I am finally getting around to posting some Halloween pics a few weeks late! This was Lucas's first pumpkin carving experience - he was very curious about the whole thing but wasn't so sure what he thought of feeling the cold, slimy pumpkin innards!
The finished jack-o'-lanterns!
Lucas still loves his big sister the best. Even when she's too zoned into the TV to pay attention and share her snack with him. Notice the grip he has on her shirt!
Halloween night ended up not being as miserable weather-wise as was expected, so we managed to get a few awesome shots of Lucas and Maiya before they headed out trick-or-treating. Lucas was bundled up as a frog and Maiya made a very stylish pirate princess! Lucas visited a couple of close friends and neighbours for his Halloween debut, then helped me hand out treats while Brett and Maiya scoured the neighbourhood to fill her bag full of treats (and lucky for us she still doesn't mind sharing!). It was all good until about 15 minutes after they left, then Lucas decided he had had enough of the whole Halloween experience and proceeded rapidly towards an all out meltdown. Lucky for me we have awesome friends who live around the corner and Erica quickly answered my emergency text and sent Reagan over to man the front door while I wrestled Lucas into pj's and out of his contacts and into bed.
Appointments - we've had a few! It's been a busy few weeks to say the least. First we had our KidsAbility Developmental Assessment in Kitchener. A team consisting of a physiotherapist, occupational therapist, and a speech and language pathologist met with Lucas and me to assess where he is at developmentally. He was in a great mood the day we went and was putting on a great performance for them! I think at times they stopped believing me when I kept saying 2 months ago (at that time) he couldn't pick up a Cheerio let alone chew it! We had great news from all 3 - basically physio discharged him right away, OT will see him in about a month just as a check in for a couple of skills and he will likely be discharged at that point, and S&L will do a check in about 6 months but has no significant concerns at this time. In other words - he's pretty on track developmentally, which means he's made significant gains in the last 3 months. I did an informal skills assessment on him when we were in Vietnam and his fine motor and a few other things were about 6 months behind, and he has caught up in almost all of those areas now.
The opthamologist visit has also happened since I last posted. We had our first visit to McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton with a pediatric opthamologist in October. It was an okay visit, but Lucas's contacts were bothering him and he pretty much refused to open his eyes. The opthamologist thought he had an infection and prescribed antibiotic drops (and therefore, no contact lens) for a week. It might not sound like a big deal, but a week without corrected vision in his weaker eye is a long time and it's hard not to worry about the impact on his vision. The visit felt rushed and as if he didn't really know much about Lucas or his vision, and that he was making alot of quick decisions and assumptions - note this as my interpretation - Brett thought the visit was great!
Anyway - as expected, the doctor wanted to do an EUA (exam under anesthetic). When kids are young and wiggly and generally not very cooperative with having their eyes poked and prodded, they often do the exam under anesthetic. This was booked for November 14. We had our pre-op visit on the 13th, only to be told that because Lucas had been in a hospital outside of Canada within the past year, he had to have "special precautions" the day of the procedure. One of which was swabs - at both ends - and which I had the joy and privilege of conducting on him! Was even more fun considering there was a nurse standing in the same room while I had to do it - I kept hoping she'd offer to take over! Fortunately they didn't cancel the procedure, but they did change it to the last appointment of the day so that he didn't "contaminate" the operating room. All this and nothing to prove there was anything to be precautious about! The nurse that was sorting it all out was very kind and helpful, so it made it alot easier!
The hardest part about the change was that it meant Lucas had to go without eating for almost 22 hours. Because he goes to bed around 7 pm, and couldn't eat past midnight, it was a very long wait until the procedure which was booked for 2:30. It also meant we had to scramble to get Maiya taken care of since we were going to be much later getting home - but once again we were saved by great friends, and she was able to go home with her friend Lauren (thanks Parr family!!) after school, and then my friend Mel picked her up and took her home.
Lucas was absolutely amazing waiting for the exam. We were in a cubicle waiting the whole time, since we needed the "extra precautions". Which for us basically meant that at one point they came in and made us put on hospital gowns with cuffed sleeves. Not a big deal but they were a little on the warm side! But Lucas - despite not having had more than 4 oz of formula and 4 oz of juice - was just fantastic. He didn't cry other than for the dilating drops, and just cuddled or played on the iPad or with his toys. They called us in around 3:20pm, and Brett carried him into the operating room where they gave him the anesthetic, and he was under for about half an hour. We were in recovery for about an hour and a half as the anesthetic wore off and he was again really great. He was only slightly fussy but it was mostly because he wanted to eat and eat and they didn't want him to have too much to start!
The result? Very good news once again. The opthamologist tested his eye pressures which were found to be normal (we will have to always monitor, but this was GREAT news), the optic nerve is healthy (very important for vision development), no issues with scarring at this point - basically everything looks good, which confirms what we had heard at the University of Waterloo appointment. His prescription is changing and we are going to give a new kind of contact lenses a try, which we have to go back to McMaster for next week. The lenses are cheaper, but are more likely to fall out so we will see.
We lost our 2nd contact lens on Friday. So frustrating to have lost it so close to getting the new prescription. We are trying to get through the week with an old lens that we had kept, but it's likely not going to work for the whole week.
So that's about where we are at. He is getting more consistent with taking 5-6 steps at a time on his own, but he's not quite ready to go on his own yet. He is definitely less willing to try when he doesn't have his contacts both in, so hopefully once we get back on track with that it will help! He signs for "more", puts his arms up over his head when we cheer "hooray", swishes his head back and forth for the wipers on the bus, put his arms up and down for "up" and "down" and is almost saying the words, signs "thank you", gives kisses, calls Maiya "mah-mah" or "ya-ya" and imitates her all the time. All in all he is doing great!
