January
has seemed to last forever. The weather
in Indy has been the coldest and snowiest in my lifetime. All that snow would be fun if the girls were
old enough to go sledding or it wasn’t too cold to head outside and build a
snowman, but onto the biggest event of the month.
As
mentioned in the previous post, Allison was diagnosed with cataracts and had
surgery on the right eye on January 7th. She was quite the trooper that morning and
was social with all of the nurses and doctors in the outpatient area. The procedure took 2 hours and she was very
unhappy after the procedure. Once we got
into the car and got home, she was calmed down and seemed to do back to her
normal self by the next morning. For the
first week we had to put drops in her eye every 2 hours. Then, for 2 additional weeks we did it 4
times a day and then in the 4th week, it was only 2 drops a
day. On top of having your child have
eye surgery, we had record snow here the weekend before which had us concerned
that the procedure would be cancelled.
The snow storm caused us to lose power 2 days before the surgery for
about 18 hours and we also lost power for about 6 hours the day we got home
from the surgery. We were lucky my mom
lives so close and has plenty of room so we could stay with her to stay
warm. After the surgery, Allison had to
stay home from daycare for a week, so Deb and I split the time up and Beth
helped out 2 mornings. Allison did
pretty well with the drops after getting used to it.
Because
Allison’s surgery went so well, we decided to go on a previously planned trip
to Jamaica in mid-January. We went to
Sandals Royal Caribbean in Montego Bay.
It was really amazing how quickly Deb and I were able to let go of the
girls and just have fun. Don’t get me
wrong, we love the girls…but this was a fantastic trip. Randy and Anna have spent enough time with
the girls to know their routines, so we knew they were in good hands. Once you take away our cell phones and our
watches, it was like we were 8 years younger and without a care in the world,
other than if the sun was going to stay out or if we needed another drink. The sun was out most mornings and then it
would get cloudy and possibly rain some afternoons. We didn’t care…we would just sit in the hot
tub and talk to whoever was there. This
resort had plenty of couples and small groups, so it wasn’t difficult to find
people to hang out with or talk to. We
tried paddle-boarding, played ping pong and 9 ball and ate pizza on the beach
for lunch a few days. We celebrated my
birthday while we were in Jamaica.
Definitely nice to celebrate my birthday in warm weather for a
change. The only negative to the trip
was that I stepped on some glass near the bar so I had to get that cleaned up
and Deb got sick from the food one day.
Other than that, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and hope to have more
weekends/trips together.
Allison
had her daycare “parent/teacher” conference and she seems to be doing
great. While mostly everything was
fantastic and she appears to be doing very well, the only thing she could work
on is independent play. She seems to be
a follower and not a leader. Well, part
of that is on us as we usually don’t have her playing by herself since we are
usually playing with her. We have
started to ask Allison to play with Sarah independently from us and it is going
well. We have also incorporated an alarm
clock that is the picture of a cow. If
the cow is sleeping, you should stay in bed…if the cow is awake, you can get
up. She doesn’t follow the rules of the
clock, but it allows for us to say, “the cow isn’t awake so you need to go back
to bed.” This is followed by some
whining, but she usually obeys. She is
getting up 1-2 times a night and coming into our room. This is causing for everyone (especially Deb
and Allison) to get a little less sleep.
We hope this phase ends soon.
Sarah
had her 9 month appointment and it went very well. She is within an inch of Allison’s height at
9 months and within a pound of her weight at that time. The doctor decided that Sarah could use a
little physical therapy to help her start moving a little more (she doesn’t
roll well and isn’t crawling yet). She
has been to a few sessions and already appears to be more interested in moving,
reaching and grabbing. I know…we have it
good right now. Once she can move, we
will be worn out!
Sarah’s Thing of the Month
She has started to eat cheerios broken up into 3rds
and will grasp and eat those while being fed.
I remember this from when Allison was little and it was really fun. When she is in a good mood, her smile is
awesome because it is from cheek to cheek.
Allison’s Thing of the Month
For Christmas, Santa gave Allison Candyland. She love it and calls it “Candy Cane.” She will play and no matter where she is on
the board, she will love it if she gets a type of candy on her card. She does well counting the colors and no
matter who wins, the Hot-Dog Dance from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is the victory
for whoever wins…even Deb and I.
A few more items from this
month:
- We went to the Watkins house for a Colts playoff game. It was great to see everyone and Allison did well playing with the other kids, as she usually does. She seemed to really enjoy playing with Zoey, as they are closest in age.
- Another January and another winter of playing basketball with my classmates at Chatard. It is a lot of fun to see these guys each winter as I don’t do the best job keeping in touch throughout the year. Playing some basketball and then heading to breakfast on a Sunday is a tradition I hope to keep for years to come.
