Eyes

Liam's first birthday!
You can tell he wants to blow out the candle.

Enjoying his first taste of Cool Whip.

His first Piano!

We had to go to Duke today for Liam's eye exam. I always despise going because we are literally gone for 10 hours! It's a 2 1/2 hour drive there and we spend at least 2 1/2 hours at the Dr. Today was no exception but at least they weren't running too far behind. The last time we were there we spent close to 4 hours at the Dr and most of it was waiting time!

The great news is Liam's retinas and optic nerves still look wonderful! YEA! And the weird, good news...the fact that Liam's right eye is turning in is a good thing (I know, strange, huh?). Dr Freedman said that it means his eyes and brain are trying to work together and children who are blind don't have eyes turning in and going cross eyed. We know Liam isn't blind- his vision has improved over the last several months and he clearly sees certain things. Dr. Freedman reiterated what we have heard numerous times and that is that when the body and muscles start working properly and coordination and function comes along the brain and eyes will follow. So- we continue to work with Liam and help him to grow and develop. She did say he is slightly near sighted and when he is "seeing" better she will fit him for glasses.

Please pray that his development will continue in a positive manner allowing Liam's brain to communicate properly with his eyes so he can "see". Part of his head control issue is motivation. Because things aren't interesting to him yet- he doesn't care to look up. He can do it (he looks up at his light box wonderfully) and hold his head up for a time but with proper motivation he will/can get better.

And I have to brag on my little man and praise his Pt's, Cathy and Carla. Liam tried 3 times this week to roll from his back to his belly (he almost had it). That is huge! Why? because he has never lifted his legs and hiney off the floor while on his back before this past week! So he finally gets them off the floor all by hisslef and he tried to roll over.

Liam is also purposefully rolling onto his tummy (with help or from his side)and trying to get his arms out from under him when he does. This is huge because before two weeks ago he would just let them lay there.

Liam transfered a toy twice from his right hand to his left. I don't know how he did it because I didn't see it!! I put the toy in his right hand and twice when I went back to check on him it was in his left. Awesome!

Liam is manipulating his fingers more and trying to get them individually in his mouth.

Liam is looser with his legs and moving them more fluidly than ever before. When he is on his tummy he will now pull his legs all the way up underneath him and squirm around.

All these positive steps may seem small but for Liam they are huge and they all have come together for him within the last two weeks! I think the ABM therapy in VA showed Liam a lot about his body and what he CAN do with it. These changes all happened within the last two weeks after his ABM therapy!

We are off to VA again on Thursday and will be gone for 4 days this time allowing Liam to get in 8 sessions. Liam had 6 on our first trip so I am praying for more subtle but amazing changes in the weeks to come!

Because my blog isn't ALL about Liam... lol...

Shawn and I noticed warped boards in our kitchen and we have a few from the previous owner anyway so I didn't think much of them. But Shawn thought they were new and then I realized they were too. I chalked it up to the problem we had with the dishwasher when both of us were out of town. Then the next day we noticed they were worse. Still thinking that it was from the previous problem with the dishwasher since the floor boards are dry, I dismissed it again. I finally realized we had a big problem when our bathroom (that is behind our dining room) and has brand new flooring in it was buckling. I freaked. This meant the water had spread across the kitchen, the dining room and into the bathroom through the subfloor and kept the top of the floor dry allowing the damage to go unnoticed! Why me??? My dad and I laid the bathroom floor ourselves....It needs to be fixed and now the dining room floor which runs through the office either needs to be replaced or if possible, sanded down and resealed.

On a bright note- the water damage was caused by a minor problem... a leak from the valve under the sink and a leak from the drain under the house. The plumber should come toorrow to fix it. I hope the bill is minor too. ;-)