Holiday Recap

This year for Christmas we headed to the east side of the state to celebrate with Ben's parents and family.  We were gone for almost 2 weeks and we had a great time.  We left Seattle just in the nick of time- we barely escaped the huge storm that hit here, to arrive in Tri-Cities just in time for a few snow storms over there.

The kids had a blast in the snow and wasted no time getting bundled up and going sledding, many times.

They loved it!

Ben was so excited to have 2 weeks off from work and didn't let the snow stop him from going hunting 3 times!

On Christmas Eve day, we had a few errands to run at Walmart (yes, we really went to Walmart on Christmas Eve, and yes it was terrible).  The kids found some reindeer antlers and kept themselves entertained despite the horrible crowds and lines.

You know Dasher, and Dancer and Mitchell and Chloe.....

For Christmas Eve night, we enjoyed extended family over and had lots of yummy food and fun.  Mitchell enjoyed the olives!

Our attempt at a Christmas Eve family photo- Chloe now closes her eyes when she smiles and Mitch was, obviously, not happy.  But Mom and Dad just keep smiling......

All ready for Santa to come in their matching red pj's.......

Chloe showing off all the presents for the eight of us who opened them.

Christmas morning was so much fun.  Christmas is so enjoyable with kids and I much preferred to watch Chloe and Mitch open their gifts than to open mine.

The only thing Chloe wanted Santa to bring her was an umbrella.  She was so excited to see that he had left her one in her stocking.

When she saw it, she gasped, then turned to me and said, "Wow, Mom!  I didn't even tell him I wanted it and he STILL brought it."  (She wouldn't sit on Santa's lap or talk to him to tell him what she wanted this year....) Amazing!  If I know Santa, and I think I do, I'm sure he's just so glad that all she asked for was an umbrella....... I'm not sure what he'll do when her requests become bigger and more expensive!

Mitchell received this fun little car/bike from Nana and Papa and it was a hit with everyone, adults included.  You simply sit on it, put her feet up and the car moves by just steering. 

Mitchell was actually not really interested in anything at all.  He didn't want to open gifts or really do anything except crawl away and whine.  He'd only open something if we grabbed him and held him.

He finally got so cranky that we just fed him breakfast and put him to bed.

All the Andros men, showing off their matching baseball shirts.

Ben's brother Nick, who is going to dental school in New York City, gave our family matching T-shirts.  We really do love New York, but we would love it even more if we could go visit him there!  (Someday, we hope...)

Chloe loved her book with the magic pen that when you tap the words on the page with the pen, it reads the story to you.

The day after Christmas, Ben, his parents and two brothers all flew to Los Angeles for Nick's wedding.  With all the terrible snow storms, they barely made it in time for the wedding the next morning.  Here is the groom and his beautiful bride Cris just outside the LA temple.

The day after the wedding, they all got to tour Hollywood a bit.  Here is Ben with Dora the Explorer.  I'm not sure what he's asking her to do, but I'm sure if he would have said, "Vamos, Dora!" she would have done it.

If you look closely, the Hollywood sign is between them.  (And yes, it was warm and beautifully sunny there while we all had snow and cold).

We had a wonderful time and all the fun definitely wore the kids out!  Chloe fell asleep in a shopping cart more than one time this vacation.  Once at Walmart on Christmas Eve, and...

Once at Sportsman's Wearhouse the week after.

Mitch was exhausted too!

We rang in the New Year by celebrating Megan's birthday on New Year's Eve.  Happy 33rd!  We all enjoyed the amazing chocolate cake from Costco that evening- our last hurrah (food wise) before the Looking Fine in '09 challenge began.  

This was the view at Snoqualmie Pass as we drove home...... beautiful!

Happy New Year!

"I Wanna Quit the Gym"

Today, in a valiant effort to stay in shape this year (Looking Fine in '09, as we've been calling it), Ben and I joined a local gym.  We had gym memberships right after we were married and kept them for a year or two, then quit.  Now, with 2 kids and what feels like no time to work out without waking up at the crack of dawn or without kids crawling all over us when we work out, we wondered how we ever quit the gym!  What a nice place to exercise, ALONE, and get a decent workout.  So, putting a good foot forward, we signed our lives away and joined the gym.  We got a great rate (unbeatable, really) with childcare included, so we're off to the gym.  Wish us luck.  We both couldn't help but think of the "Friends" episode where Chandler wants to quit the gym.  When things get tough and we want to quit the gym, we'll remember that episode.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESeEZD_OY

December Delights

Happy December!  This is my favorite month of the year, and like always, it has gone by way too fast.  Here are some of our pre-Christmas activities.

At the beginning of December we had our Ward Christmas Party, and of course, Santa was there!

Mitchell had no problem with him and plopped right down on his lap and quickly asked for a third thumb to suck on, for variety.  Chloe wanted nothing to do with him and her feet became instantly glued to the floor when it was her turn in line. 

She wouldn't sit on Santa's lap, but she happily agreed to sing in the children's choir for the program.... Which seems less scary and more fun?  Asking a jolly  man for free presents, or getting up in front of lots of people and singing, getting nothing?  Go figure.....

On our way back home, we stopped to see Santa again at our local community center and the only way Chloe would get near the Big Man was with us..... the umbrella she is asking for this year may not make it to our house if she won't even look at him.  (I guess I should be glad she is only asking for an umbrella- a few kids in front of us were asking for iPods, cell phones and laptops.)

In our holiday shopping, we went to Ikea and Mitch shared a frozen yogurt with me.

He quickly learned how to stick out his tongue and lick the tasty treat, but then couldn't keep his tongue in his mouth for the rest of the day (see below).

Ben has been dying to buy the kids matching long underwear and he did it this year!  (They come complete with trap doors in the back).

There's the tongue.......

Like most the country, we have received our fair share of cold weather this last week.  We have all been enjoying the snow.

Cold weather cheeks!

For FHE one night, Chloe "played" us all some Christmas songs on the piano and even sang too. 

Sledding down our drive way (the only time it's GOOD to have a sloped driveway.....)

Mitch even joined in on the snow fun.  I somehow squeezed him into his 3-6 month snow suit from last winter. 

Here he is in it last year.  The suit was much bigger then (or was he a lot smaller then?  Only a few pounds smaller, actually).

Then off we headed to go sledding!

It was snowing really hard yesterday and with the remaining daylight, we headed over to the local elementary school to sled down a small hill.

Chloe & Ben at the top of the hill.

Chloe, our little outdoors girl, who cannot feel the cold, LOVED this activity.

Chloe with the Christmas Tree she made at preschool- the entire thing is made out of candy and sugary treats.

Happy December to all!

Eye Doctor, Part 2

Yesterday was our second trip to the Eye Doctor, this time to the pediatric ophthalmologist!  With an ophthalmologist being a medical doctor, the one that my pediatrician had recommended was covered by our insurance.  Hooray!

And what a difference- we could tell this place was geared for children as soon as we walked in the door!  There was a fish tank and TV with a movie playing in the waiting room, and the exam rooms were fabulous!  There were all sorts of cool lights and sound making toys that the doctor and the assistants used to get Chloe to look where they wanted her to while they ran the different tests.  The doctor was amazing.  He talked to Chloe non stop during the exam, asking her every kid question in the book- "Do you like pink or purple?"  "Rain or snow?"  "Do you have a dog?"  "Do you have a brother?"  He made her so comfortable and at ease (and he was quite entertaining for us, too).  Chloe felt so comfortable with him that when he asked her about Mitchell she quickly spoke up and said, "Yeah, he hits me sometimes too."

The results from all the tests were conclusive with what the optometrist had found last week- Chloe has amblyopia in her right eye, which is the fancy word for "lazy eye."  It simply means that there is poor vision in the eye that did not develop normal sight during early childhood.  Lucky for us, we are still in early childhood and the eye and her vision are not fully developed yet, so it can be corrected.  This condition is very common, affecting 2 or 3 out of every 100 people and is best corrected during infancy or early childhood.  We are so glad we have a wonderful pediatrician who detected a problem and sent us in to have it checked, because after the first nine years of life, the visual system is usually fully developed and usually cannot be changed.

It was very interesting to learn about amblyopia.  It is caused by any condition that affects normal use of the eyes and visual development.  It may be inherited, which is probably the case with Chloe.  My mom had amblyopia (among other things) and Ben had it as well.  Chloe really didn't stand a chance!  There are 3 different types of amblyopia.  Ben had one of them- Strabismus (misaligned eyes), another is Cloudiness in the eye tissues, and the third one, which Chloe has, is Unequal Focus/Refractive Error.  This is when one eye is out of focus because it is more nearsighted, farsighted or astigmatic than the other.  The unfocused eye "turns off" and becomes amblyopic (lazy).  The eye can look normal (which Chloe's do- they are not crossed or wandering) but her bad eye has poor vision.  This is the most difficult type of amblyopia to detect since the child appears to have normal vision when both eyes are open.  Again, we are very fortunate to have our pediatrician's office detect a problem, because we had no idea she couldn't see out of one eye.  She has never complained about it because she simply just stopped using or focusing out of her bad eye because she can't see hardly at all out of it.  She basically just uses her "good eye" and as long as she can see out of that, she had no reason to complain.  I can't imagine not being able to see out of just one eye, but many people in my family do it and I guess it is just something you get used to (or it's just always been that way and that's all you know).

Her treatment, for now, is to wear glasses.  The doctor wants her to wear glasses for a month or two, then come back and see him to see if the weak eye has strengthened at all.  Her good eye will have no prescription in the lens- it will just be plain glass.  Depending on the outcome of that, we will then try patching the good eye to force her to use the weak eye to strengthen it.

Right now, she seems excited to wear glasses.  I told her on the way home all of the people we know who wear glasses (pretty much every aunt and uncle and grandparent she has).  After getting and being forced to wear the glasses all day, we'll see how excited she is then.....

As her mom, and her being my first baby, the thought of her wearing glasses was hard to take at first.  I first started wearing glasses in 6th grade and I hated them.  They were ugly and I felt ugly.  I was so glad when I was able to start wearing contact lenses.  I am glad that she is young enough to not feel self conscious about her appearance, but it is still hard for me because of the bad association I had with my glasses.  (I hated how I looked in glasses so much that as soon as I was able to wear contacts, I NEVER wore my glasses again, never.  To this day, I do not even own a pair of glasses.) 

I will not pass on my insecurities to her, but I am also sad because glasses will change her appearance and look.  This is my baby!  She is already growing up so fast and this will only speed up the process.  I have no doubt that she will look adorable in glasses (I am on a mission to find the cutest glasses in Washington State- no Harry Potter or Dwight Schrute frames for her), but she just won't look the same.  Change has always been hard for me, and now this change will affect our little Chloe.

  I also worry that she will not want to wear her glasses not because of how she looks, but just because she doesn't want something on her face.  It might just be another thing we have to fight with her to do (we are struggling with obedience as it is).  That thought alone is exhausting.  Reward charts and positive reinforcement may be coming our way......    

But as long as she keeps this beautiful smile, we will be okay!

Here's to our new step in life- glasses and fighting bad vision genes! :)