Just a small moment

First let me say, please pardon any missing I's as my key has fallen off and I can't get it back on.

Anyways.

I went to Kmart today, to buy Christmas presents actually, lol. I went to escape the craziness that has become my house with 2 little boys who are energizer bunnies and a sweet little girl who insists she needs constant stimulation from mom only. Oh my sweet children, how I love them.  Anyways.... again..


I went to Kmart today, just me and Gem. As I walked from my car, through the parking lot, I noticed a woman and a boy in front of me. As we got closer to the store, I caught up with them a bit and I could tell something was off with the boy. As I walked through the store, I kept running into them, like I was inadvertently following them. I'm a people watcher. I love to just sit and watch people. When I get caught it's all very awkward, but... I dunno, there's something so serene about watching people go about their life.

Anyway, as I was walking behind this mother and her son a few times,  the love of that mother just permeated off of her, it was amazing actually. She loved her son so much, you could feel it just being next to her.

I got caught up in my shopping at this point and then suddenly I turned to find this little boy staring intently at Gemma with a slight smile on his face, his fingers twitching like Jamesen's do when he's excited. He never once looked at me, but he was positively giddy while looking at her. He asked me her age, asked to see her face (she was facing in and looking the other direction) and it was just so cute to spend this one little moment with this autistic boy, knowing that he was autistic (I dunno, I could just tell...) and having him interact with me. He asked me a few more questions and then said "She's very beautiful. Thank you for sharing her with me." and then went off and got excited about the toys surrounding him.

I turned after that to go check out because I was finished shopping and don't you know who should come up behind me in line? Of course it was them. I had wanted to ask his mother if he was autistic, but I didn't want to ask in front of him. I didn't want him to feel like it was that obvious that he was different. When they got in line behind me, he walked past to go look at something that had caught his eye and so I asked her if he was. She said yes and of course we sat there for a moment talking about our special little boys and how sweet and loving they are.

I felt very privileged to have that boy interact with me. If he's normally like Jamesen, he hates people and refuses to speak to strangers. I didn't start the conversation at all, it was all Gemma. Gemma's sweet little spirit that drew him in and let me have that one little moment in time with such a special little boy.

I've been sad and worried about my children lately. Sad of everything they'll have to do to get passed what's set in front of them. Having this little moment lifted my spirits and reminded me what beautiful children I have. What amazing children I have. And even if they never fully overcome their setbacks, they're still perfect. It won't be the end of the world. I cherish them so much. It's hard, but I'm so blessed to have them. They're so precious to me.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that little moment with you. No matter what setbacks you're facing, no matter what you're going through and how hard it is, life is beautiful. Just remember to stop and smell the roses. Count your blessings. Take a picture with your family, just how they are right now because they won't be like that for long. Life is so beautiful. Don't lose it. Cherish everything in it. It may be hard now, but tomorrow is another day. The sun will continue to shine and life will go on.

Another eye appointment and an awesome vacation!

We had Gemma's eye appointment with the pediatric ophthalmologist today.  It was a LONG day! We had to leave early because it takes 2 hours to get there and the appointment was at 850 in the morning. We get there and check in and the receptionist told us that our referral for them wasn't in and without it we would be charged $300. This was really annoying because I didn't even make the appointment! It was made for me and I got 3 days notice. While we were in North Carolina (more on that further down), our phones weren't working properly (we didn't have very good reception) and there was a packet I was supposed to pick up and bring with me but didn't get the message.

Anyways, we finally got all fixed after what felt like a million back and forth phone calls and about an hour. Poor boys. They were woken up early, forced to sit in their carseats for 2 hours and then cooped up in a waiting room for another before we finally got back. They were being CRAZY! We ended up being there for almost 5 hours. Oi! Add on the 2 hours drive home... those boys were nuts by the end! I must remember to not forget to change out the batteries in the leapsters again!

Sorry, tangent. Her eyes are doing well. They dilate well and the pupils are the same size, but she's favoring her right eye (the non ptosis eye) so her left eye is starting to drift slightly a bit. The pressure of her eyelid on her eye is also causing the shape to change which is an astigmatism. We also went over the surgery stuff. when they do the surgery, they hook the top of the lid to the eyebrow since the muscle is under developed and can't lift her lid on it's own. At this age, they would insert a metal rod which the body tends to reject and it would typically need to be redone a few more times before she as three. If we can wait until three the procedure is different...they can take a certain tissue (can't remember what the doc specifically said) from her thigh and insert that instead which usually isn't rejected, lasts longer and usually doesn't need to be redone. What they said is if they can keep her vision good, then we'll wait until three. We'll be going back every 3 months to check on the astigmatism to see if it's getting worse. 


For now, we're putting a patch on her right eye half an hour each day to force her to use her left eye and try to catch it back up and keep it from drifting. We'll go back in October to see how things are going. If the patching isn't helping, it will be bumped up to an entire hour a day and she'll possibly need glasses.

That's all for now... now on to the good stuff!!

We went on a week vacation to North carolina  to visit a dear friend of mine and Sabe's brother's family.  We left early in the morning on Thursday with a 6.5 hour drive ahead of us. We were expecting Gemma to not do well in the car and need a lot of stops, but were pleasantly surprised when she actually did really well. We got to my friend Candace's house 3 hours earlier than we were expecting! The boys absolutely loved  Candace and her family. We went to the pool and got the North Carolina zoo under our belts while we were with them. We had so much fun! 


We then left early Sunday with a 4.5 hour drive ahead of us to make it to Sabe's brother's house. They have a new baby that is only 2 weeks older than Gemma. It was fun having two babies in the house. It actually really worked out since Dorothy and I were both in sync with the baby stuff. Everybody understood when it was time for them to eat and everybody was on beat with it. It was great! 


The boys absolutely loved playing with their cousin Kahlan. She was so cute with the boys. I was worried she wouldn't want to play with them since they were so much younger, but she had a lot of fun with them as well! It was great to see cousins getting a long so well and to have my boys loved by family members since they've not gotten the same love from some of my siblings. The boys are still asking to go see them and keep begging to see the pics of our trip. 


We went to the beach while we were with them. Oh man did the boys love it. I wish we lived by the beach so we could go more often. The joy on their face was amazing and the speech coming from both of them about it has been even more so. 


It ended all too quickly and Thursday was upon us once again. We left early with a 10 hour drive ahead of us. Our trip home took us right through Columbia, South Carolina where there is a zoo and we just couldn't resist getting another zoo under our belts. Our plan was to drive the 5 hours to the zoo, spend a few hours at the zoo and then drive the other 5 hours home. The drive to the zoo went smoothly and while the zoo was little (and hot) it had some great animals and we had a lot of fun! We got there 2 hours ahead of schedule and ended up getting finished with the zoo earlier than expected because it was small. Gemma and Jamesen fell asleep so we hit the road and made a mad dash towards home, trying to get as far as we could before she woke up. 

We made it about 2.5 hours in before we had to stop for dinner.  We got back in the car and it was all down hill from there. "Instamad" from Gemma occurred. Her screaming upset Jamesen and so he was crying too. It was pretty crazy! And then the rain started. I had to slow way down because there wasn't much visibility. It was such a relief when we made it back home, let me tell you! Gary greeted us with tons of loves. She was so happy we were back! 


If you want to see pics from our trip, here's the album on facebook.

 

We had lots of fun! We've also found that our front yard is FULL of tiny itty bitty baby frogs! The boys love hunting them out!

 

Anyways, that's all for now.