All those girls

Last week the girls and I traveled to Florida to visit my friend April and her family. The girls had a great time playing with her 3 girls, Henley, Daughtry and Addie Ross. Thanks for letting us stay and disrupt life for a few days! Scroll to bottom of blog to see a picture of ALL THOSE GIRLS!!

Callaway Gardens

Yesterday we went to Callaway Gardens. The girls enjoyed the lake, the Florida State Flying Circus and putt-putt. RuRu was a wiggle worm but was amazed by the performance. She kept leaning forward in my lap and throwing her arms back like the performers did when they finished a feat. It was so cute!  Sadie Lynne said "I couldn't do that even if I tried" after the flying trapeze act. Adelaide enjoyed what she saw but missed a lot of the big stunts because she was watching the people around her or the crew setting another ring up for the next act.

After the circus we went to the lake and they tried some of their own human balancing acts with Daddy as the base. It was a fun day!

Recent visit to ophthalmologist

I wanted to update everyone on Sadie Lynne's eyes. She had an appointment on Thursday the 10th. They had her name or attempt to name letters of various sizes. (Once Adelaide was trying to name one and the technician chuckled, smiled sweetly and said "shhhhh". Then we all got to giggling.) Sadie Lynne had me scared for a while because the letter she was naming looked nothing like the next letter on the line. Later after a few lines I realized she was reading them from right to left. She is a very good reader so I have no clue why she was doing that. She doesn't know why either. Weird!!

 

When the doctor came in he held up lots of lenses while looking into her eyes for reaction and after a while determined she needed a stronger prescription. The new lens improved her corrected vision in the left eye from 20/200 to 20/80. He said it is difficult to get an accurate prescription right away on kids because they make so many compensations to improve their sight.

We will continue patching daily for 2 hours. I'm hoping the new lens will make it easier for her to be patched so she will be more compliant in that area.

The doctor was pleased with the improvement and encouraged us to continue pressing on because it is making a difference. He said he wasn't promising 20/20 vision in the poor eye but there was still a lot of room for improvement. He also reminded us that our time is short. We have until around her 8th birthday to make improvement.  After that no more change is possible. 

The doctor shared a story about a patient who just turned 9 that he'd been working with for years on the same condition. Her vision was like Sadie Lynne's when we discovered her problem-perfect in one eye and 20/400 in the other. He said now that child's vision is 20/25 in her poor eye!!! I was thrilled to hear again that it is possible!

We will go for our next appointment in 5 weeks and see how the new lens is working.

      

Well, yesterday was both exciting and sad. Exciting because my new washer and dryer arrived. Sad because I was soooo excited!!!  I even invited my neighbor, Becca, over to watch as I put in the first load. We couldn't believe how many clothes it could hold (about twice as many as my old one)!! Then the control panel lit up like a cock pit and I squealed with delight. The washer is a top loader with a glass top, so we stood there peering in as the clothes spun and were agitated, without an agitator, amazed by how quiet it was.  Are we pitiful or what!

Apparently enthusiasm is contagious. I had set a load of towels to delay start until this morning. Sadie Lynne discovered them, came into my room (where I was still sleeping) and announced that she had put the towels in the dryer but didn't know how to start it. I told her which buttons to push and she started the dryer.  A few minutes later she came in to inform me she had put clothes in the washer but didn't know how to start it. I got up and showed her where to pour the detergent and how to select the cycle and start it. Now she keeps updating me on how many minutes until the load is finished and is looking for more things to wash.  Too funny!! It probably won't last long but at least for today the laundry has been taken care of!

Our little RuRu is growing up! She has not been able to say the "or" sound and has been saying "er" instead. So, Gerge=George, fler=floor,  mer=more, ster=store, etc. It was so cute! We'd all, including family, friends and neighbors, started talking like her.

Well, two days ago Adelaide announced from the dinner table that "RuRu just said George not Gerge". I started getting her say words with "or" like "Dora", "fork", "door", "four" and she consistently said it correctly.

A little over a week ago she said "when I was bern out of Mommy's tummy". When Sadie Lynne questioned her about "bern" she said, "not like a burn on my arm, like bern in Mommy's tummy! 

I know I should be glad about this important step for her speech development but it sure was sad for me! It was past bedtime, but we had to call Amy, Jana and even Daddy at work so she could say words for them, too (the older girls insisted). Oh, my how quickly they change!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went to Lake Martin with the Phillips family. The kids had a great time. Chris took the older 2 out on the jet ski. We enjoyed a relaxing boat ride. It was too relaxing for some-Adelaide and Chris fell asleep. Of course Chris had worked all night and was going on no sleep. The girls enjoyed jumping off the pier into the water. It took Adelaide a while to work up the courage but she finally did it. She was so proud! Ruby Beth swam around in her floaties and even put her face in the water. Chris tried to catch some fish but had no luck. Now he's decided there are no fish in that lake. We skipped the fireworks since Chris had to get home and get some sleep. Will attach a picture once Chris downloads the pics from today.

Don't know that I have much to say. Maybe over time I'll get inspired. First I have to get over the intimidation I feel over trying this. Let me see if I can get this to show up on the page. If successful I'll add pics and catch everyone up on the latest with me and mine:)