Ice Cream & Chicken Little Glasses

Tate is embarrassed of his new glasses so we had to be tricky to take a picture. He picked out green glasses to be like Chicken Little. I have to say he looks pretty handsome. It has been somewhat of a struggle to get him to wear them because they don't help him see better, they are just to protect his right eye. When he wore them to his cousins for the first time, his cousin Sophia asked what happened to his eye. Tate calmly stated, "nothing, it is just blind."

Logan and Mommy.
Logan being a cheese ball and I love Tate making faces in the background!
The next morning they say the camera and wanted me to take more pictures. Tate thought his powdered sugar mustache was pretty funny.
And, again, another cheese ball picture.

Great Wolf Lodge

Brad and I decided to take the kids to The Great Wolf Lodge. It is a hotel with an indoor water park located in Washington. This was to be our last vacation before the baby. This is Tate and Logan pooped after being at the water park all night.

We were waiting for the pizza to be delivered.
This is the boys with Wiley.
Tate wanted to sleep on the couch by himself. Logan was in the portacrib, so Brad and I each got our own bed.
We took a ton of more pictures with an underwater camera. I need to go get those developed. It's been so long since I've done that.

The Search for Glasses

It was recommended that we get glasses for Tate to protect his "good eye." With no eye sight in his left eye, we have a lot more stress trying to keep the right eye protected. The lenses do not have a prescription in them.

Tate took this picture of himself.
These are his sports goggles. He loves them and couldn't wait to wear them to t-ball.
When Tate was trying on glasses, after a few, he came up to me and said, "Mom, I can't see out of this eye still." That broke my heart. It had never occurred to me that he thought that he would be able to see again. After that, all he wanted to do was go home. We wanted to make this fun for him and we wanted him to have good experiences at OHSU and the CEI so we went on the tram. The tram takes you from the hospital, which is up on a hill, to parking down below. This was the view from the tram station at the top.
Here we are riding the tram. We could see The Old Spaghetti Factory from the tram so we decided to eat there for dinner. It ended up being a really fun night for us.

Fourth of July-Uncle Kirk visits!

The boys and I made hats. They of course wanted to sport them over at Grandma's and Grandpa's house.

Here is Tate being a cheese ball.
The joys of everyone wanting to light the fireworks. You have Jeff and his kids...Abby, Katie, Maddy, and Grant and then Josh and Tate. Jeff and Josh did a great job with what we had to work with. We didn't buy fireworks until the day of and the selection wasn't that great.
Kirk, Brad and Tate.
Grandma and Logan.

Signs of Coats Disease

Tate has probably had Coats Disease since he was two and a half. We could find pictures back that far with the "amber colored eye." It is not that we never noticed, we just thought that the light caught his eye funny. Had we known, we would have taken him in a lot sooner. This discoloration is also a indicator of Retinoblastoma. I have put links to this type of cancer to the left as well. There is a link to a story about it that was on the Today Show. Again, we are so thankful and feel very blessed that Tate was not diagnosed with that, but we feel like if we could help even one person diagnose either of this eye disorders it is worth it. Here are some pictures of Tate. It amazes me that he has adapted to not having eye sight in his left eye.

2 Years 6 Months

2 Years 7 Months

3 Years 4 Months

3 Years 8 Months

Eye Exam #1

Tate before his exam under anesthesia.

After we brought his home, he slept for about two hours and then he was in pretty good spirits. His eyes were still dilated but he was okay to watch TV from across the room.
They gave him that elk at the hospital. It's name is Casey but Tate renamed him Patchy because of the patch. He also received a hand tied quilt (wonder which Stake made that!)
Tate was diagnosed with Coat's Disease today. They started treatment today with laser and cryotherapy (freezing). This is all done with out putting anything in Tate's eye. You can read more about it on the link to the left.