Surgery and other fun stuff

Posted by: Jennifer

 

Wow! What an incredibly busy month! It started off with Jose having his corneal transplant on July 26th. He spent the first part of August recovering. For those of you who don't know, Jose has a condition that I can't spell that causes his corneas to degenerate. He had his first one (the left) replaced in December of 2001, and has pretty much been waiting ever since to have his right eye done. He was moved to the ASAP list not too long ago, and got the call the week before the surgery. This put us into crazy mode getting things ready to go to Calgary, and Jose had to get things sorted out at work. The surgery went really well, as did his follow-up appointments (although the first time they took the patch off, he just about fainted and had to lie down on the floor for awhile - apparently a very normal reaction... in males). He doesn't go back for another appointment until September 5th, which is good news. At this point, he's not allowed to lift more that 5 pounds, and has to be really careful about things that put pressure on his eye. I think the hardest part for him has been not being allowed to lift James (he sneaks it in now and then though, but gets a good scolding for it).

August also included a couple of weddings - one, a good friend of Jose's from Medicine Hat, and the other, a high school friend of mine. James got to spend some time with Nana, both while Jose had his surgery, and while we went out onto the Stoney reserve for one of the weddings. Sammy got to go to Medicine Hat to stay with his idol, Papa Toño. He was depressed when he came home, because no one loves him quite like Papa Toño does.

This summer has flown like you wouldn't believe. I totally lost track of time, and missed the overview session of a Social Studies conference I went to! Luckily, I didn't miss the good stuff, and I went away really excited to start teaching.

Other events this summer included a visit from my dad in July, a visit to the spray park today, swimming, multiple trips up to Calgary for appointments and weddings, and just some general lazing about. Jose spent three weeks pretty much lying around recovering from his surgery, and is now back to work.

The world of James now includes 5 teeth, and a vocabulary of 20+ words. His favourite words are (in order of importance): bum (which means the body part, poop, diapers, the occasional piece of garbage, and my tortellini), baboo (no idea what it means), cheese, and banana. His physical skills amaze us every day - he runs, climbs, throws, kicks, and basically keeps us on our toes. One of his favourite activities is still terrorizing the dog, and recently Jose bought James another weapon of mass destruction for which Sam has not yet forgiven him: a set of plastic golf clubs. As I write this, they are on top of the refrigerator because eventually even Jose gave up the idea that James will be Tiger Woods at the tender age of 17 months. All James seems to want to do with the set is chase Sam around and beat the living crap out of him. He continues to be the cutest kid ever to draw breath - at the moment he is slumbering soundly. We're breaking him of the soosie habit, which hasn't been overly easy (Jose at one point accused me of torturing him, for which he was given a death glare), but he's getting used to it. The trick is to make him so tired that he just conks out as soon as he's in his crib. Today he spent 2.5 hours at the spray park with his pal Elena and his babysitter Michelle and I. Needless to say he had an amazing time (up until the point where he fell face down in a puddle, and that was the end of that), and had no issues heading off to Dreamland tonight.

Well, it's nearly 11:30, and I have to get up early tomorrow so I can go to school and set up my classroom (yes, set up -I'm starting to panic!). Here are some pictures from some of our shenanigans:

 

James fills his pool	A very cold dip!	Chillin' on the steps with Sam
Watering the stairs	A goofy child - resembles his father	Reading with Granddad
Peek-a-ooo-ooo-ooo!!!	Sam & Papa Toño	Sam worships his Idol
James & Mama Loli	Stealing Chico's cake	James at the Calgary Zoo
Fun at the water park	Must be a hot day	Examining grass

 

Bye for now!
Jennifer