I Hate Eye Appointments!

Today Cooper had an eye appointment.  I told his classroom yesterday that he would be a few hours late; his appointment was at 9:30, so I told them he'd be in around 11.  Considering the hospital is less than 10 minutes from school, I thought this seemed reasonable.  Boy, was I wrong.  We didn't even leave the waiting room until 10:25.   Then we saw a nurse for about 10 minutes.  She dilated his eyes and told us we would see the doc in 30 minutes.  An hour and a half later, we were put into a room to see him.  I mean, really, how can they be THAT backed up?  We finally left the clinic at 12:30.  Three hours!  It's just ridiculous!  I made it home (I had called school and told them what was going on and that it just wasn't worth it for him to come in) around 1.  Just in time to feed him.

Cooper sees a ton of doctors and goes to a lot of different clinics, but the eye clinic is seriously ridiculous. I'm pretty sure our doc is the only pediatric neuro-ophthalmologist in town, though.  Otherwise, I'd just find somewhere else.  But Cooper's issue is developmental as well as sight, so we're stuck.

Oh, Cooper's eyes are fine.  Everything is looking good.  The Sabril doesn't seem to be affecting them. Also, he probably won't be having surgery in June.

Cooper's 18 month reject picture... I thought the other one was a little cuter.

Sleeping like an old man

Cooper has a new, really funny sleeping position.  Laying down or sitting up, he now puts both hands behind his head.  It make me laugh every time.

With flash:

Without flash:

In other news, today is the first day in five that Cooper doesn't have fever.  Poor kid has had a crappy February.  He has had a stomach bug, ear infection, and is just getting over some unnamed virus.  Hopefully all this nastiness is behind us so Cooper doesn't have to miss any more school!

Swallow Study/ENT

Happy Valentine's Day!  I got flowers and a box of chocolates from Brad, and a stomach bug from Cooper.  Yay babies.  We got Cooper an M&M shirt in New York for the big love day.  He wore it today, and got so many compliments.

Yes, he is precious.

Anyway, Cooper had a swallow study today.  And considering that he hadn't eaten any liquids by mouth since October, did pretty well.  We are going to start by giving him 1/2 an ounce of thickened liquid (juice, probably) a day by cup.  Yes, cup.  My little baby is growing up!  Also, we can go back to giving him solid food again, since he did great with that.

Then, he had an ENT appointment.  We were going to have an audiology appointment as well, but his ears, especially the right one, were too gross.  He probably has a small infection.  So we're going to have that appointment in about a month.  If we can't get an ABR (the ear test he needs) because his ears are STILL too gross, then Dr. B will put new tubes in and do a sedated ABR.  So pray that everything is good with his ears in a month and that he sleeps through the procedure.  No sedation!! 

Birthday Dinner at Craft

On Wednesday, while we were in New York, Brad, Andrew, Jordan, and I went to Craft to celebrate my birthday.  Craft is Tom Colicchio's restaurant.  I was so excited to go, and the food was AMAZING!!

Brad and me:

Jordan and Andrew:

The entrance to Craft (thank goodness Andrew knew where this place was):

We all got the tasting menu.  It was seven courses, and like I said before, amazing.

The first course was Hamachi with satsuma, hon-shimeji, and coriander.  It was a light start to what would be a very heavy meal.

The second course was Andrew and Brad's favorite.  It was a Jerusalem artichoke soup with a six-minute egg and black truffles.  The egg is soft boiled for five minutes, then breaded and deep-fried for another minute.  Seriously genius. (I forgot to take a picture of this course until I was almost finished; oops.)

The third course was my favorite.  It was Columbia river sturgeon wrapped in pancetta and roasted with roasted cauliflower, almonds, and capers.  So creamy and delicious.

The fourth course was a guinea hen with foie gras, black truffle, and cranberry jam.  Other than the really good foie gras, we all agreed that this course was probably the weak link of the meal.

The fifth course was a veal breast with chantarelles, parsnip, and whole grain mustard (which they left off for me).  I have never been the biggest veal fan, but this might have made me a convert.  It was so rich and so good.  This was Jordan's favorite.

The sixth course was a grapefruit-cardamom granita with citrus and honeycomb.  Boy did we need this course after all that heavy, rich food.

Dessert was a chocolate stout cake with malt and roasted banana.  There was also some sort of ice cream, but I was too busy eating to hear what kind, cinnamon maybe.  The malt on top was awesome, especially with the banana.  

They also brought us little petit fours.  They were ok; the top one was a little strange.  It was all texture, no real flavor.

And then, because we didn't have enough desserts, they brought me a birthday treat.  The waiter had overheard our conversation about it being my big day.  It was a caramel mousse with some sort of chocolate toffee cake, wrapped in a chocolate ganache.  Oh my Lord, it was amazing.  I made everyone share.

Needless to say, it was my best birthday dinner ever.  The food was great, the company was great, it was a really fun night.  

Pneumonia

This is very late, so I will be brief.

Three weekends ago (Martin Luther King weekend), Cooper was REALLY sick.  He had a 102.8 fever and his pulse ox was in the low 70's.  So he was on oxygen and Tylenol all weekend, but he did get better.  Over the next couple of weeks, he spiked a couple of fevers.  We finally decided to take him in and get him checked out.  And, of course, he had pneumonia.  They put him on IV antibiotics for 48 hours.  It was, relatively speaking, a pretty easy hospital visit.  Except, Cooper is much more aware of where he is.  And he does not want to be at the hospital.  So we were all very happy to be home!

Poor baby.  This was his first night.

He was kinda happy with this stander, but then they brought him a bouncer!

Cooper and Daddy,