I Once Was Blind, But Now I See

Stefanie woke up this morning, got out of bed, and didn't have to put on her glasses to be able to tell her husband is bald, pale, and just an intsy-bitsy pudgy. Of course it was that fantastic husband that got her the hook-up to ICL surgery, so I'm sure she'll overlook the baldness for at least a little while longer.

Stef had implantable contact lenses inserted in her eyes yesterday by Dr. Cionni at the Eye Institute. Here are some updates from the day of the surgery:

- Each eye took about 10-15 minutes to complete the procedure. From my vantage point, the most difficult part seemed to be having to have your eye open with a flood light shining at it during that entire time. Of course, from my vantage point I wasn't getting cut open.

- Two hours after both eyes were complete, Stefanie was seeing 20/25 in her right eye, 20/30 in her left, and a fairly hazy 20/20 with both eyes open.

- They've got a great HD scope that Dr. Cionni uses when doing the surgery, so I got to watch it in HD. Fitting since ICL surgery is marketed as the way to achieve HD vision.

- The primary side effects the day of the surgery are headache, nausea, and some general eye discomfort. Stefanie dealt with nausea for most of yesterday, probably due to a lot of factors: medicine administered before the procedure, pain meds on an empty stomach afterwards, and a pressure spike she had in her left eye a few hours after the surgery.

- On a side note, I feel pretty confident that anesthesiologists do some ample self-medicating. Have you ever been around one that wasn't just perfectly calm, spoke very slowly and clearly, and no matter what was going on around them they acted as if nothing was wrong? I've observed a surgery where the patient whose heart about stopped, and then anesthesiologist checked the vital signs and apparently thought they weren't looking very vital...he just adjusted the drip a bit and then sat back down and hopped on his Blackberry. When Mya was born, Stefanie's epidural wasn't working correctly and she was feeling a lot of pain. Two different guys came to check the epidural out, made a few small adjustments, and then just said, "Oh, it will be fine. Nothing to worry about." And off they went, probably to another room to get their next dose of Valium I guess.

I'll be checking Stefanie's eyes in a few hours to see how they look the day after and to make sure her pressure has stabilized in her left eye. But as of this morning the haze and shadowing had decreased significantly in both eyes and we expect to see a nice improvement in her vision over what it was 24 hours ago.

Happy Birthday, Mya-Pya!

Mya's 1st b-day is today. She has been an incredibly happy, cheerful, fun, and beautiful addition to our family. It's hard to remember what life was like just one year ago before Mya was born, but there certainly had to be less smiling and laughing.

Some updates on Mya at 1:

• Has 9 teeth.
• Loves, loves, loves to listen to concerts/videos on TV. Her all-time favorite is "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz from his Beautiful Disaster tour. The first guitar notes of the song sends her into a frenzy absolutely every time we turn it on.
• Turned into quite the turbo crawler after being a little late to the game.
• Wants to now stand up to everything, but isn't showing much interest in getting around when upright. Her unsteady little legs look pretty funny when she's trying to dance to her music while standing.
• It was rough getting Mya to take a bottle for a while, but it is going to be worse weening her off them. She loves her bottles. She can be in another room and still hear the bottle shaking to mix the formula. "Ba-ba!" might have overtaken "Ma-ma" as the most commonly used phrase.
• Isn't picky in the least about what food she eats. She likes blueberries, peas, pancakes, bananas, Cheerios, and about anything else.
• Goes to sleep easily and sleeps well as long as she's not sick or teething.
• Has always been a great baby in the car.
• Is very strong-willed and isn't afraid to voice her displeasure about not getting her way.
• Smiles and giggles a lot and is very ticklish. She has a deep, throaty laugh when she really gets going.
• Loves big sister and wants to always play with her or be involved in whatever Afton is doing.
• Has recently decided that sacrament meeting isn't for her.

Happy birthday Mya!!!

Bedtime with Aftie

Last night Stefanie and I were watching some TV. Afton was supposed to be in bed, but she came out of her room and announced that she wasn't ready to go to sleep yet. She sat with us while we talked in the kitchen, grabbed a pen and paper to draw for a while, found some cookies hoping she could talk us into giving her some, and otherwise tried to avoid the topic of bed. Then out of the blue she walked up to Stefanie and said,

"Can I tell you the story about the big sister that's supposed to go to bed? 'Once upon a time' will start it.

Once upon a time, there as a girl. And she was supposed to go to bed and get her covers on. And she sleeps with her friends. And they're called pets."

[frustrated that she can't come up with more of the story] "Um, I can't tell it so much."

[Stefanie then asked if the girl would have good dreams while she was asleep and would wake up happy] "In the morning you will be a dragon, and I will be Prince Phillip so I can save Princess Aurora...and I can put on a pretty dress and you will say 'Oh, that is so beautiful!'...and you are Mary, and you're married to Joseph Smith, and I am baby Aurora. [we'd just finished reading a children's prophet book, and Afton decided Isaiah prophesied about Mary and Joseph Smith being there with baby Jesus, and of course her entire world is centered on princesses...should be fun for her primary teachers]

There was some other incoherent chatter that I missed. Afton has always loved having Stefanie tell her stories, normally about princesses of course. But lately Afton has been the one wanting to tell the stories. How cute is it that she always starts them by saying, "'Once up on a time' will start it...once upon a time..."?

Snow Play...finally

This was the first snow day for Afton this winter. She had a runny nose/cough/cold for quite a while, and then a minor ear infection, so she and Mya had been spending a lot of time in the house. But she's been feeling better lately so Stefanie bundled her up and set her off in the back yard to get wet, cold, and happy.

She loved making foot prints, snowballs, and filling up her little bucket. Stef tried to show her how you could fill the bucket with snow, turn it over, and make a little snow tower. But any attempts to make multiple towers in a row was halted by Afton Kong stomping them down with her snow boots. She does quite enjoy being a little destructor at times.

Bye bye, glasses

Stefanie and I paid a visit to the Eye Institute of Utah today. And had a few tests done. And a few scans. And then signed up to have surgery.

Thanks to Dr. Robert Cionni and Visian, we will both be receiving ICL surgery at no charge. ICL surgery is a type of refractive corrective surgery, like LASIK. But rather than manipulating the corneal tissue like LASIK, an implantable contact lens is placed INSIDE the eye, right behind the iris.

Stefanie is ecstatic. She has had a long history of severe dry eye, and recently has had a very difficult time wearing contact lenses without it resulting in significant eye discomfort. That has meant no volleyball on Tuesdays and Thursdays with the Mormon Wives Grantsville Volleyball League. She is beyond ready to put her glasses away after using them as her primary correction for months now. We were very pleased that The Eye Institute staff and particularly Dr. Cionni were gracious enough to offer to perform the procedure on Stefanie after they had originally only approached me about having it done.

So Stefanie is scheduled to have her surgery two weeks from yesterday, and then I will have it done sometime in February as part of a live meeting for other area optometrists. As excited as Stefanie is to be able to put her contacts, glasses, and dry eye away, she gets quite nervous when thinking about how the procedure is done. I'm sure the pre-operative valium dose will come in quite handy. ;)

New Stuff

Mya's new discovery...

Afton likes to call her "tall girl" when Mya stands up to things now. She hasn't really shown any interest in getting anywhere once up on her feet, but she loves to pull herself up and see the world from a new vantage point. And, as per with her crawling, we are perfectly content with her delaying her foray into walking.

Afton's new after-bath attire and game:

Afton got a new robe for Christmas and loves to put it on after she gets out of the bath. She always talks about how soft it is and wants everyone to touch it so they can feel for themselves. And she has also made sure that after she gets dried off that mom doesn't brush her hair until she runs out to find dad so she can scream, "Monster hair!" at me. She looks pretty intimidating in the picture, no?

"Afton's" new chair...

This is a recliner that we bought a while ago but had left in our bedroom so Stefanie could use it while feeding Mya. When we rearranged the furniture in our front room we decided to pull it out. I figured it was coming out of the bedroom to improve my sports programming viewing. I think Stefanie thought she was going to get some relaxing reading done while the girls played during the day. But of course, the chair might most often be occupied by the little princess. She loves to sit and rock in it while watching Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Little Mermaid, Pocahontas...

Stop Motion

Best. Stop Motion. Ever.

I'll probably throw one of those together for my anniversary this year. I can't imagine that it was all that time consuming.

Irony

Fashion "expert"...

The 2nd most successful box office hit of all-time is...Pocahontas?
(click to enlarge and read)

Christmas is over, house is full of new toys, fun to be had everywhere...

Thursday Thirteen #1 - 13 Songs For Your Playlist

13 songs that you should either check out for the first time or dust off if it's been a little while.

1. Different by Acceptance (acoustic version)

2. Stick With Me Baby by Robert Plant and Allison Krauss

3. Turn Back the Clock by Johnny Hates Jazz

4. 100-Yard Dash by Raphael Saadiq

5. Cinema Paradiso by Chris Botti

6. Break It Down Again by Tears for Fears

7. Gran Torino by Jamie Cullum

8. Whatever Happens by Michael Jackson feat. Carlos Santana

9. Jealous of the Moon by Nickel Creek

10. Sunshine of Your Love by Cream

11. Free Love by Depeche Mode

12. A Change Gon' Come by Sam Cooke

13. Misled by Kool and the Gang

Manliness Personified

Let all readers be impressed...I broke out our air compressor last night and put air in my basketball and the tires of one of our strollers. I know, I know...hard to believe that one person could be so well rounded to not only be a male blogger but also be capable of operating heavy machinery. Sensitivity and resourcefulness? Wit and grit? How did Stefanie luck out so?

For those of you (all of you?) who may not be familiar with the details associated with operating a compressor, let me just give you a little taste of what it takes: plug it in, turn it on, let the tank fill up with air, choose the appropriate attachment tool for your air-filling task, and then let the air out. And please, keep the women and children away...the air can come out fast.

I looked for a picture representation of how I'd grade air compressor use on a manliness scale. I figured it fall somewhere between these two:

Taking the Power Back

Mya had a few things working against her when it came to her wardrobe as a baby:

1) She was born in the same season as her big sister.
2) Her big sister was spoiled by many aunts and friends with a ton of cute clothes.
3) The clothes hardly get any use since babies aren't crawling and wearing them out.
4) Mya's parents decided to build a house, start a business, put in a yard, and have a baby...so good in one way for Mya I guess, but limiting the baby wardrobe budget slightly.

So the result has been Mya getting an early introduction into hand-me-downs. And just when you think she doesn't know any better...

Stefanie was changing Mya's clothes in the restroom of a restaurant on our way to a wedding reception. Right after she got the diaper off, Mya decided to somehow get all of her back (and thus the clothes she was wearing) all wet. Clearly she realized we were headed somewhere and that we'd have to go buy her some new clothes...sneaky little bugger. So off to a nearby store we ran for a new baby outfit.

Afton's Playlist

Not long after Afton turned one, she used to like to sit on our laps as we'd use the computer so she could listen to the music that would be playing. There were certain songs she'd like that we'd have to play over and over. This started again not too long after we showed Afton the song that has her name in it. She got so excited that she had a song about her that she wanted to find out what daddy's and mommy's and Mya's songs were. So we'd sit by the laptop and go through song after song, with Afton usually offering a little commentary about the ones she liked.

So I thought we should use the songs she has started to like as a way to entertain her during our holiday drive down to Mesquite and back. Remarkably, we didn't have to get out any toys, movies, or other entertainment the entire trip. She was so happy to hear her "fun songs" that all she did was sleep or listen to the music. And when each song started she'd shout from the back seat which song it was.

1. Sweet Afton by Nickel Creek - "This is my song! It's called Sweet Afton."

2. Three Little Birds by Bob Marley - "This is momma's song." (Not sure how this ended up being Stef's song.)

3. Daddy's Little Girl by Michael Buble - "This is daddy's song." (And then with each listening of this song she picks out a few words and giggles when they are sung..."He said sugar!..."Easter Bunny?!")

4. Bubbly by Colbie Caillatt - "This is Mya's song." (Afton would lean up in her car seat and look over at Mya so she could let her little sister know that her song was playing.)

5. 1234 by Plain White T's - "1,2,3,4" (This was one of the first songs that she would recognize as soon as it started, and she'd be so excited that she could sing the #'s before the song would.)

6. Hotel California by The Eagles - "We gotta play the bongos." (This is currently her main request for video viewing at home. She loves the @#!*% Freezes Over concert, especially Hotel California, I Can't Tell You Why, and Take It Easy.)

7. Billie Jean by Michael Jackson - "It's Michael Jackson. And Billie Jean. She's just a girl."

8. No Matter What by Boyzone - "It's the white boys' song." (We have an Andrew Lloyd Webber DVD that Afton used to love to watch, and one of the performances is this song by Boyzone with them all dressed in white.)

9. No One Is To Blame by Howard Jones - "Tick-tock song." (You'll know why if you are familiar with the song.)

10. Tonight, Tonight, Tonight by Genesis - "This is the sneaky song." (When she first heard this song start, Afton would start moving her arms around in odd circular patterns with furrowed eyebrows while talking about how sneaky the music sounded...hilarious.)

11. One on One by Hall and Oates - "Cool song."

Kind of an odd grouping of songs, but little Aftie is pretty emphatic about what songs she likes and which ones she doesn't.