Grandma Anna!

Grandma Anna has been visiting us. Sadly, tomorrow is her last day (and I can't believe we didn't start taking pictures until today...). We drove up to Cle Elum and Roslyn today for something to do. There was a car show in Cle Elum, and we went to all the little shops on Main Street that I drive by on my way to the office every week but never have time to go to.

I haven't been to Roslyn in ages. Originally the plan was to eat at Village Pizza, but Grandma Anna can't eat cheese...so that was out. We ended up going to the Roslyn Cafe instead which was really good. Then we checked out the shops in Roslyn.

Checking out Village Pizza...


If this mural looks familiar, Roslyn is where "Northern Exposure" was filmed. Evan was not being a good waiter inside the cafe, so Jeremy had to help him walk off some extra energy.


Walking with Grandma Anna (and, yes, that is a toilet seat on the pole in the background).


Evan at the Coal Miner's Memorial

Cochlear Implant Confusion

It seems that the declaration we received from Evan's would-be CI surgeon, Dr. Sie, last spring was a little bit...premature.

I called the CI team to see what needed to be done to get things rolling for Evan to be implanted this spring. After review of Evan's chart, there were a couple tests that somehow didn't get done and so his candidacy has been temporarily revoked. The additional tests are tentitively scheduled for September. One of the "missing" tests was the psychologist eval of me (and I seem to remember her meeting with Jeremy, and then exchanging some emails with me in lieu of a face-to-face meeting). I guess they've decided the in-person meeting is not optional. Another missing data piece is aided and un-aided hearing tests in the booth. I tried to explain the reason they don't have any results is because Evan frieks out every time they put him in the testing booth (and they've tried it with him probably 5 or 6 times now, at least). I don't forsee this next time being any different, but we'll try again.

We had some renewed interest in pursuing a CI because Evan seems to be more interested in the little bit of sound he does receive. He really likes something we call "head talking"--he pushes his head (behind his hear) up against our mouth, and likes it when we talk right on his head. Maybe it's the vibration or maybe it just tickles, but it really seems like he's hearing something.

This response has also made us wonder if he would get any benefit from a bone-conduction hearing aid. We did have a loaner bone conduction aid for a short time when he was around 2 years old, and it didn't appear to do much for him. But we want to try it again. His audiologist at Children's has another loaner one to set him up with at his next appointment in September. Obviously, if the bone conduction aid is successful, Evan won't get a CI.

Sunglasses!

Evan has decided that sunglasses are not nearly as evil as he first thought. Jeremy noticed that Evan was more frequently grabbing his sunglasses, putting them on, and then leaving them on for awhile. He bought Evan a pair of Cars sunglasses, and Evan will actually wear them :) Sunglasses today, tomorrow his prescription!

Horribly Neglectful...

I admit that I have not been good about keeping Evan's blog updated the past couple of months. Work has been very busy this summer--the other Dr. in the practice is phasing out (which means I'm working more) and we're much busier than we were this time last summer. It's great for cash-flow, but not so great in terms of wanting to do things after I get home from clinic at the end of the day. And by "things," I mean activities other than crashing out in front of the TV or mindlessly clicking the mouse button to advance my way through Mafia Wars or Farm Town. I guess also another reason I'm not on here as much anymore is because I don't need it the same way I needed it when I started blogging.

The only thing to do is try to post a couple updates on the highlights for the past couple of weeks, and then move on with the promise to do better.

Second Half of July Update

Evan is so funny when it comes to jeans. He doesn't really like shorts or pants unless they are denim. If he gets dressed in something other than jeans, he'll wear it for a few hours but sooner or later he sneaks off into his room and gets a pair of jeans--out of his drawer if he has to--and brings them to you to help him put on. He will also pick them out of the (clean) laundry pile, and sometimes the pair he gets is not his. Jeremy took these pictures of Evan getting into daddy's jeans...mister, you are way too silly sometimes!


Evan has leaned how to drink from a sippy cup! I use the word "drink" loosly, because very little water is actually being imbibed. But he has the idea of what the cup is for, and understands the process. Gotta start somewhere, right?

Testing with a lick first.


Wait for it...


Sucess!


Evan's actual birthday was July 15th, but we had his party last Sunday (OK, so this is technically August now...). We tried to keep it small, because Evan gets over-whelmed with lots of people around and kind of shuts down. So we invited over a few of the neighbor families to enjoy the wading pool. The wading-pool ended up not being such a great idea because we filled it on our back porch next to 3 fairly active wasp nests. Luckily our neighbor Scott is handy with the wasp killing spray and had a slip-n-slide that we set up instead. While all the drama was going on outside, Evan got up on the table and into his birthday cake!

Jeremy, Scott, and Neal--Benton Street buds.


The cake before Evan got to it...


...and after.


The horrors of singing "Happy Birthday" (or maybe it was the open flame).


Smooshed or not, McKenzie determined the cupcakes were still edible.

Vacation!

We're back from our trip to the Oregon Coast earlier this week. The pictures are in reverse order (the ones at the end are from the first part of our trip), and I don't have captions yet. But here are the best pictures. Enjoy :)

Birthdays!

July is a big month for birthdays with our family and friends...

Happy Birthday to Gabe, Nathan, Kaden, Jack, Sienna, and Evan (on the 15th). Welcome to the world baby Taylor (and belatedly to our new Cousin Mason also!).

Jeremy and Evan had a blast at Gabe's birthday party at the water park in Quincy. That's where J & E are in the photo above. Today we went to Sienna's birthday party--Evan was not feeling the fun so much. He's really not a fan of lots of people and unfamiliar surroundings--he can do one or the other, but both combined usually leads to a meltdown of some caliber. He did have a good time being bounced around on Sienna's trampoline though...