Happy turkey day...

Well I am THANKFUL that I don't have to be face-down for Thanksgiving and am infinitely thankful for Drewry and Fender. We are also incredibly thankful for MEMAW for, well, everything. She does everything and we need her practically everyday and I don't know what we'd do without her. And I am so thankful that Fender knows the way to Memaw and Papa's house so well that he can say "we're almost there" when we turn off the highway toward their home.

We're thankful for all our family and friends, of course. Which sounds cheesy and generic but we truly are. I can't think of any frivolous family or friends we have. Each of you fills a special role in our lives and place in our hearts! So with that said,

WE WISH YOU ALL A WONDERFUL, STRESS FREE THANKSGIVING DAY. AND SAFE JOURNEYS FOR THE TRAVELERS.

May each of you find time to reflect on the many blessings you've been given and may you take a moment to be truly THANKFUL for all you have. (Here's a gimme...if you can see with both your eyes, hug with both arms, walk with your own legs, you have plenty to be thankful for.)

An eye update...surgery numero dos

The reason for the recent lapse in posts is due to further eye trouble. The appointment after my previous post showed that my retina was suddenly detaching, which is an emergency situation as it can lead pretty quickly to loss of sight. Not particularly thrilled about jumping into a second surgery so soon, I told the doc to take pictures and show me what was going on before I agreed. He gave a mild chuckle at my assertive request but took no time at all to comply. (At least my biology degree is occasionally useful in situations like this where photos and big medical terms might be gibberish to others. Now if I could just find a way to make some money with it.) Within minutes I was getting the photographs done and thanks to the digital world I saw what he was talking about just as soon as the last pic was taken.

Long story short, had the surgery (basically repeat of first surgery), got a second gas bubble...this one is slow acting as opposed to the fast acting last time, and spent the past 10 days in face-down recovery. Way worse than the "head straight up for a week" last time. Thankfully we rented crazy chair and bed contraptions with a double mirror that let me watch TV.

During my recovery Nana and Pop came for a visit. Nana kept us fed with fresh meals every night and having them here really helped keep Fender's attention diverted from my being temporarily out of commission. They were a huge help and sadly there's not a single photograph from the 6 days they were here.

And that brings us to today where doc said I can sit upright again, can drive, and even lift things again, but he said I have to take it easy for at least another week while my eye continues to heal. He doesn't want to take any chance that the fluid will seep back in someplace and cause further retinal detachment. I also get to stop my steroids for now and see how it goes. Yea!

As for my vision, this surgery apparently made the cataracts (which were caused by the first surgery) worse. So I'll definitely be needing that surgery later. And the gas bubble is still at 70% after 11 days so it will take a couple more weeks before it is gone. Currently it blocks my vision anyway so I'm not really bothered by the cataracts yet.

Here is Fender demonstrating the bed contraption I used most of every day.
 
 

New presidents, beds, and haircuts...

Since my last post, election day has come and gone and Barack Obama has been elected as our 44th president. This election marks the second president of Fender's life and Fender can now say it was in his lifetime that our nation elected its first African American President as well.
 

Also since my last post, Fender has moved out of his crib and into his cool new race car bed. Friday was his first night in the new bed and it was kind of funny. He got up out of bed about 2:30AM...walked out his door, which comes into our room, and straight out our door to the front of the house where I followed and found him starting to play with toys. I told him it was still nighttime and he needed to go back to bed...which he did without fuss and with a little milk. He woke back up about 3:30AM and did the same thing...but this time I stayed in bed and waited to see if he would go back to bed on his own. About 2 minutes later, he came walking back through our room and into his room and back to his bed carrying his little Diego Dune Buggy and Diego driver (two pieces). He seemed to go back to sleep on his own, but woke up at 4AM crying. I rocked him until he fell back to sleep about 4:30AM and he slept until 7:00AM. I seriously contemplated going back to the crib...but figured we had to be strong enough to try it more than just one night. :) Last night all was fine. Slept from 9:30PM to 8:00AM without fuss. Guess it was just first night jitters. Pretty funny though...walking by himself through a big old house at night with no lights on didn't seem to bother him in the least. Here's his new bed. Easy to put together...the four sides fit together like big puzzle pieces and then there were about four screws just for safe measure. There are tons more stickers left to put on which will likely be part of his playtime when he wakes up from his nap. Right now we have his crib mattress in it, but it converts to twin size whenever we get the mattress.
 

We've had lots of fun with his birthday sidewalk chalk lately. Anytime he goes outside now he usually brings it with him. Here he is with the chalk on Friday...before his haircut.
 

Here he is watching Nemo on the computer...after his haircut on Saturday.
 

Also want to add a special note to say, "Welcome to the world, Miss Lily Jun." She is the daughter of one of my oldest friends and was born this morning at 12:14AM, 5 weeks early weighing 5 lbs 2 oz. Lily and Mom are doing very very well. Lily will be staying in the NICU for a few days, but at the moment only needs a little supplemental oxygen.

And WAY TO GO TEXAS TECH! They beat Oklahoma State 56-20 last night. Now they get to enjoy the victory and gear up an extra week before traveling to take on a formidable Oklahoma.

For those of you wondering about my eye...things haven't gotten worse for about a week now, so I call that GREAT!! And when I look straight ahead I can see a lot with the bad eye. I've recovered from the surgery and the gas bubble is gone now. There were problems after the surgery, like the fact that it apparently caused me to get cataracts which blurs my vision mostly on the perimeter and the biopsy was negative for Toxoplasmosis, which he was confident I had.

Ugh...I return to my doctor on Wednesday for follow up. I have been on a new medication for our newest diagnosis of Toxocara and am praying this will work because two doctors have now said nothing else is even close to my symptoms. I remain on steroids for now, but hope we can try to decrease those after my appointment and wait and pray the pain doesn't come back when I get off of them.

Go guns...

Just enjoying this rare moment. Mommy's a really happy camper after staying up late to watch her Texas Tech Red Raiders beat #1 Texas last night and then was rewarded with an extra hour of sleep thanks to Daylight Savings ending. Fender pulled for the Red and Black as long as he could before bed. Next up...Oklahoma State and then Oklahoma. Yikes. Go Guns!

Unfortunately the Cowboys aren't looking so great. Yea for by-weeks. They need to regroup and Romo needs to heal muy rapido.

Trick-or-treating...

 
(Friends: Bradley with daughter Corley the duck; Fender and me; and Jayme the Bumblebee.)

Festivities began with the Halloween party at daycare. Our first trick-or-treating was at Memaw and Papa's where we scored big time with several Reese's Peanut Butter cups. Yummy! Fender ran off lots of energy, apparently the result of lots of sugar from the party earlier. He ate some of Memaw's meatloaf and black eye peas then we met up with Daddy for some more trick-or-treating. When we got back home, we turned on the porch light and lit the pumpkins and handed out candy to about 30 trick-or-treaters before we turned the light out a little past 9:00PM when we had given out all our good chocolate bars and Momma was ready to get out of her scarecrow costume and have some dinner.
 

This costume really made it look like Elmo was eating the party snack and not the kid.
 

Corley as a duck was one of the cutest costumes I have ever seen on a kid. The feet really made the whole thing work too because when she walked, it looked like she was waddling. It was too much!
 

These two pics were at Memaw and Papa's where Fender first negotiated his way out of his Yoda ears and ultimately out of his Jedi robe when it was time to eat. Fender loves playing outside at their house. Who can blame him...they have a big yard with no stickers, a small green house with sand to stick your toes in, and lots of love and cookies too...who could want anything more?