Catching up on PICTURES!!!

OK, so instead of editing old posts, I'll just catch up on pictures in one post and tell you what each picture is.

Hunter during his Christmas program.
Hunter's class during the Christmas program.

The second infant class at the Christmas Program (Rudolph song).

The 18-month to 2-year-old class at the Christmas Program (Jingle Bells).

I think this picture was taken on the way home that night, or maybe on the way back to the school for the program. He was sleepy!

And if you look really close in the valleys on the roof, you'll see the very small amount of snow we got a couple of weeks ago. I saw pictures in Magnolia and they got a couple of inches - just a little north of us! We got jipped!!

And some cute pictures of kisses...Daddy kissing Hunter, Hunter kissing Daddy and Hunter kissing Jake. So sweet!

No videos yet although I did edit them last night. They are still too large to email to myself at work so that I can upload them. Our home computer crashes every time we try to upload something onto the internet...oh well. Maybe over the holiday I will get some videos posted. The Christmas Program ones are just awesome!!

"The optimist looks at the world through rose-tinted spectacles." ~ English proverb

Spectacles...another word for glasses. I am proud to say that Hunter's Daddy and I decided that Hunter should see a pediatric opthamologist, mainly because of Mommy's horrible vision problems and coke bottle glasses at the age of 5. (They made glasses a lot bigger and thicker back in those days.) Hunter also was showing some potential signs that he wasn't seeing perfectly, although really, you would never guess his eyes were the problem. We thought his clumsiness and multiple falls might be due to balance problems from his ears - the doctor even said that before he looked at Hunter's eyes on Monday: that falls are usually due to balance issues not vision issues.

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He ate his words shortly after that. For those wondering how a doctor checks an 18-month-old's eyes, they dilate the pupils and then shine a light into the eye at different angles to see how it reflects on the retina. This will show the doctor whether the child's eye shape is normal or abnormal (called astigmatism). Hunter has similar amounts of astigmatism in both eyes, indicating he is nearsighted. For those of you who know the numbers, he's a -6.5 in each eye. In comparison, I believe before I had my surgery, I was a -11 in one eye (much more severe) and -6 in the other.

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Anyway, my boy needs glasses, to say the least!! We will be checking out some frames this weekend to make sure we like the options they have given us. The frames I almost ordered are supposed to be warranted for 2 years (supposedly unbreakable) and the lenses are warranted for a year. It's almost as if they think babies will break glasses!! Shocking!! :)

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We have a couple of friends/family who have had babies in glasses. They say that once they put the glasses on and realize that they weren't seeing things the right way, they aren't as prone to want to take them off. I'm not as confident of that yet - I have to see it to believe it!!

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If you know of anyone else who has been in this situation, especially at this young of an age, please point me to them as I'm sure I will have questions if/when he starts pulling them off and refusing the wear them. And here you thought I was going to be completely optimistic about this based on the title of this blog! Ha!!

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But honestly, we are very happy that we took him in to have this checked out. Some future developmental milestones may have been slowed due to vision impairment and we may have come up with other excuses for slowness in certain areas. I guess it is actually a good thing that my eyes are so bad because it made me just assume that his would be bad too. Daddy's eyes are perfect, and we were really hoping that Hunter got that gene, especially when we saw that Hunter's eye color is green like his Daddy's. As my cousin told me yesterday in an email, "...this is how God made them & us and we will be better parents and more sensitive to it by going through it ourselves."

What a week!

First of all, Hunter got to see snow for the first time in his life. Yes, it snowed in Houston...of course, all he got to see and feel were the few tiny flakes that hit his face as I carried him to the car after school. It had stopped by the time we got home, so there was no accumulation except in the valleys on the rooftops. It did start again later that night (this was Wednesday night, 12/10) but he was already in bed. The roof was pretty much covered!! It was pretty exciting for the kid trapped inside this adult body.

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Hunter also "met" Santa last Saturday. He would have nothing to do with Santa...poor guy. Thankfully, this was at my friend, Andrea's, work place, so we hadn't stood in line at the mall forever or anything like that. She works for an interior design firm and they were holding a Christmas open house with Santa. We were the last family there, so the photographer offered to try to photoshop Hunter into a pic with Santa. You won't believe the results - it really looks like he's sitting on Santa's lap! Will post the picture this weekend, hopefully!

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Next, I started Weight Watchers this week, which might sound silly, but it helps me to watch what I'm eating instead of not caring! Hopefully it will continue to be a motivator. It's kinda fun actually, but don't tell anyone I said that. :)

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Last but not least, and I don't have the pictures or videos yet, but Hunter participated in his first Christmas Program last night at Kids R Kids. My goodness, it exceeded my expectations more than you could believe!!! I mean really, he's 18 months old and he's the oldest in his class. I thought surely they would all be crying or they would see parents in the audience and run off the stage to them. NOT SO!!!

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The first class was the babies, and they were so cute! Dressed as angels and all being held or sitting in their infant carriers. They just sat there and looked cute. The next class is the older infants, and they did Rudolf. Two were dressed and Santa and Mrs. Claus, and one as Rudolf, with the rest as reindeer. Again, just looking cute and some posing for the cameras.

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Next and most important was the 12-18 month class, Hunter's. Even though their class was the smallest (only 4 of them showed up) and their outfits the simplest (shirts with NOEL), it was still entertaining. They stood up there swaying with the music. They were supposed to be holding hands I think, so Hunter and the little guy next to him kept trying to hold hands at different times, or the little guy would start playing with Hunter glitter letters on his shirt. I can't wait to get the video posted - you'll love it!! Hunter never did see us in the crowd, I don't think. I was shocked at how well behaved all of them were, and when we saw him afterward, he seemed so proud of himself!!

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The last class in his part of the program was the true toddler class, and they did jingle bells and as soon as the music came on, they just came to life! It was awesome! Some were clapping, some dancing, some bobbing. Most of these kids were in Hunter's class when he first started at this KRK, so it was almost as much fun watching them as it was watching my own son. Very cute!

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We're going to a wedding this weekend, so I'm sure we'll have more pictures and more stories to tell. I will do my best to post pictures and videos once we get back in town. Have a good one!!