of glasses til Marcus found the EXACT pair he likes--they were on sale for $10! pictures to come next week) and we are to see her back on his birthday. The glasses should help clear his vision and his left eye should be able to stay center and focused while he wears them. If it doesn't, then we make another appt with her and see about him wearing a patch on his good eye (to strengthen his weaker eye muscles) or discuss surgery (!!!!!). We both agreed that we're more leaning toward his eye just behaving with the glasses. :)

For more info on his condition, see here:

http://www.strabismus.org/esotropia_eye_turns_in.html

Jacob/Guy

We've been trying to teach Marcus how to say "Jacob" (fyi--Marcus has problems pronouncing many words. He's only just started making 2-4 word sentences (the only four word so far is "I don't want to!). We are to hear back soon about him starting up speech therapy). Anyway, a long while ago Marcus started calling Jacob "Guy". ??? Where'd he come up with that you ask? I have no idea. We all thought it was kinda funny til it stuck. Now that Marcus is working on proper pronunciation, we're trying to get him to say Jacob's proper name. Here's how well it's going.....

Important lessons passed on down generation to generation....

Who is this guy?

Somebody's going to be turning 8 at the turn of next year--and he's no longer looking like my little guy (or frat boy as Ry used to call his hairstyle). Since moving here, Jacob has decided to grow his hair out (like a true beach/surfer dude). I'm still trying to get used to his new look!

And THEN, two days ago he gets out of the shower and is toweling his hair when he catches a glimpse in the mirror of his hair all brushed back off his forehead.....He's so excited to try it out and wanted good pix before heading off to school. Now I SERIOUSLY don't recognize him....like AT ALL! To me, I'm seeing my older brother Jason who used to wear his hair almost the exact same way. Jacob had actually brushed all of his hair straight backwards (and ended up looking Draco Malfoy's twin, which he was most excited about), but then it sorta flopped to one side and he decided to keep it that way.

He's loving his newly aquired hairstyle. :) This boy cracks me up. He won't have it down now if he can help it (hairspray is our friend). My little man is growing up!

Marcus trying to flare his nostrils

Completely random thing to try and do, I know, but I know how to do it and so does Julia. Jacob tries, but he's only able to shift his nose down (I still can't figure out how on earth he does that!). Here's Marcus trying to imitate me.





Like I said before, completely random--but it's absolutely hilarious when (off camera) he's really into it and going cross-eyed because he's trying to see his nose while scrunching it up at the same time. :) Here, he knows he's on camera and wants to see the results NOW.