Well we've finally gotten the boys in to see a pediatric eye specialist. Dr. Grin, she is apparently the area's best and it shows by the lengthy waiting list for appointment dates.


I wasn't sure how the boys would do since their appointment was taking place basically right at their nap time and it was a 3 hour appt., (they had to dilate their eyes so it took longer than a normal check up) but they did great! Neva (Oma) went with me to help out and they kept us busy while we waited.
Basically what's needed for the both boys is surgery. Something I was dreading, but I figured may eventually be needed. Right now Dr. Grin wants to get their eyes seeing the best they can be which means new RX's for both Coen and Liam. Laim's good eye (the right) will also need to be patched for 5 hours daily for the next 6 weeks. Patching the good eye forces the bad (left) eye to work. She hopes getting him using his left eye will better prepare him for a successful surgery. Coen doesn't need any patching because he uses both eyes, but not together. He switches using them back and forth so he doesn't have a good or bad eye. So, once they are seeing their best with their new glasses and after patching, surgery will be done to correct the 'straightness' so their eyes have a better chance of working together and seeing properly.
Their new glasses should be ready in a few days and we've already started patching Liam. Their next appointment is in 6 weeks (just after their 2nd birthday) and we'll know more then. For now, we have to figure out some type of financing for the surgeries. We spent almost all our savings getting a new vehicle so we wouldn't have to have loan and now we expect to pay somewhere around $7000, so a loan or some type of financing will be happening anyway. We're hoping payment arrangements can be made with the office versus taking out a loan, but at this time they cannot tell us if they can do that since the surgeries have not been scheduled.



A little more on patching. Milo remembers patching well and he HATED it. He was only 2-3 but says he remembers it clearly. The feeling, the smell of the patches and irritation of having to wear them daily. He was trying to prepare me for the frustrations Liam would experience and after reading up on the paperwork given to me by Dr. Grin, I was prepared for the worst. The paperwork suggested putting tube socks over his hands and arms and having him wear long sleeved shirts so he couldn't take the socks off and he couldn't pull off his patch. Since it's summer and socks and sleeves would be too hot, I was fully expecting to have to hold his arms down for 5 hours a day. Except Liam has shown to be incredibly tolerant of the patches. I talked to him about it and tried my best to pump him up about wearing a patch. I let him pick his design (they are quite colorful) and we spent lots of time looking in the mirror checking out his new 'accessory'. The first day he came up to me about every 20 minutes and would say 'all-done' and touch his patch, but I told him that he had to keep it on until bedtime. He would go play and 20 minutes later he'd come back. He probably only did that only 4-5 times. Today is day #2 and he hasn't picked at it or asked for it off or anything.. and he only has about 30 minutes left until he reaches his 5 hour mark. He is such an amazing little guy. I can't imagine being a 2 year old and dealing with that and he doesn't even seem to care.

Some how, through all our faults, Milo and I have created such amazing little boys. We are so blessed.

We've been pondering getting a new vehicle for quite a while and with Milo getting a new job in west Shawnee, KS, it was time. We kept thinking we'd like to get him a super gas efficient new car, like the Ford Fiesta. That would require us to take out a small loan. With his new job paying more we figured we could handle it, but I was still hesitant to take out a loan. Our only debt we have is our house and I would have liked to keep it that way, at the same time we needed to get Milo into a more reliable vehicle and out of a gas guzzling truck.
Rewind to last year. We looked at getting an older SUV for me to drive but came up empty handed when we had to take our savings to pay off the last of my hospital bills. I was bummed because I would have liked a bigger vehicle, but I was happier that we didn't have any more lingering bills.



So there we were, ready to get Milo a brand new car when one of Milo's friends suggested revisiting getting an older vehicle and going loan free. Of course the wheels in my mind started turning, no loan, and we could get a larger vehicle! I know Milo wasn't immediately on board since I know he had is heart set on getting a new car, but he realized going loan free would be best for us.
So we started looking and we found several potential vehicles within our price range, but needed to get his truck sold before we bought anything so we were kind of sitting and waiting.



Neva came over one Monday just to visit and asked if we had called her brother Danny. (Danny works at a dealership.) We hadn't so she called and he had an SUV we could look at, so we loaded up the boys and headed over. Long story short, after a whirl wind day, I drove home a 2003 Acrua MDX. We traded in Milo's truck and paid the balance in cash without depleting our savings! (Our goal now is to build that savings back up and maybe in the future having enough cash to get Milo his new car he wanted.)

A few side notes:

This car is smarter than me. It has anything and everything you can think of. The main perk for me is the 3rd row seating and the fact that they easily fold down and I have plenty of room for their stroller/wagon AND groceries! In my car the stroller/wagon took up the entire trunk and I'd have to shove a few bags in the truck and the rest would have to go in the front passenger seat, so I barely had enough room. I absolute love this car and I find something new about it almost daily.

As you could have guessed, now Milo drives my old car, the Honda Accord for work and the Acura is now our family car. The other nice thing is we have the luxury of switching vehicles if needed. Before I could not put even 1 car seat in Milo's truck, but if he needs the Acura he can leave the Honda with me and I can still get out with the boys if needed. Win win... win!

A special note to honor Milo.  I'm not sure of many husbands that would leave car choosing to their wife.  Milo was working at this new job and couldn't take off to check out the vehicle himself.  After lots of prayers (on my part) and research from him, he trusted me enough to follow my lead with purchasing this car.  I love him so very much!

Just 2 months away from having 2-2 year olds!
Last year at this time I was busy planning and figuring out what to do for their 1st birthday. (Actually I started my planning several months before their first birthday.. and now here I am 2 months away from birthday #2 and I have 1 idea. I'll probably go with that 1 idea, but I'm still thinking of doing something specifically for family.)
My 1 idea is to have a picnic at a local splash park. It's free and it has fountains and things for the kiddos to play in. I thought I'd invite lots of little kiddos, family and friends and whoever wants to come can come. Bring a sack lunch or possibly even grill some food. I'll probably do this, but I think I'd like to have a small party for family.. but I'm still not sure.



Liam has become a cuddler. He loves cuddling stuffed animals and blankets while he sleeps. His sleeping is much improved now, and he hardly wakes any more during the night and will generally sleep through if Coen wakes up. I've found the only times he wakes up is if he's teething or if he's peed too much during the night. (We've been withholding liquids late at night to help prevent the latter and it's seemed to have helped.)
Coen's sleep isn't as great as it used to be. He will wake up now if Liam wakes up. He used to sleep through anything, but as he's gotten older his sleeping has gotten a bit worse. He still sleeps great.. just as long as he's not interrupted.
They still love reading books. They're pretty good about pointing to objects or animals in books if you ask them where they are.
They are still practicing repeating new words.. even though they're not really using the words they're learning. Liam still does a lot of whining when he wants something. I try to get him to say words that he knows, but sometimes he just won't or he'll just say part of the word. Like ba for ball, or fff for off, mmm for more or mmm for milk. So it can be very hard to decipher what he's saying. Coen has gotten slightly better about the whining, but he seems to 'ask' for less than Liam does. He does very clearly say COOKIE though.



We're on day 8 of potty training with Liam and it is going very well. We didn't have any accidents on days 4 or 6, and only 1 accident on days 5 and 7.... and day 7 was when we were out away from home and he didn't give Oma enough notice to get him to the potty. (She was watching them while I was test driving our now new vehicle. More on that later.) We did make it to church and through most of the service before having to leave without having any accidents.
Our only weak spots are outside playing. I take the potty outside, but he only uses it about half the time when we're outdoors. (I don't care if he pees in the yard, but since we're still training, I still want him to let me know. For situations when we're at the park, he can't just go pee anywhere, so we're still working on that. Another weak spot is he's in diapers at nap and bed time and in the morning he will poop first thing and usually hold it the rest of the day. He has gone poo in the potty a few times, but I think he prefers his diaper still, so I'm trying to figure a way to keep him from relying on his diaper... maybe it will just happen over time, dunno.
Potty training Liam has made Coen a bit jealous and now he constantly takes his diaper off. I'm not sure he actually wants to train yet, I think he just wants to be naked. Although, after this week I'm going to evaluate how Liam is doing and if I think I can handle it, I may try to start with Coen next Monday. I'm not really sure if he's ready, but I figure I can give it the 3 days and see how he does. Maybe since Liam is doing well and he sees Liam going on the potty, it may make it easier for him... who knows.

Well, by the end of day 3 we are not at a 75% success rate.  I think we're closer to 65%.  According to the article I'm supposed to wait 6-8 weeks and try again later.  I'm not sure I want to un-do everything he's already learned, but at the same time I don't feel like he's ready for outings (ie. the grocery store and such).  I know he's getting it, but he's just not consistent.  Day 3 was an improvement over day 2, he even went poopoo in the potty!

Liam took himself to go potty several times on his own, but the times he didn't he would start peeing on the floor and I'd rush him to his potty.  I don't expect him to go on his own every time after 3 short days, but the 75% success rate is sticking in my head.

Do I continue or wait and try again later?
For now, I'm going to give it 1 more day and see how he does.  If he still improves I think I'll continue, but if he doesn't make any improvements then we may abandon for now.  :(

Day 2 was not as successful as day 1 and here's what I think happened.

I was a lot more comfortable going into to day 2, especially after such a great day 1.  I think I let my comfort take over and I slacked off.  In the morning we were having lots of accidents and I realize that I wasn't watching him like I should have been.  After their nap I watched much more closely and we only had a few accidents.  He even got up from watching Nemo and got on the potty by himself and pee'd, without any help or direction from me.
He still has not pooped in the potty.  He had a poopy diaper first thing in the morning of day 2, and didn't poop at all on day 2.  I'm starting to get concerned.  I don't want to cause him problems by potty training since he's holding his poop, so we'll see how day 3 goes... as far as pooping goes.

The other issue I think was the 'newness' of the potty on day 1.  He wanted to sit on it all the time which I think helped with all his success on day 1.  Day 2 he was far less interested in sitting on the potty.  He would sit for about 2 seconds then want to get up.  I figured with the potty not being 'new' any more and my lack of attentiveness day 2 was not very successful.  We had probably 7-8 dribbles/accidents and only 3 or 4 pees in the potty.

On to day 3!

***WARNING***  This next post contains references to pee and poop.  Read at your own risk.  :)


So I decided to dive in and try to potty train Liam... or at least to see if he was ready.  He seemed to be giving me hints of when he needed to go or when he had gone pee or poo, so I thought I'd give it a try.
I decided several months back I was going to try a method I read about called "Potty training in 3 days or less".  it's geared towards children under the age of 3.  More specifically ages 15 months to 28 months.  (They say the closer your child is to the age of 3 the less likely this method is to work.)  Basically your child goes diaper free/pants free for 3 days (to start).  For those first 3 days you basically sit around and watch your child waiting for them to need to pee or poo and rush them to the nearest toilet.  Day 1, you are house bound.  On day 2, you leave the house for an hour and on day 3 you leave the house twice for an hour each.  If after the first 3 days your child is having 75% or more of success then they say it's safe to proceed, if less than 75% then your child may not be completely ready and to wait and try again in 6-8 weeks.  If proceeding, after the initial 3 days you introduce pants for going out, but no underwear or diapers while awake... and no pants at home.  (Diapers only for naps and bedtime, unless you feel they don't need it.)  The no pants at home stays a rule for the first 3 months.

So yesterday was day 1 and here's how it went. 
Liam woke up and pooped right away in his diaper before I came in to get him, which I was happy about because I knew I'd only be tackling pee first thing in the morning.  He held his pee for about 3 hours then started dribbling here and there.  It was never very much and we'd go sit on the potty but he wouldn't actually pee.  After dribbling about 3 times on the floor and dribbling twice in the potty he finally had a full pee on the potty!  The rest of the day was basically the same thing, he'd dribble a little bit on the floor then go to the potty and usually have a full pee.  Total I think he dribbled about 7 times on the floor but had 5 full pees on the potty.  I honestly was amazed, I was expecting to have full pee's everywhere on the floor all day, but he proved me wrong.
We did break a rule already and went outside for a bit yesterday evening.  He went pantsless and pee'd twice (not on the potty).
The only 'problem' we had yesterday is no poop.  When he woke up from his nap he started pooping before I got to him.  I saw he was trying so I took his diaper off and put him on the potty but he wouldn't poop.  He held it for the rest of the day and pooped first thing in the morning (in diaper) before I could get to him.. again.  So pooping might be our downfall right now, but we'll keep on working on it.

I'd definitely consider day 1 a success.  Let's hope he continues this pattern and that brother wants to join in.  (Coen was getting jealous that Liam was nakey all day and kept taking his diaper off too.  But I know I could NOT train them both at the same time, so he's going to have to wait for a bit.)