Jumping in to 2010

Wow! I have really been out of the blogging world for a while. I just sort of lost my mojo so to speak when it came to chronicling life at the Pritchard house. So a brief account of our Christmas is in order. We had a rather strange Christmas this year. Evan and Andy made a trip to the ER on Christmas Eve. Evan spent his Christmas diagnosed with RSV and walking pneumonia. So the usual two places we go on Christmas ended up being 0 places. It was strange to me not seeing any of my extended family. I sometimes gripe about going all over the place, but I didn't see how blessed I really am to have my family to go to until I wasn't able. The Lord knows how to put things in perspective for a person. On a side note though, it was very relaxing staying at home with Andy and the kids. I don't think we made it out of our pjs until late in the afternoon. A lazy day for sure.

Tristan just turned the big "8" yesterday, and I can barely believe how big she is. We watched the Hannah Montana movie tonight, and she actually told me that she thought the character "Travis" was cute. WHAT???? I said, "Well, you are eight years old and don't have time to think about stuff like that" Why does that part have to get here so fast? Here she is in front of our annual birthday tree picture. My cousin gave me this idea, and I love it. We have used it every year. We mark her growth each year with a picture in front of her tree.

We are looking forward to 2010, and the many things that it will bring. Andy and I will be discussing in the near future the plans for Ty's eye surgery. This will be the "cosmetic" one so to speak. He will have his lid lifted so that it doesn't droop anymore. We are not too sure when this will take place, maybe on spring break or in the summer. Ty is adjusting to Kindergarten quite well. He and his teacher are quite the buddies The kids are doing well in school. Evan likes his school too, and is talking more and more each day. I love this job of parenting. It is so hard, but so rewarding. Evan may be the most challenging and fearless child yet. I will leave this post with a little story about what little boys recovering from RSV and walking pneumonia do when they have been stuck in the house for a few days.

Evan: I love my new ball pit from Santa, and my slide from Gramps and Mimi. I wonder where

mom is at?

Me: What is that child into now?

Evan: I think I can go for it. Ready! Set! Jump!!!

Me: EVAN JOSEPH PRITCHARD!!!

Evan: WooHoo!!!!

Me: Oh my child, you just gave me a heart attack!

Evan: I sure looked cute doing it though didn't I?

Ya'll have a Happy New Year!!! Until next time in 2010

Time Marches On!

Once again, I am behind on my blogging efforts. School is officially in full swing, but somehow I am not. My heart longs for those lazy days of summer, but fall is quickly approaching. Time marches on whether I want it to or not.

So the new school year has begun. Tristan started 2nd grade with Mrs. Condry, and Ty started Kindergarten with Mrs. Sluss. The greatest thing for the kids this year is that even though 2nd grade is supposed to be upstairs and K-1st downstairs, Tristan's class didn't have enough classrooms to be upstairs. So her classroom is directly across the hallway from Ty's classroom. They love being able to see each other throughout the day. Ty's first day of Kindergarten was a rough day. He cried when we left him. It was so hard to do. Andy says it was because I was the only mom with a camera, and I embarrassed him. I told him, "Are you kidding me? What mother doesn't take pictures of their kids first day of Kindergarten?" He was fine after we left, and wound up loving it. He loves his teacher, and has been making friends fast. He has already had a timeout for talking. He must get that from Andy;)

Tristan did well as I expected her to. As for Evan, he once again thinks he is an only child! Here they are on their first day

Not only did school start, but on August 27-28 Andy, Ty, and I headed to New York for another laser treatment. This trip also had a few extras. Ty's laser doctor suggested we meet up with a plastic surgeon/dentist for advice on Ty's increasing lip size and his teeth. The information we received was great. It was kind of overwhelming, but most information regarding Ty's condition is. So I will try to break it down for you the best I can. Ty's Sturge-Weber Syndrome and his facial port wine stain have caused excess bone and tissue growth in his cheek and jaw. His jaw is growing longer vertically on the right side, and thus it is pushing his teeth out. His lip is also growing because of the excess tissue and blood flow from the birthmark. The suggestion from the doctor on how to treat this. We wait! Surprise! we haven't heard that one before. No, really he wants to wait a few years for Ty's permanent teeth to totally develop, and then we go from there. In the meantime, sometime in the future Ty will see a world renown orthodontist in NYC in order to possibly fit his jaw with a plate to restrict the overgrowth. Then we will talk about tackling the overgrowth of his lip by doing a lip reduction surgery. This is all in the future, but for sure what will happen at some point in time. It was good information to learn.

The most exciting information was that the dentist/plastic surgeon was very concerned with the droopiness of Ty's left eye. He wanted to know why we had not had it lifted. I just flat out told him that I had never really thought of it. I have been so concerned with the functional part of the eyes and getting the prosthesis to fit right that I never gave one thought to the look of the overall eye. So right then he gets on the phone and sets us up with a pediatric ophthalmic plastic surgeon. We met with him and immediately loved him. He is a big Yankees fan, and showed Ty all of his Yankee memorabilia. He told us that he could basically do an eyelid tuck and make Ty's eye look normal like the other one. He proceeded to tell us about how he would do the surgery. Then he told us that he wanted to make sure the muscle was working correctly. He said that he could put a dilating drop in Ty's artificial eye, and if the muscle was in working order then the drop would cause it to contract. This would in turn cause the eye lid to raise as if the surgery had already been performed. So it basically would give us a little "sneak peak" as to what Ty would look like after surgery. WOW! it worked. The doctor was excited that the muscle is still good. He really wants to do the surgery for Ty. We are on board too, and hopefully will schedule it for this summer. It is day surgery, but then he would have to see him the next day, and then a week later. So summer is essential for him to have it done. To have two eyes that look normal and open is something that Andy and I really want for him. Well that is a quick little update on our little buddy. I will post more in a couple of weeks as Ty heads back to the glaucoma doctor to have the pressure checked in his right eye. We are praying for a good outcome for that. Until next time.....

What to do with those Old Easter Buckets

Priceless!

We are back from Ty's latest appointment. This time we traveled to Nashville to meet with Ocularist, Sherry Richardson. She makes prosthetic eyes. Ty spent most of the summer without his eye in because the fit was just not that great, and it would cause him some discomfort and gooping of the eye. Ty's last prosthetic eye was in 2007. Needless to say, he has grown quite a bit in the past couple of years, and it was time for a whole new eye. I recorded the process the best I could with my camera. So I thought I would let you see how it works. First off, Sherry is so cool! Not only is she amazing at her job, but she has the patience of Job. Ty spent most of the time sitting on her lap while she formed, molded, and painted his "eye". It was so neat to watch. First off we have the before picture. You can see how the eye is closed completely, and very droopy. Also, Ty tried to show off the inside of his actual eye. This is what the real eye looks like. Notice how small the iris part is? You can hardly see it. It is actually the size of my pinky fingernail.

The next process was for Sherry to make the eye impression for the new prosthetic mold. If you have ever had an impression made in your mouth, it works very similar. She inserted a mold into Ty's eye with a tube on the outside. She then injected the impression liquid into the tube so that it would go into the mold in Ty's eye. This part was hard for him. It burned a bit, and it was cold. So we had some crying going on. I stopped taking pictures then. I just didn't feel right about it. It seemed kind of cold to take pictures of my baby in pain. Here are the ones that I got at the beginning of the process.

Once the impression was made it was time for the mold to be made out of wax. This was too cool. She used this mold to shape and form a custom fit eye for Ty. She used tools and an alcohol burner to smooth the wax so that there were no rough spots that could irritate Ty's real eye. This is her forming the wax with a little help from her assistant.

Ty was impressed that he had a yellow eye. He really wanted to make that his "new eye". The boy cracks me up. He was serious too. I can only imagine how the little wheels in his head were turning. He must have been thinking up some doozies to tell people why he had a yellow eye. He kept asking Sherry, "How come I can't just have that one". Too funny!

After the molding was finished it was time for the baking of the eye. The artificial eye is made from acryllic. Yes, the same stuff that artificial nails are made of. So the acryllic goes in the wax mode and in a couple of hours - TA DA!- a new eye is made. The next step is to paint the eye so that it looks exactly like Ty's other eye. This is cool. Ty sat on Sherry's lap so that she could really get a good look at him, and she painted it to match his other eye.

You can see all of the different colors she has. Ty was really set on having orange in his eye. That is his favorite color- GO VOLS! So she made a special orange dot at the top of the eye so that we would know which way to put the eye in. This satisfied him. The painting of the blood vessels was really neat. She took small red fibers that look like fuzz and distributed them across the eye. Then she smoothed it over with the acryllic. It smelled like a nail salon in there. After the painting was finished it was off to the oven to bake and then to polish the eye at the end. This process took about 1 hour. After that Sherry was able to put Ty's new scleral shell in. This is the finished product. His eye is usually swollen for a day from all of the poking and prodding. This was right after inserting the eye.

This is what he looks like now after wearing the eye for a couple of days.

Pretty impressive if I do say so myself. You wouldn't even know which was the artificial one.

We are so thankful to the Lord for Sherry's talents. She is able to make our sweet little boy have some confidence, and that is priceless. Well I hope you have enjoyed your lesson on scleral shells today. Until next time.....

Not me! Monday

I have not participated in this little bloggy fun in a long while now. It was all started by Mckmama at http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ Not Me! Monday is a great way to get it off of your chest! Check out the other Not me! Monday blogs and come on join in the fun.

Just a few things that myself or my family have NOT done over the past few weeks.

While we were camping Ty met a couple of boys his age to play with. He most certainly did NOT tell these boys when they asked what happened to his eye that a sting ray had poked him in the eye and pulled it right out. We had been to the aquarium that day and watched/touched the sting rays. Andy and I did NOT think this was rather funny and creative. Then we had a little talking to our funny and creative boy.

I do NOT let my boy's fingernails get longer than mine. It had NOT been quite some time since I last trimmed their nails.

I most certainly did NOT on a whim decide to buy school supplies early. For crying out loud it is July and we still have a bit to go. I am NOT ashamed to say that buying school supplies is NOT one of my most favorite things to do.

Andy will NOT be out of town all week long. He is NOT gonna be out of town for my birthday on Thursday. I am NOT sad about that at all!

A New Birthmark Buddy

Last week we had the privilege of meeting a new family here in our local area who we now consider a "birthmark buddy. That name actually started at www.birthmarks.com. It is an endearing term used to describe those with Port Wine Stains. Many times our little newsgroup uses it in signing off our emails. For example, ybb (your birthmark buddy), mobb (mother of birthmark buddy). It is really great. I am always excited when I see other children with Port Wine Stains, or especially when I get to talk to the parents of these children. There is something to be said about that common bond of knowing exactly how they are feeling about something so personal. It is hard to explain sometimes. I can only imagine how Ty must feel when he sees a child that has a birthmark like his. He was so precious with little Zoe. He mentioned that he loved how her birthmark came across her lips. It was just like the shape of her pacifier. Then he stroked her hair. Evan, on the other hand, didn't like it so much that his mama was holding a 2 month old baby. No sirree bob! Get that baby away from my mama! Hmmm! I may need to work on that mama's boy thing.
So our new friends have started a blog http://twozeesinapod.blogspot.com/ I ask that you check it out, and add little Zoe to your prayer list. She actually has a hemangioma. It is a little different than a Port Wine Stain, but in the same family. Her hemangioma is growing around her trachea as well as what you see on the outside. So needless to say, they are seeking medical treatment in Arkansas. This is one of the leading hospitals out there in the treatment of hemangiomas. They live less than 10 minutes away from us and I hope that we are able to get to know one another a little better.

A Strong God!

Well it is raining once again. What to do??? I am going to be thankful though because last summer it was so dry and burnt up that we were begging for rain. I will say though that the past couple of weeks I have kind of felt like I live in Florida with all of the mid-afternoon thunder storms. They certainly have not made for dull moments around here. Especially when I have two kids that really dislike the thunder and lightening. Ty said the cutest thing the other day during one of the many storms we have had. It was thundering and lightening a lot! All of the sudden a HUGE boom of thunder sounded. Ty and I both jumped, and he said, "Whew! Mommy, That sure was a strong God wasn't it?" I just smiled and said, "He sure is buddy!" That simple statement had me thinking about so many "things" that we deal with in this world that make us seem weak. I think Ty's statement sums it up in a nutshell- He is a strong God, so let's just let Him handle our "things". If we bring it to Him first, then we need not fear or worry! Just a little food for thought for the day. Until next time.....

Summer Storms

Storms in the Summer,

Oh! what a Bummer.

Wait, maybe not.

I was able to get this great shot.

We're kind of scared they said,

Can we snuggle up in your bed?

We aren't tired and don't need to take a nap.

We'll just lay here until the thunder doesn't clap.

Storms in the Summer

Really not such a bummer!

I get to enjoy these sweet, special times.

While praising God that these two are mine!

Seriously Behind...

Yep, that is what I am. I took a little hiatus from blogging. So much going on that I just enjoyed reading some of my favorite blogs from my friends for a while. Now, I'm BAAACK!! Look out!

No seriously, much has gone on since my last post. I will start with a wonderful praise.
We took Ty to see his local glaucoma doctor for a checkup at the end of April. He checked the pressure in his right (good) eye and it was an astonishing 19. This is astonishing in a good way. You see normal is 21 or below, and anything above this starts to cause damage to the optic nerve. Damage to this nerve in turn causes vision loss. So the last time it was checked in December it was at 27. Needless to say we were kind of concerned about that. We did our fair share of praying about that pressure number. I am just not ready to tackle the "what ifs" regarding high pressure. I keep thinking to myself, "We just got one good eye here that we are dealing with". For now, God does not think I am ready either. So we all press on! Ty is amazing!

Praise God that everything turned out okay, and we don't have to see his glaucoma doctor in New York. We are due back for a check up here in June. Things are stable for the most part, and I am going to call soon to set up his next laser treatment. Hopefully, I can get it sometime in July or early August before my baby starts Kindergarten. His last treatment was over Thanksgiving, and he is due another one.

Kindergarten- I can't believe it! I will have a second grader and a Kindergartner. Wow! the time just continues to fly on by. The kids are so much fun, and I thank God everyday for giving me a hard working husband so that I am able to stay at home and raise them. It is such a rewarding 24 hour a day job that I wouldn't change for the world.

Summer though is kind of my little mini vacation from the hard 24 hour job. We have nothing but FUN! FUN! FUN! Swimming in the pool, going to Dollywood and Splash Country, camping, hanging with friends, going to the lake, barbeque's, staying up late, and sleeping in. I really just love no schedules. It is great. So to start off our summer fun we went to Destin with my sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and niece.

This is our second annual trip over Memorial Day. It was so much fun. Evan was the funniest. Since he was only three months old last year, he really didn't even care he was in Destin. Not so much this year. He loved it! His favorite part was climbing in his beach chair and watching all of the "babes". He was too cute, and he would just sit there for at least an hour or two. I loved it too because I didn't have to chase him everywhere. I just got him a pail full of ocean water, a shovel, and his beach chair. He was happy as a clam (no pun intended). That and his snack of sand. He didn't seem to mind though. The next morning's diaper was pretty interesting. I think he managed to get sand in every orifice imaginable. We had a blast though just relaxing, playing, and catching up with our family. My mom also got to come down for a couple of days to join us. That was really great. The kids had fun playing with their Kiki on the beach.

I am so thankful for my amazing family. What a joy that God has given to us exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever need in each other. Thank you Lord for the gift of family! Until next time, and I promise it won't be two months later.....

Day 6: Mine was THIS big!!

We had another yummy breakfast at Olivia's this morning. I am getting used to this great food. Too bad the part about someone cooking for me won't last forever. After breakfast Andy and the kids got ready to head out on their fishing excursion. I sent him armed with the camera while Evan and I hit Downtown Disney for a while. This is what he captured.

Hmmm! I believe Tristan has one of my faces. I wouldn't have touched that fish with a ten foot pole. I believe she is thinking the same thing in this picture.

As you can see, Ty had no problem holding that fish!

Check out the size of this sucker.

Andy says this is the one that Ty caught with a little help from daddy of course. It is as big as Ty. The kids love to fish with their daddy, and I am so thankful that they can spend time with him this way.

There will be more of our interesting afternoon of Day 6 in another post. Let's just say I pulled another brillant "Ginger"

Day 5: Animal Kingdom

Okay, I am really behind on this trip report. I have been crazy busy, but have decided enough is enough and it is time to go back on vacation. Won't you join me in Animal Kingdom today?

Another bright and early day. Really this is the best way to get all of the big rides accomplished before the crowds swarm in. We really love Animal Kingdom. It is kind of like a zoo, with such cool features. It is so much fun. Once we entered, we went straight back to get Fast Passes for Expedition Everest, the huge roller coaster.

This is it. It really looks like fun, but unfortunately this time around Andy got to ride with Tristan. I promise I am making the ride the next time we visit. Andy said it was great. Tristan loved it as well. She is becoming quite my little coaster junkie. Too bad her mama has to take a little Dramamine before riding them. It stinks getting older. While Andy had gone to get the fast passes the kids and I were waiting for him. It was St. Patrick's Day and we all had on our green. The really funny part of our morning is who we ran into at Animal Kingdom. Ty's pre-k teacher, Mrs. Stephanie. We couldn't believe that we saw each other. Especially considering the amount of people there. We ended up screaming and hugging each other. I am sure people thought that we had lost our ever-loving minds. Ty was being cranky, and he refused to have his picture taken with Mrs. Stephanie. Tristan decided that she would be the stand in.

After saying bye to Mrs. Stephanie, we headed over to the Kilimanjaro Safari ride. We got FP for this too, and decided to walk one of the forest trails while we waited on our time to ride the Safari. We saw quite a few animals on the trail, and then we noticed King Louie and Belew from the Jungle Book.

Evan was too cute with King Louie. He couldn't quite figure him out.

King Louie was pretty funny. I was waiting in line in my signature stance, hands on the hips. He noticed me and pointed to my arm being up, and then he covered his nose and fanned his underarm. He was trying to say that I stunk with my arm up. It was hilarious. I promise I wore my deodorant though. While we were waiting in the line we got a chance to see the "plant lady- Devine" She is really neat. She is covered in vines and walks on stilts. She really looks like she is a tree. We enjoyed watching her.

Next, the kids saw some bongos in "Africa". We stopped to have a little bit of playtime.

After playtime it was time to ride the Safari. Evan got to enjoy this one. We saw tons of animals, and Evan really had fun. I wish I would have taken more pictures of the animals. They were pretty active. I was trying to hold onto Evan, myself, and the camera all at the same time. I finally handed Evan over to Andy, and I snapped this shot.

After our Safari ride we headed over to The Tusker House for a yummy lunch. There were lots of good things to eat on that buffet. Some interesting African food. I enjoyed it. After lunch we decided to head on back for our afternoon nap. We ran into a few "friends" on our way out.

Brer Rabbit, from "Song of the South" , and

Terk, from "The Jungle Book

Meeko, from "Pocahontas"

This was probably one of my most favorite days. I loved looking at all of the animals with my kiddos. That night we decided to turn in early because tomorrow Andy and the kids were going on an early fishing trip.

Day 4: Breakfast with a bear

We awoke on Monday feeling really refreshed. We had a full kitchen in our room so we had some easy breakfast items on hand. Since we had reservations at 9:00am to eat we had a quick bite to keep us from starving, and then it was off to the Magic Kingdom to eat at the Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore.
I have read about people getting breakfast times before the park opens therefore, being able to enter the park before everyone else can because of these reservations. I decided that we should do this. I booked us at the Crystal Palace for breakfast. The Magic Kingdom opening time was 9:00am, and boy was there a crowd. Since we had breakfast reservations we were able to go into a seperate line and bypass these crowds. Once we entered man, it was great. Not a soul around. We were one of just a few families walking down Main Street. It was cool. I had really been looking forward to getting some pictures taken in front of the castle with no one else around. I hate it when I get random people in my pictures. Anyway, this would be the day except for one little tiny problem.

It was just a tad bit foggy. We still got our picture though. Next the kids wanted to take pictures by the little statues in front of the castle. Here are a few
It was time for our breakfast so off we went. Crystal Palace is a buffet. Normally, I am not one to eat at many buffets. Disney's buffets are extremely good and clean so it makes me more comfortable. At the character breakfast you wait for the characters, in this case, Winnie and friends to make their rounds to you while you are eating. Here are some pictures of us with the characters from The Hundred Acre Wood

After breakfast we headed to Frontierland to ride none other than Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain. Ty was tall enough for both of these, and he was so excited. On the way we saw "Davy Crockett Donald"

I rode Splash with Tristan and Ty while Andy sat with Evan. He was doing a little more of this
When we were getting off of Splash, there was Goofy in his Frontierland get up. Ty and I wanted a picture, while Tristan went with Andy and Evan to get the ever popular pressed penny.

As naptime was inching closer, we decided to head on out. I took Evan and went to get Fast Passes for Space Mountain that evening, while Andy headed toward the exit with the kids. When I called Andy to see where they were he informed me that they were at the Barber Shop on Main Street getting haircuts for the kids. I know it sounds funny, but the Magic Kingdom Barber shop does their haircuts up right complete with style and "pixie dust". It is really reasonably priced too, believe it or not. So Tristan decided to get 3" cut off of her hair. I was happy because her hair is thick, and it takes forever to dry. Ty got his normal haircut. This was the end result. Talk about some wild and crazy hair. Notice the orange and blue Mickey in the back of Ty's hair. It was lots of fun.
We had a great day, but it was time to head back and rest. We did come back that evening for little bit. It had gotten rather crowded though so we just really rode Space Mountain, and ate our supper. Then it was back to the room for bedtime. Join us tomorrow at Animal Kingdom.