Evelyn is Two

Today Evelyn turned Two!

Happy Birthday Big Girl!

It has been a wirlwin couple of days with all the holiday's, but in the middle of all the crazyiness...Evelyn turned two.

I can't believe how fast she is growing up!

Evelyn had a doctor's visit right before Christmas and here are her stats:

Weight: 22 lbs
Height: 31 3/4 ins

So in the last six months Evelyn has grown 1 inch and gained 2 lbs. This doesn't sound like much, but the doctor says she's fine. She's just my little peanut.

Over the last month or so Evelyn done alot:

- moved into 18-24 month clothing
- shoe size changed, now wearing mostly size 5 toddler shoes
- repeat the alphabet and can say most of them in order without help
- repeat numbers, colors, and just about any word
- can count to 10 with prompting
- can jump with two feet off the ground (sometimes)
- listens to mommy and daddy and usually does what is asked
- climbed out of her crib - only once, so we removed her crib bumpers
- learned that playing with playdough and coloring can be alot of fun
- finally learing to play by herself (only a little and for short time periods)

I'm sure I am forgetting something, but they change so fast and learn new things almost daily.

Evelyns' eye is officially back to normal. Cross your fingers that we will go along time before it happens again.

Christmas with the Jones'

This year we celebrated Christmas with the Jones Family on Tuesday before Christmas. Here are some pictures of our first Christmas celebration of the year!

2 Year Photo Shoot

In November, we had our best friend and favorite photographer Lori Jackson photograph our family. At the top of this blog, I have created a slideshow of our photo shoot.

Thank you so much Lori Jackson for a great photo experience and taking amazing photos of our family.

If you need photos taken of your family, wedding, or anything, please check out Lori. For more details visit http://www.lorijacksonphotography.com/. You can also find her on Facebook and follower her on Twitter.

Nana's Birthday Party

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, we also celebrated Evelyn's great grandma's...Nana's...birthday. Here are some photes of the birthday dinner.

Bingo

One Thanksgiving tradition on my moms side of the family is a game of bingo with lots and lots of prizes. Below are some pictures of our bingo night!

Evelyn playing with a new keyboard

Daniel wins the adult cover all prize

Evelyn wins the child cover all prize

Charles and Karen calling out the numbers

Evelyn checking out what everyone won

Thanksgiving 2009

This year for Thanksgiving, we went to Hilton Head Island to visit my mom's side of the family. We all gathered at Aunt Terri's house for the day. Here are some pictures from the afternoon.

tired and full bellies

Evelyn and Melissa playing phones together

Playing with Playdough

Looked like fun so others joined us

Aunt Terri's bulldozer

Eye Update # 1

So today we went to an eye specialist and had Evelyn's eye checked out. Here is what we learned:

It is infact Cranial Nerve VI Palsy. (So the doctor in Jan. was right)

Basically Evelyn has a weak six nerve. According to the doctor, the six nerve already travels a crazy track in the brain (she actually said that it was a poor design). So due to it being weak, several things can cause the eye to cross because the six nerve moves the eye laterally to the outside part of the eye. Things such as any sickness (virus, cold, GI infection, etc), any minor bump to the head (which happens all the time with toddlers), and many other factors. The doctor seems to think that sickness is triggering Evelyn's six nerve. So in that case it become extremely weak and the muscles in the inner part of her eye pull the eye to the center. They over power the six nerve. Alot of this we already knew, but this doctor explained it much better.

So what did we learn that is new......

* This will probably happen...actually it will continue to happen (don't know how often and how long)
* Sickness will trigger the eye.
* We need to patch the good eye until the bad eye recovers...we patch the good eye so the bad eye gets exercise. If not, the brain will give up sending signals to the bad eye and she will loose the ability to use the eye.
* Evelyn's vision was checked and she can see fine. So that is a relief.
* Surgery is a very likely possibility in the future. Not now because she is too young and still developing. If we did it now, it wouldn't work. So, we have to wait and see.

So for the next six weeks we will patch the eye and hope it goes away. Evelyn sees the doctor on Dec 30 to check her progression.

It looks like this is something we can handle with just a little patching when the eye crosses and maybe some surgery to correct the eye when she is older.

Thank you for all your prayers and support!