Our 978th Eye Appointment

To be fair, I am honestly not sure of the number because I stopped counting a long time ago, but 978 seems a bit appropriate. And, I say that in a positive way because you know that we LOVE our appointments. What is not to love about hanging out with our family and getting feedback on our third child, Anderson's left eye?

You know that Anderson promptly settled in to watch some football with Big Cousin Noah.

Sidenote: Noah is in COLLEGE. Officially. He is officially in college and I think this was actually his first visit home. I do not even understand how this has happened, but I love that we were able to see him and hear about his classes. 

There was also some swimming, of course. 

At his actual appointment, we found out these things: 

1. His vision in his left eye is 20/25 which is UNHEARD OF IN A CATARACT EYE. The average corrected vision is 20/200 so I do not even know what is happening right now* except that I should clearly never ever complain about anything ever again. 

*The last 7 years of patching is what is happening right now. 

2. He gets new glasses WITHOUT the bifocal. For the first time in over 7 years, he will stop hearing from other kids that his glasses are "broken" because there is a crack in them. Also, and this is life changing, we do not have to drive downtown to get his glasses! I literally just added 17 hours a month to my life AND raised my sanity level 2 points. 

3. We can possibly stop patching at his next appointment. I cannot talk about this one now because I do not have words. 

4. We should not have let Anderson stay up until midnight to watch the VOLS go into overtime because he was yawning during his movie debut. 

On that note....we were asked by UAB Media department a few months ago if they could film part of Anderson's appointment and then interview us about our experience. 

I would give Dr. Cogen my right arm if he asked me for it, so you know that I immediately said yes and then thrust Brandon into the actual interview once it actually happened. 

Anderson did an awesome job and explained his cataract journey and I was so proud of him and, as always, so grateful that we have ended up in those seats because it means that our baby can see. 

Max. No captions needed.

Videos:

Max face planting at Jump Jam

Max dancing @ Anderson's game

Max jumping off of rock

Max during his brief lifeguard phase

Max FINALLY got the tie he has been asking for the last 3 months

Birthdays, Bseball & the Eclipse

August is FULL of birthdays!!  We started the month with Austin's & everyone (except me...work) celebrated at Wasabi's!

Next up, I turned 36 and Max was THRILLED about eating at Salsarita's. 

But, he did help Mom make this cake, so he clearly made up for his pouting. 

It looks like 36 is not going to be the year that I start focusing on my hair. 

A few days later, we celebrated Brandon!

Because being a parent means never actually blowing out your candles. 

Tradition of GG's cake!

We hit up a Smokies games with some people from AE. 

It was really fun. 

Perhaps the highlight of the night was when Brandon won a bucket of chicken!!!

Max LOVED the fireworks. His reactions to things always make activities worth it. 

We were SO excited about the eclipse and it turned out to be even cooler than imagined. 

We went to Noni's with the Brimers, GG & some of my mom's neighbors. I love when my kids eat on a blanket because it gives me such a flashback to my entire childhood with my cousins. 

We made the sun viewer things and they were actually really cool. 

GG knows how to rock some solar glasses!

Thanks to Noni & Bop for hosting. 

Loved spending the day with them!

During the darkness!

We made s'mores in the middle of the afternoon because....why not?

Back To School

*These pics are not in any kind of actual order.*

Back to School: Anderson

Anderson's 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Moore, is AMAZING so far. She is very Type A so I have a feeling that it is going to be a good year. 

Posing after his back to school haircut. 

I know that he loves me because he humors me with these pictures. 

I really love that we invested in this UT backpack last year because I have a feeling it will serve as his actual backpack for most of his school career. One day it might actually fit him. 

I will walk him into school on the first day every year that he lets me. 

Not much has changed here.

Max & I walked him in another day. I discovered that they will let him in before 7:10 if he is a "walker."

This was one of his first assignments. I am really glad that we crammed in all of those summer activities so that he could say he went to our house and his grandma's house. 

Back to School: Me

August is always the craziest month for anyone in education. No matter how much I try to pre-plan, prepare, etc. it is crazy. 

I went in to catch up on some things that could only be done at school and brought Noni with us to watch these boys chase each other around the gym. 

Tracking down all of these cokes were my main summer activity. 

"Back to School" also means "Back to Football Games"

Back to School: Max

I love the updates that I get from Max's school. This one was from his last splash day over the summer. 

Technically Max has been going to school some over the summer but this was his first day of the last pre-school class and I wanted to document it. 

Things I want to note: his boots, his hat, his new wedding pants, his camo backpack/lunchbox, his monkey. 

Love. 

A pic from his first day as a bear. 

This pic with Marley was actually a different day than the first day despite the fact that he is wearing the exact same outfit.