Mason is 9!!!

So for some reason this birthday year was hard for me. I know that it should be next year with him hitting the double digits and all, but it was this year. I think its because I know he's approaching it and see it in his maturity, conversations and such. The other day while watching tv (a commercial about the new Disney movie coming out) he made the comment "she's pretty". What?! Seriously! Where did that come from? I was in complete shock and was speechless. It would have been the perfect teachable moment and could have probably sparked some great conversations...would have been, had I known what to say and not gone all speechless and all. I am not ready for him to be so grown up, but on the other hand its nice to be able to carry on great conversations with him. If that makes any sense at all. Okay, well enough talk of him growing up. Lets get to the pictures!

The Sonic Cake!

Sonic Movie
Sonic Wii Game
Sonic T-Shirt (yes, another one!)...Do you notice a pattern here? :-)
And here was the big one! I'll explain first. Mason has been asking for this for some time. He brought it up again when asked if there was anything he wanted for his birthday. I kindly told him that they were just too expensive right now and he (surprisingly) said that's okay mom I'll just have something else. I was shocked by his reaction, he is really maturing. I was expecting a huge fit and that's not what happened at all. He would see them on tv and when we were out and just say I wish they weren't so expensive and that was it. No fit, not temper, no whining, nothing. Thats when I realized he was ready for it, to respect it and take care of it. So with the help Mama and Dave, because they are expensive, we were able to suprise him with it. :-)
The happiness was glowing on his face!
...as a little side note, it holds audiobooks too!! And we have the actual book of a couple so I will be using this to my advantage. ;-)
Here he is sporting some of his birthday gifts! The shirt was an awesome gift from his Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky! Thanks guys he loves it!
Now onto embarrassing the twins. I know that they are probably too old for bath pictures and pretty soon they'll be too old to take baths together, but I have to post these. They are hularious and I made sure that I kept it to just their bellys and up.
Weston..."I feel like a flower."

Very Random...

*We have been so busy, from finding things to do to get out of the house and not spend a fortune, to getting back on track with our schoolwork, to many trips to the eye doctor, etc...Its been seriously ridiculous!

*We made a trip to the Indianapolis Childrens Museum last week, I think it was last week. hahaha They have a new lego area and I must say even as a girl, I loved that area!! We spent so much time in there. Here are some of the creations the kids made.

*For some reason this week I was feeling extremely adventurous. Don't ask where it came from, I have no idea. We were all having major cabin fever (seriously..it is spring yet) so thanks to the handy internet this is what we did!

This was SOOO much fun!!! The boys had a blast and honestly..so did I! Yes I did climb, but I will not be posting pictures on here of that. :-) I'm sure you all don't care to see my butt. hahaha Weston (very surprisingly) is a little dare devil. That boy would do whatever he had to do to reach that next rock. He was a climbing machine! Most of those pictures are of him because I was in complete shock at what he would attempt. Isaac loved to free climb without the rope and Mason, well, climbed a lot more than I ever thought he would. This is good for him people, he's a weeny, and I don't mean that in a bad way. Its just he's not good with trying things new and all, but this was a hit with him.

*We made yet another trip to the eye doctor today, twice in fact! Once to pick up Westons glasses and another trip to have them tighten the nose piece a little more because they almost hit the floor when they fell off his face. For those of you counting...that makes 7 times in less than 2 weeks!!!! Needless to say they start cracking the jokes the minute we walk in. :-) And...we have to make another trip! LOL Masons lens were scratched so we are going to go ahead and replace them, they were covered under warranty and he made it a full year with those so I am extremely impressed.

Notice Isaac giving Weston bunny ears in the background! LOL "Did you get the ears in the picture Mom?" :)
For those of you that will still have trouble telling them apart now....Weston has the blue ones and Isaac is in the green ones! :) They look so handsome!

*I have been searching for new curriculum already for next year. I have decided to stay with the same math program, but would like to find something more stable for science, history and geography. I have found something I really love, but its rather expensive. I'm hoping to look at it at the convention coming up next month before I purchase it. I still can't find a good language program, but hope to soon. The twins have started some new books to supplement with until next year when we finish our Abeka program. I just want to review a little more and make sure they know their stuff before we move on. You can never review enough. :)

*Alright one more picture because I just can't resist! They really do love each other...I promise! :-)

The verdict is in...

*drum rolls*....

So here's the scoop. After some research the doctor found that treating children with Amblyopia for -1.5 nearsightness can often correct it. I hope that makes sense. What it basically does is causes his brain to make his eye focus on things faraway instead of shutting it down. Remember, Weston has very good vision, he just doesn't use his lazy eye as much as we use both of ours because its easier to just use one. The object is to get his brain to use BOTH of his eyes. Apparently when you go to the eye doctor and they put the black thing in front of you eyes and move it back and forth your eyes are NOT supposed to move, Westons move A LOT! So when he put the lens up to his eyes and did that again they moved very little...I didn't even notice that they moved at all, that how small it was. We are going to try this on a trial basis for 3 months. He wants him to wear them as much as possible so that we can see if its going to work.

Oh, and for all of you who can't tell them apart, they are wearing the same glasses but....Weston will be sporting the BLUE glasses and Isaac will be sporting the GREEN ones! Hope that helps you all out! LOL :-)

***Oh, and I can't wait for their hair to grow back out!! It's a little too short and I'm not fond of it. Its really hard to keep it trimmed and make it look the same. I'm so glad their hair grows fast! :-)

Lab rat...

So today Mason and I made yet another trip to the eye doctor. Just for those of you keeping records, including picking up glasses that makes 4 trips in 1 week and on our way to making it 5 in a week and a half! Did I ever mention how much I love our eye doctor? Well, I do!! Weston's vision is fairly good, not bad enough for glasses, even with his Amblyopia. But the chance of his vision going bad are fairly good. His brain could eventually get tired of making his eye work so much and eventually quit. So he, the doctor, is taking the time to research the best way to treat this and make/keep his eye strong. We have to make another trip in on Friday so he can test some theories and therapies on him to see what could work. I am so appreciative of this. We made a trip to Riley a while back and I was not happy with the outcome. I am so happy with this doctor!!

We have been there so much that when we walked in today we didnt even have to check in and they joked about just setting us aside a permanent room. LOL Mason checked out great! He said that he was a little worried that his perscription would have changed, apparently as kids go through growth sprurts it often does that, but his didn't which is great. Then it was my turn and I became the lab rat. lol I have whats called Dwaynes Syndrome. Its where when I look right my right eye doesn't go that way, but when I look left my right eye squints to see in that direction. I often get doubled vision when I look over my right shoulder. Anyway, the girls in the office had never seen it which caused the lady to put a bunch of question marks on my chart because she didn't know what it was. So he asked me if he could bring them in and show them and explain what it was and how it caused. I was more than happy to let him do that because then I got to learn more about it too. Friday, its Westons turn to be the lab rat...LOL!

So we have one boy thats nearsighted, one with Amblyopia, one with astigmatism and me with a slight astigmatism, slight farsightness and Dwaynes Syndrome. Whew!! The Tweddell family with all our eye problems. :-) And William hasn't even been checked out yet. LOL

Back to normal.

I made it back home safe and sound. I had so much fun and none of it would have been possible if it weren't for the generousity of Ann and Amy letting me crash at their place. Thank you guys so much! I appreciate everything you guys did for me.

While I had the time of my life and it was so nice to get away for a while, it is now time to get back to normal. And I missed the boys like crazy! So we started off the day picking up Isaacs glasses. That was the first thing he asked me when I walked in. It wasn't hi mom or I missed you or hugs and kisses, it was "can we go get my glasses now?" So that was the first thing on the list today.

And here he is....We need to have his hair trimmed so its off his eyes. He has expressed that he doesn't want it cut because he loves it long, so I have promised him that we will only have it trimmed very little. Weston is a little upset that he does not have glasses to match his brother. I am trying to explain to him that its a great thing that he doesn't need glasses, but he just doesn't see it.

Well, I'm completely exhausted, but I have some more errands to run. So I'm off! :-)

Anxiety...

So I'll start with the good stuff. First of all 2 posts in 2 days, whats up with that. :-) Westons eye check-up with very well. Happy to report, well he doesn't think so, he does not need glasses. So Lindsay, you'll at least be able to tell them apart when Isaac is wearing his glasses. LOL His vision is excellent, even with his lazy eye. The doctor is working on researching whether we should do surgery to fix it or do some t.v. therapy. Basically he can't see well REALLY far away, but he's great otherwise. His vision, even with his lazy eye is extremely good. We had three dentist appointments today and they all went very well. Mason has 2 small cavities, very catastrophic for him, I think I have developed at complex for him because I'm a little anal with their teeth, okay alot anal. He will eventually have to get braces because the spaces that we thought we great are too big, but other than that he's great. LOL The twins are fantastic and no cavities and got their first cleaning and all that jazz today.

Tomorrow is my birthday!! Happy Birthday to me!!! As my birthday present I am going to visit some friends in Detroit and see my all-time fav show Rent..hopefully from the front row! Here's where the anxiety comes in to play. I will be traveling alone. :-( I have never traveled alone before...I repeat never! So, you can see why I am having a major anxiety attack. All the what-ifs are running through my head. I usually get like this before a trip, but never this bad. I didn't realize I had anxiety so bad. I am very excited for this, but can't help feeling guilty leaving and spending money while we are in this crappy time with no job. I know that once I get there (if I get there is what my head says) I will have a great time. We both agreed and decided that its a good thing for me to go and have some fun (and its a fairly cheap way bc I have friends I'm staying with), so its not even that we disagree or anything, but I just can't stop the anxiety.

So I could use some major prayers...great travel conditions, protection over my car and the cars around me, protection over William and the boys while I'm gone, and that I won't have a major attack as I'm leaving the house and can feel at ease about driving alone. Oh, and I'm worried about getting lost.

Ok, I'm off to go pack and then snuggle in bed with Weston, he wanted to sleep with me tonight. :-) I, feeling guilty, let him. :-)

Thanks for the prayers in advance!

**Isaac asked me today when I was leaving for my trip and said he wanted me to leave soon. How nice huh? The reason...I told him he gets his glasses when I get back, he wants them bad! So I guess its a good thing he just wants me to leave so I can hurry up and come back. :-)

Who knew??

What I did know was that my day was going to be quite busy today, but I didn't realize how busy.



The other day when we made our usual weekly trip to the library Isaac made the comment that the words were blurry and he had to blink to get them to be clear. My thought was your probably just getting tired, suck it up boy...what a nice mom I am. lol When William lost his job and we realized that we would also lose our insurance we figured that we'd better get all the boys in and get them all checked out...teeth, eyes and bodies! :-) I had made appointments for Isaac to get in to the eye doctor before, but really didn't have a concern so when it came time and we were too busy I just canceled them. He wasn't like Mason who already had glasses and can't see more than 3 feet in front of him and Weston who has a lazy eye, so I figured he would be fine.


As we pulled up Isaac asked if this is where they sell glasses. I kindly told him yes, but that he wouldn't need glasses we were just here to get his eyes checked. As I was filling out the form it reminded me of the time he said that the words were blurry so I hestitantly put it down. He was so excited to sit in that chair and behaved extremely well. I am so proud of him!!!! They then began by covering his left eye and she asked him to read the bottom line, which he claimed he couldn't see. So she went to the next one in which he said they were blurry, then the next one up and he only got two right, then on the very top he was finally able to identify them. I was completely shocked!! Blow away as a matter of fact. She said that it was probably just his nerves and afraid to give the wrong answer because of how he answered every one of them right when she covered the right eye. Oh, and by the way, he tried to cheat on the eye exam. I had no clue that was even possible. This is how it went down!
Doctor: Read this line.
Isaac: Bird.
Doctor: Great. Whats next?
Isaac: Airplane.
Doctor: Good. Next?
Isaac: What is that?
Doctor: "Hor"..as she stopped herself. I don't know you tell me.
Isaac: I have no idea!
It was the cutest thing ever. We were all laughing so hard!


When the doctor came in I immediately asked him what he thought. I mean seriously, we were just here for a check-up. I had no concerns at all. He immediately said that he did NOT think it was a fluke and that he thought it was genuine. What?? You've got to be kidding me? Not at all what I expected. So he showed me why he thought that, went through all the tests they do and it made perfect sense. I won't bore you with the rest, but the basic run down, after being at there for 2 hours, is that Isaac has an astigmatism and without correction his vision in 20/60!!! I am so not kidding here. It's worse than Masons! He said that if he was just nearsighted at this age he wouldn't mess with it, but with the history of lazy eye in our family he feels its important to correct it. Basically Isaac can't see close up or far away. Well, I should say he can't see clearly like we can, which I'm starting to wonder if what I see is clear, but thats beside the point. :-)


So here he is...picking out his first pair of glasses! I have to tell you that this took forever becuase I was still in complete shock over the fact that he actually needs them. And they don't make many stylish ones for kids his age. :-)

So this is what we decided on!

HAHAHAHAHA!!!! Gotcha! I, being so sidetracked with finding the right pair, forgot to take a picture of the ones we decided on. I will tell you that they are green and shaped pretty much like Masons. Not to mention that by the time we found one to fit his face and could be green (the color he wanted, talk about being picky..lol), I was ready to get out of there. :-) I will post pics the minute we get them which will be sometime next week...and is not soon enough for him. He is very, I repeat VERY excited.

Oh, and the good news...I get to do it all over again with Weston tommorrow!! YAY!