Some days you just realize how lucky you are!

Well, it has been a very emotional time in our house over the past few months.  I wasn't sure if I would put this on the blog but if it helps another Mom out there to have their child checked it is worth it.  Over the past few months I have been noticing a slight movement in Brody's left eye that concerned me.  It is very hard to detect and I have been pointing it out countless times to Tim and he thought I was loosing it as he didn't see anything.  I decided to make an appointment with a specialist to be on the safe side.  It takes two months to get into an eye specialist so during that time I just tried not to think about it.  We had our 3 year doctor's appointment during the wait time and she did not notice it either but commended me for making the appointment on my own.  Finally the day came for the appointment and I will be honest that it was the hardest doctor's appointment Brody has ever had in his life!  I had both kids and was alone and we spent two and a half hours there as Brody had to have his eyes dilated and several eye tests done.  The worst part was the refraction test, they shine a bright light into the child's eyes and measure their reaction for 20 minutes.  Absolutely horrible when you have a screaming 2 year old on your lap (this was just before his birthday).  We left that appointment with the understanding that Brody had an under developed eye nerve (the eye has four nerves, this is affecting just one) that he was born with and that may need surgery.  The doctor had a very hard time noticing what I was talking about also but once he saw it he commended me for being a great mother as he said many wouldn't take the time to notice.  So our follow up appointment was 6 weeks later and for 6 weeks we worried, worried and more worried about what was going on with our sweet baby boy.  Last Monday we had our follow up visit where they did a vision test.  We could not have gotten better news as they told us even though there is a slight under development in the nerve no surgery or any type of further action will be needed!  He will continue to have it for some time but it is not affecting his vision so we are so thankful for that.  Such a scary, scary thing but we couldn't have received better news in the outcome.  We will follow up again in 3 months and then I think he will just have to go back if we think it is needed in the future.  I definitely wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on before he started school in case it would affect his vision in any way but we are cleared of that and everything is fine!!

Briana had her 9 month check up a week and a half ago.  She weighed in at 19 pounds and is 24 inches long.  Everything is going great and she is right on track in her development.  We left her appointment a week ago Friday and over the weekend last week she developed an eye infection.  Brody also had one at 3 months, they call it a cold in the eye.  I have no idea where she got it but we got some eye drops and it is under control now.  When they weighed her that day she was 18 pounds 13 ounces and they thought that was more accurate since I had just feed her prior to her 9 month check up the week before (which makes them weight a few more ounces).  She is still not quite 20 pounds so we will have to keep her in her baby carrier awhile longer. And if three doctors appointments were not enough in a weeks times span, I had to take poor Brody to the doctor this morning.  He threw up for the first time ever on Saturday night and has been running a high fever ever since and not really eating or sleeping so I wanted to get him checked out.  I wasn't sure if it had something to do with him being out in this weekends heat a lot but the doctor thinks he had a case of the stomach flu.  They were pretty impressed that we made it over 3 years without ever throwing up.  After that I am hopeful we never have that happen again (even though I know it is not the last time!)

We had a garage sale this past weekend to get rid of a lot of our bigger baby items since we are done having kids.  It was very successful and we were able to get rid of most of our things.  I plan on doing another one this fall as we have so many winter things to get rid of and at this one people were mostly looking for summer things.  It is definitely a lot of work but always nice to get rid of things that are taking up so much room.

Not much else is new.  We have been walking and running almost everyday and it feels good to be working on getting in shape again even though I have a long way to go.  I had to wait until Briana was 8 months old to even consider working out because of my iron level in my blood but it is finally stabilized so now I have the ok to get back at it.  Brody just finished his music class and I know he is going to be asking for it all summer as he really enjoyed it.  We have been going to story time twice a week at the library for the past two weeks now.  After going once he already had all the songs memorized.  His favorite is "open shut them"  which he calls "open shut it".  Haha!  We are working a lot on sitting and listening for short periods of time which he does great with at home but he needs some practice with when we are other places because he would rather be up playing with all the new things around him.  I plan on taking him all summer to help him get ready for preschool this fall.  Once school starts, it is only 2 days a week so we will most likely enroll in art and music class again to keep the structure going.  We are so busy right now I literally feel like we are hardly ever home!