Photography givaway

I am having an exciting giveaway over at my photography blog!!! Click the logo below to go check it out and enter to win.

Dr. Williamson

Rhylan had her yearly eye exam today. Riley, oh I mean Dr Williamson, did a great job on the exam. Rhylan did very well and was extra cooperative. The Dr said she is seeing great and has healthy eyes... Here she is waiting so patiently.
Here is Rhylan using Riley's binocular indirect ophthalmascope to make sure his retina is intact and no peripheral holes or tears.
Now Daddy's turn.... You can't really see from this view but he is getting an upside down and reverse view of the inside back part of Rhylan's eye (aka neurosensory retina).


Rhylan checking her visual acuity through the phoropter.
What a good patient!
Now for the two drops of tropicamide.... to help daddy dilate Rhylan's eye so her pupil gets bigger... What a brave girl.... (which kind of stings).
Performing a gross anterior segment check because Rhylan is too petite to sit behind the Slit Lamp.
Check out Rhylan's near point convergence abilities.... to the nose....



Daddy filling out the electronic medical record on the computer.
Palpating the globes... checking for pressure.


What good peripheral vision you have...
Yep... great local and global stereopsis (ability to see in 3-D).




Thanks Rhylan for a great exam! And thanks Riley for all the photo commentary.

The Destroyer

Gracin is so messy!!! It is a miracle that my house ever is clean... well it actually never is. Not every room simultaneously anyways. When I get a room clean and move on to the next, Gracin will mess up the room I just cleaned. These pictures are just a few of the places the Destroyer attacks.

He can clear my books off the shelf in my bedroom. He can empty the DVD shelf multiple times, and stomp on the pile.He can take one or all the couch cushions off the couches, throw the couch pillows on the floor, knock over the computer chair, and take a basket of clean laundry and throw it from wall to wall. Here he is running through the fresh mess! Meal times are just as bad! This is a typical breakfast.

You should see the floor, I sweep 3 times a day and mop all the time so my socks don't stick to the floor. His bowl of cereal usually ends up on the floor, he chucks his drink at every meal, cat food is usually thrown across the kitchen floor, and the cat's water is constantly being dumped out. We are really working on this but he is so stubborn. But look at that sweet face, I can't stay upset at him for long.
Here he is "resting" waiting for me to clean something else, so he can destroy again!!

dreaming of snowflakes

Last week it snowed again!! Rhylan got all cozy in a basket of clean towels and watched it come down from our front window.

Rhylan loves to help

Saturday I had a bunch of laundry to hang up. I asked Rhylan if she wanted to help me. And she said "ah-course!!" That's her answer to everything lately:) I handed her some hangers and to my surprise she knew just what to do!! I was so impressed. Too bad for her that I know she can do laundry now!! She has been getting more chores as she gets more older and able. One thing she likes to do is find a laundry basket, open the dryer, unload the dryer, and bring the basket to the living room all by herself. I guess I can add hang up the shirts to that list!!




Then later that night when I was cooking dinner, Rhylan said she wanted to help clean something. I handed her a squirt bottle and a rag and said "do you want to clean the windows?"--"Ah-course!!" After each window was sparkling she would say okie-dokie! I thought it was so cute and very helpful. This must be how it is possible to have a bunch of kids, the older ones start helping out:)

Gracin goes to Nursery

Gracin turned 18 months yesterday, so that means NURSERY!! I have taken him a couple times when I couldn't handle playing in the hall anymore. I have always stayed in there with him since he wasn't officially old enough, but today was his big day.

I opened the nursery door and he walked himself right in and didn't look back. During Sunday School we could hear crying and screaming coming from the nursery room, but it never sounded like Gracin. Then one of his teachers brought him to me, he needed a diaper change. I got to ask her how he was doing, she said "he's doing great, he didn't even want to leave to get his diaper changed." I guess he was having a lot of fun in there. After I changed his diaper, he ran back to the nursery door, I opened if for him and again, he ran in with out looking back.

After church, when Riley went to pick him up, Gracin started getting sad and whining, he wanted to stay!! They said he did great, he just kind of did his own thing and played. I guess he was stacking chairs!--He's pretty strong.

**caution construction zone**

This was another sensory table day! I got two bags of these river rocks from the dollar store. Mix that with tractors and trains and the kids figured it out by themselves. Gracin instantly started loading train cars with rocks. He really liked this activity. Yes he did throw rocks around the kitchen when I wasn't looking but it was EASY clean up. And yes, he tasted every rock but they were large enough not to swallow. Rhylan liked loading up the dump truck and dumping it into the other side of the table. I also got out some "scoops" to help load the trucks and trains. We may do this for days and days.

I found a new favorite blog!!

http://www.meckmom.com/

Go check it out if you have a hard time organizing your life, or just love great ideas. I stumbled upon this idea this morning when I was searching for new chart ideas.

Link: http://www.meckmom.com/2006/02/27/help-your-kids-clean-their-room-on-their-own/
The sticker chart idea is fun but it's getting old over here. I thought Rhylan would like to move these pieces over when she completed each task. She needs a visual reminder I think.

You can download her squares. I added a few and changed a few around and made 3 charts!!!
1. Clean your toy room chart
2. Clean you bedroom chart
3. Getting ready for the day chart.
This is perfect, I'll let you know how it works but I predict happiness!

"clean" mud

Last week we tried another sensory table idea. This is one my sister said she thought was really great. WE ARE NEVER DOING IT AGAIN!! The word "clean" is not the right word, I am sure real mud would have been much easier to clean up. I was cleaned up the mess for hours, and into the next day!!--However the kids had a lot of fun.

First you have to tare up a roll of tissue paper. Rhylan thought it was funny that I was actually letting her do this. Gracin kept taking our hard work and throwing it on the ground and at Rhylan. It was pretty funny. After each throw he would laugh really hard at himself. Around our house we call him THE DESTROYER. I'll post more about that later but I'm sure you can guess why. I had to finally put him in his high chair to add the soap and water to the mix because he couldn't help but throw toilet paper on the floor.

At first Rhylan didn't want to touch the mud, she eventually did but wasn't really into it. Gracin loved squishing it, filling cups, and throwing it all over the kitchen. I tried to stop him but that is impossible, the Destroyer must destroy!! Also, I hated stopping him having so much fun, what else was he supposed to do? But I didn't really think about how I would clean this up. Oh and Gracin rubbed his eyes and mouth... with soapy TP!! That ended the fun real quick.








The ground was getting really slippery so I lined it with towels. Bad idea, I had to shake the towels rid of the soggy TP so it wouldn't end up in the washer. I thought I could get a wet rag and just wipe up the mess, wrong. The TP was mixed with soap shavings and so it was sticky and soapy. It would not just wipe up. Wet TP is kind of invisible, the next day I found pieces of dried soapy TP on every surface of the kitchen (walls, doors, windows, highchair, table, floor, cabinets, clothes, towels) And the sensory table itself was so sticky and hard to clean. I couldn't put the mess down the sink!! Oh I hated cleaning up this mess. As I said, we are never going to do it again.