Ash Wednesday...

And so another Lenten season begins. Most everyone participates in Mardi Gras or "Fat Tuesday" and the plethera of "Pancake Suppers" around without knowing the reason behind the "feast" is the imminent "fast" that begins today. For anyone who doesn't know...look it up on wikipedia...just kidding...Lent is a period of 40 days and nights of fasting, prayer, and inner reflection, culminating in the Great Feast of Easter. Ironically, Sundays don't "count" in the 40-days and nights because each Sunday is considered a "feast" day. As a result, one might be inclined to cheat on Sundays...but I try to avoid the added temptation.

Anyhoo...many observe the season by giving up a vice temporarily...like sweets, drinking, or whatnot and never really focus on the whole spiritual journey that ideally takes place as well. In recent years I've begun focusing more on the spiritual journey and I recommend it for any of you observing the Lenten season. Another thing I began doing three years ago, was not only giving something up that I love, but also taking up something that might benefit me spiritually as well. So...lots to think about and work on this season. If you are beginning this fasting season with me, I wish you strength, patience, and perseverance. Okay...well, I wish that for all of you anyway. :)

Here's Fender "feasting."
 
 
 

And enjoying the warmer days of the season.

Fender plays guitar and sings...

A funny video.

Fender distracted...


Some of the commentary in case you don't understand him:
"Look. Chocolate." (referring to the name he gave his train.)
"Hi little buddy." "Thanks for coming by to see me." "(Chocolate) comes to see me again." (repeat x 2) and "I need to pause him."

This week in Fender photos...

Well, Daddy has been in Chicago this week for a training workshop and we've missed him so we took a few photos this week to make sure he didn't miss anything while he was away. So this is for you, Daddy...








Having a lazy morning with breakfast in bed.

Artwork at 28 months...

 

The most notable thing about his artwork these days is how hard he insists on pressing the crayons to the paper. Most of the colors break under the pressure. We've reassured him that color will still make it to the paper even if he colors lightly but apparently it just isn't as pretty. I have to admit I love the deep colors in all his artwork these days and a new box of crayons is only about $0.97. Well worth it.

Typically Fender wakes up about 7AM and he'll come crawl into bed with us and wake us up too. But one day last week he got up and went to play by himself in the living room. When I got up to check on him this is what I found.
 

I decided to start taking the occasional pictures of some things I find rather funny when I just happen upon them at random on any given day. Finding things like this around the house are just a teeny part of the tremendous joy of being a parent.
 
 

Making chocolate milk...

Recently Fender decided he could make his own chocolate milk. I've filmed it twice and the second time was longer... and a slightly cuter video as there was a pretty big spill and the dog came over to lick it all up. Ha. This one is still about 3 minutes long...proving that sometimes you have take your time and work hard if you really want something. This is a partial video...he's already gone to the fridge, gotten the chocolate, poured it in, and retrieved the milk... he had gotten that far pretty much on his own before I decided I wanted to get the video out. So here you go.

The video...(you may have to click the play button twice).

Here we are...

Fender is now 28 months old and I haven't checked any books lately, but it seems to me he is doing everything he needs to be doing at this stage.

He is really beginning to enjoy puzzles, but isn't real good at them by himself yet. He has a wooden "Horton Elephant" puzzle he likes the most. It has about 9 pieces and he gets frustrated when the pieces don't move into place easily. He also has a couple of 4-5 piece cardboard wal-mart puzzles that he is really good at, but we've lost a piece from each one already. Today we tried a 25 piece jigsaw puzzle ($1 at the Dollar Tree) and he was good at identifying what was on the pieces so if I asked for a "tree" piece or a "tigger" or "winnie the pooh" he could hand me one that went to it and told me where it should go. He just can't get them together well.

Okay, and now I will bore you by telling you about one of the more special moments I've ever had in my lifetime. Several nights ago we were all sitting down for dinner at the kitchen table (not a rare occurrence, but not every night either) and when we do so we try to always say grace before we eat. Well, in the past Fender hasn't been one to sit real quiet or still through it so this time I said a quick prayer while still passing out dinner. (Yes, I know some of you would not approve of this, but my thinking is that the important thing is that we are thanking God for the food we have been blessed with even if we don't follow typical protocol while doing so.) Okay...so we say "Amen" and I'm about through passing out the food. And when everyone has food on their plate and we are all about to eat, Fender starts rambling out a very rapid "God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food. We fold our hands and bow our heads and thank Him for our daily bread. Amen." Drew and I just stared at each other while this spilled forth from his sweet little mouth never missing a beat and at breakneck speed.

I am sad to say it wasn't us that taught it to him because we typically say a different prayer each time. I thought it had to come from Memaw and Papa because he's had dinner with them a lot lately during my recovery. It turned out it wasn't them either...so where did he learn it, you ask? In typical Fender fashion, he learned it the first time he heard it. He spent one Wednesday evening with Great Aunt Virginia, her husband Tom, and a couple of cousins and learned it when he heard them say it at dinner time. All of it. I had never even heard the last half of that prayer before. I was so impressed and so humbled when he stopped and said it with us at the dinner table. Definitely one of the cooler moments of my life!

We haven't been doing much of anything worth mentioning...just living our daily lives. So here are some pictures from the past several weeks.

He blows his own bubbles now.
 
 

Climbs up and slides down the neighbors playground setup in less than 10 seconds!!
 

Keeping it straight...
 

oh yeah...almost forgot my eye update...
Second opinion showed I could see out of all quadrants and could make out some red and green lights shining at my eye, though green was white in most of it and "sight" meant I could make out some vague motion in most areas. Doc thought those were all really good signs. He said I had to have the surgery, of course because my retina was detaching and I still have about a 15% chance of regaining any useful sight. He also said he would do it, but that we were already with the best retina and uvietis specialist. Ugh. So we went back to my doctor and had the surgery again.

This one was a bit more invasive than the previous two. He cut out a huge layer of scar tissue, which he was pleased about, but said the retina is pretty rigid and he didn't like that. He put in a silicone oil bubble, which will stay in for a long long time. He had to make an actual incision in order to get the bubble in because the oil bubble won't fit through the microscopic holes he usually makes. So this all required stitching up multiple layers of my eye...which wasn't all that pleasant at the time, and has been an irritation ever since. I expect it will eventually go away. He left the cataract lens in after all because it is better with the bubble if I leave it in. He said if I'm not detaching after several months then he will get me in to see one of his cataract specialists who have experience removing cataracts in patients with oil bubbles...which can apparently be pretty tricky and not a good thing if the bubble gets nicked. Woo-hoo!

Okay...so no sight in that eye at the moment, but hoping for brighter days ahead. At my appointment on Tuesday my doc was really pleased with the way everything looked. He even smiled (which he had never done before) so I'll take that as a good sign, though I can't get my head around why this is looking better than anytime before. They've always re-attached following surgery and detached later. Oh well. He's happy, so I guess I should be too. I had to do a few more days face-down because the scars were still healing. But hopefully everything has healed properly now and will stay attached forever!! The End.

Face-down and all caged up...

Hey folks...there have been no posts because I have been in face-down recovery after having a third vitrectomy eye surgery the Monday before last. Doc said things looked good on Tuesday, but the scars were still healing so I was ordered to stay down a bit longer. I get 15 minutes up each hour, so I decided to update this real fast. I'll even add a quick picture of Fender. I promise more Fender days are ahead and a better eye update is forthcoming when I have more time.

Thank you to all of you who have called and/or come by to check on me and/or emailed to say you missed the blog updates. :) Uh oh....times almost up. And since I'm caged up in the house at the moment, here's Fender caged up with the dogs at a friend's party we attended just before the surgery.

Houston, we have a problem...but today is truly a great day!

(Enjoying "Obama" cupcakes that one of Daddy's co-workers made and shared.)

Life...

Well we could never appreciate all the good in our lives if we didn't have some bad to relate it to. So in that regard we should always be thankful for the bad times too because without them our good times wouldn't be as good.

Suffice to say I've lost the sight in my right eye. When I close my good eye, I can barely make out any light at all now. Simple follow-up visit today apparently showed more retinal detachment and doc wants to do a third Vitrectomy on Monday. He was notably sad for me when he told me I probably wasn't going to ever see out of that eye again. This time he said he would put in an oil bubble instead of gas...but that stays in for 6 months to a year, then I could choose to have surgery to remove it and if I have any sight at all, it would likely be uncorrectably blurry. Which trust me, the few times I've had blur instead of complete vision impairment, it was actually more difficult to function. He said he would go ahead and remove the cataract lens, but not replace it since I wouldn't be able to see anyway. If I choose to have the bubble removed, we could replace the lens at that time.

We've decided that having the same doctor do the same procedure a third time and expect anything but the same results is a bit stupid...so I'll see another retina specialist in the morning. I don't expect the news to be different, nor do I expect him to be any better since everyone said I was already seeing the best...but I just expect him to be different. Maybe he'll get lucky and seal the hole that eludes my current doctor. Maybe not.

If I haven't shared my life motto with you yet, here it is: Hope for the best but expect the worst!! I adopted that motto when I was about 14 and have stuck to it ever since. That way I'm never really dissapointed and if things turn out better than the worst case scenario, then I am often pleasantly surprised.

So this sucks, but...my worst case scenario from the beginning was that I could lose my vision in that eye so I'm not completely devastated by any means. I'm hopeful a miracle might occur, just not optimistic. As far as how losing an eye will affect my daily life, I don't expect it to be all that much. I've had 5 months getting used to it. My chief complaints are that I have NO right side periphery at all and I have ZERO depth perception now. This is most notable when I pull into our carport trying to avoid the poles and I tend to park too far out because I think I'm closer than I actually am to objects. And I have a difficult time playing catch now. And as my mom pointed out, Fender's friends will probabaly always say I "throw like a girl." I just hope they don't say that I "throw like a girl with one eye." Ha.

Oh well...I am still thankful I have one good eye and I will just pray extra hard each night that nothing at all ever happens to take that one away from me.

So that is enough gloom on this wonderfully historic day! Today our first black President has been sworn into office. Looking around the world it seems so insanely small minded of us for this to have taken until 2009 and the same goes for our lack of having any true women candidates before this year as well. Bolivia, Argentina, Haiti, even China (1968-1972)and others have all had women Presidents and that doesn't even delve into all the historic ruling Queens.

Anyway, while I tend to think today shouldn't be so special just because the skin of our new president is different...you can look around any news story today and be reminded just how important it is. I am proud that in my life time I've never had to give much thought to a person's color or race. I was raised by parents who taught me that prejudice in any form is a bad thing. Racism has never been an issue for me, but even back as early as their generation, it was. My parents can remember going to the movie theater and having separate water fountains for blacks and whites and blacks had to sit in the balcony. Schools were segregated, but their generation helped to change that and integration began. For some reason it has taken our country a long time to make progress, but today is truly progress. And I am thankful that I am beginning to see a time where racial descrimination and prejudice can truly becomes a thing of the past. Today is truly a great day!

My favorite things...

As mom, one of my favorite things Fender has been doing lately is to hold my cheeks with the palm of his hands and pull my head down to kiss me on the forehead. He's started to do it repeatedly at times and it is one of the most wonderful feelings ever!!! At first I was so entranced that I would say "I love it, I love it, I love it" after his kisses so now sometimes he'll say that after he gives me a forehead kiss. Then I guess I started saying "Thank you, thank you" after the kisses and now he'll grab me, kiss me, and say "You're welcome." So cute! Just another phase I hate for him to grow out of. Hard to imagine that the day will come when mom kisses will be "ooey." :( But I know it is coming.

Some of Fender's favorite things include:
Star Wars: Clone Wars. Yep. Probably not the best for a 2 year old, but he loves it. He has one on DVD and then we watch the new episodes every Friday night that come on TV. He reads all his Star Wars books, especially the Clone Wars dictionary. And we play with our lightsabers pretty much every day.

Noggin is our favorite channel. We don't watch TV all the time, but anytime you turn it on, he's hooked on whatever is there. I highly recommend it for youngsters! He's learning some Spanish and all about animal rescuing with Diego and recently started learning bits of Chinese with Ni hao, Ki Lan. He also enjoys The backyardigans, who are always up for some singing and fun. And we can't go without The Wonder Pets, who fumble their way through helping baby animals in trouble. That's where we learned "What's gonna work? Teamwork!" Despite my best efforts, Fender isn't all that interested in Sesame Street yet. He doesn't even want to watch Elmo anymore, though he still likes his Elmo books and talking Elmo toys.

When he isn't watching TV he likes to play with his trains. He's learned how to open the one we call "Chocolate" and where his battery goes and that he needs the battery to work and how to put it back in and put Chocolate back together again. He isn't a fan of making the trains pull cars...he prefers them "by hisself." (And yes...I know that isn't a word.)

He still loves to color, paint, and draw. He colors real dark and heavy in one spot now, trying to stay in the lines...so you can distinctly tell he's colored shoes purple or a lightsaber blue...but nothing stays in the lines, of course. And he's breaking crayons all the time when he colors so hard, despite our efforts to show him he can color more lightly. Must not look as good, I guess.

And we have no bedtime schedule anymore. Not sure what happened...I guess it was the long lazy holiday schedule, but Fender stays up until 10 and 11PM most nights and is sleeping in until nearly 9AM if left alone. We're going to work on this and pray we get things back to a better schedule. We'll be getting up early for my eye doctor appointment tomorrow so that should help.

Happy New Her...

So finally a Happy New Year post...and only 19 days late.

Pics of Fender and Aunt LaLa having lunch at Olive Garden one day before the New Year. Fender likes lemons...he will still pucker his lips and face, then smile and go back for more until the lemon is all gone. Wow...none for me thanks.
 
 

Baby New Year: New Year's Eve was a lot of fun. However, Fender didn't nap at all that day so we were fairly certain he wouldn't make it to midnight. He fell asleep a little early, but we still got some celebrating in with hats, party horns, and poppers.
 

Ah...if he only knew the kitty will sit right by him when he is quiet and still.
 

Videos:
In his unceasing quest to bond with the kitty cat...Fender tries to make a Great Escape.


I was surprised since Fender didn't like all the silly string at the Christmas Eve party, but he actually enjoyed pulling the loud party poppers on New Year's Eve. This isn't a great video, but you can see him grab hold and not flinch at all. Not like me. I love them but tense up every time I pull the string.


Despite the fact that Fender can say "Year"...when he combined the word to say "Happy New Year" it came out "Happy New Her" every time. For some reason this really cracks me up...not sure why, but it is really funny to me.


.....an update on my eye...which I really should wait to do after tomorrow since I have an appointment, but seeing how often I keep this updated lately I think I better do it while I'm here...

At my last appointment I thought everything was looking great (despite not being able to see yet), apparently I was wrong. Doc saw inflammation on the back of my lens, which apparently isn't where one typically sees this type of inflammation...well leave it to me, huh? He said to consider this kind of like a rheumatoid arthritis of the eye...for some reason my immune system continues to attack my eye so he said I will need to be on long-term care (steroids, immunosuppressants and whatnots for a few years I guess). I said, "Fine. Would you mind if we worked on helping me see again before we talk long-term?" And he said sure.

Next thing I knew, I was agreeing to a steroid shot in my eye the very next day so that the inflammation would go away long enough to have cataract surgery done. FYI...that shot was less than fun. He told me to look up and left, then next thing I knew a needle was poking in my eye and stinging quite a bit for what seemed like at least 10 seconds or more...THAT WAS JUST THE NUMBING STUFF...but thankfully was the worst offender. He but some betadine on my lids and said "now this may sting a bit" and I said "really?" and inside I'm thinking..."you didn't think it necessary to warn me that you are sticking a shot in my eye that burns for a while too?" Next came some metal clamps on my lids to hold them in place I guess (again...would have thought I would need that earlier for the painful shot) anyhoo...the next shot I just felt a "pinch" as he called it and then that was all. And I did see the steroid medicine when it was injected. It looked like a black ink spill in the corner of my eye.

The shot is supposed to last up to 3 months, at which point I guess I'll have to have another as part of the "long-term" care. Tomorrow I see the cataract surgeon for evaluation and then will hope to have the surgery next Wednesday. It is so hard to believe I've been without sight in one eye for the past five months. Crazy.

Christmas is winding down...

As our vacation was coming to an end we took a walk through the forest down to the pond; Fender helped clean the cake pans for Grandmother and was a really great boy on the drive home. The drive home from Grandmother's is an 8 hour drive and other than about 30 minutes of sleep at the very beginning of the trip heading through Memphis, TN, Fender was up the whole time!!! He had a couple of books to read and a couple of toys to play with if he wanted, but he was more than content to play with his hand towell whether trying to fold it over and over; drape it over his legs to where it "covers the toes"; or just put it over his face and play hide and seek. We are ever so thankful the monotony of a simple towell did not wear off at anytime during the journey.

Not really a tale of two big wheels...

...more Christmas prezzies, more time with family, more fun fun fun...

Uncle Chuck is always fun...


Reading with Aunt Sara...


Being silly with cousin Frank...


The girls baked Ginger Bread Cookies just for me...:)
Sitting with Lynn and cousin Loryn (right)



...opening gifts at Grandmother's.




...yes...a boy can have too many gifts. How are we to teach him that family, health, and love are really all that matter when so many toys make a little boy super happy. Oh well...I guess today's lesson is...appreciate all you have and don't take anything for granted. There are many kids less fortunate...perhaps it is time to clean out some of our old toys and share them with others.


How can I ride two big wheels at the same time???


...get cousin Riley to help!


Solve this? No problem...

A Hopewell Christmas...

After a lovely night's stay at Fred and Barbara's...with the exception of Fender's 4:45AM dire need for some chocolate milk, we woke up to a true southern breakfast complete with a mound of eggs, tons of bacon, grits, homemade biscuits (and for future reference if I mention bread with a meal be it biscuits, rolls, whatever...just assume they were the homemade...slave over...wait for rising...kneading...that sort of bread because that's what any respectable family in Mississippi just does.) and more. Eventually we were all dressed (and for the duration of this trip you can pretty well assume wherever we are, Drew's brother and family are with us too. So we ALL eventually had breakfast, dressed, said our thank yous and goodbyes and headed North to Hopewell to visit the matriarchal side of the family. This part of the journey is only a four hour drive.

Today's big event, as is traditionally the case, took place at Daddy's Aunt Linda's home. The women way out number the men on this side. It starts with Great Grandmother Powell, she had three daughters (one is Drew's mom) and this get-together typically involves all three of the daughter's families at the very least. Sometimes it also includes some of Great Grandmother's siblings, but not this year. Every year we take a huge group photo. I won't name everyone, but will note that Fender's Godmother is the one standing in the white shirt on the right and she, Great Linda and Great Grandmother keep Fender in a solid supply of books and if you know Fender at all, you know he LOVES him some books!
 

Fender and his Grandmother.
 

Cousins Riley, Cameron, and Fender playing in the woods out back with big sticks.
 

Not all these presents are for Fender, but he did get about that many by the time we were through.
 

Cousin Cameron is three years old and later this year, God willing, he will be an older brother.


...and don't get too excited...much like the fun, lengthy Christmas season we just had...there are plenty more fun, lengthy posts and pics to come. Just going to take another break and give you guys time to catch up. :)