Great-Great

Two weeks ago we ate Christmas Dinner with Andy's grandparents at the Retirement home. We had a great dinner, salmon or roast beef, veggies, and potatoes. Fore dessert we had eggnog bread pudding. We are convinced that they must put laxatives in the dessert to keep everyone regular, because, yes, we were way to regular the next morning. Despite the minor mishap, It was nice to visit Elias' great grandparents.

Nystagmus Part 2

About two months ago I posted that Elias was diagnosed with congenital motor nystagmus, which means his eyes shake. We have since gone to a few different appointments and have learned more about it. Basically his eyes involuntary shake. He doesn't know they are shaking or perceive shaking, it just makes everything a bit blurry.
Two weeks ago the Doctor examined his eyes, his vision is not quite as good as most babies, but it's not horrible either, She said that in a year glasses would probably help to him. We are very happy to know that there is nothing structurally abnormal with his eyes, which is common for people with nystagmus.

He naturally makes the best of nystagmus:
We also think we have found his neutral position, which is the position where he sees most clearly: head to the left, eyes to the right. It is a bit marked, but I think it makes him even cuter;) The Dr. said we would likely want to do a surgery reconnecting the eye muscles so that his neutral position would be straight ahead before he starts school. I could see the surgery being necessary before he starts driving for sure.
It is likely that even with glasses he won't see 20/20, but we will pray for the best.
You will notice in many of the pictures that I post that he often holds his head in his neutral position so that he can see better.

seattle

This weekend we went to Seattle to visit some friends!
First stop was dinner in Tacoma with one of Andy's friends from HighSchool (I didnt take any pictures)
Second Stop- hotel with a swimming pool. Elias loves the water and swimming kicking and splashing. We didnt take the picture until about 20 minutes after we started swimming and he was starting to get cold here, but still oh so cute ;)

Third stop: Breakfast with Krista and Jeremy! I have known Krista my whole life, we grew up going to the same church.

Fourth and Final Stop:
Beaverton Mall's playland to meet up with Colby, Andy's good friend who was visiting Seattle from California. He has 2 little boys, Elias loved playing with Reid, the older boy.

Gotta Love the Plug

Elias loves his pacifier, but has his own very unique way to use it.

6 month statistics

Elias had his 6 month check up on Monday. We'll he hasn't gained much weight since his 4 month check up, Ill blame that on his new ability to jump and scoot.
Height: 2'4" (91.69%) down from 97% he is still in the top 10% though!
Weight: 16 lbs 14 oz (36.64%) skinny dude!
Head Circumference: 17.76" (83.65%) perfect!
AT 4 MONTHS HE WAS
15 lbs 12.5 oz (70.78% percentile)
27.25" long (97.60%)

Happy Thanksgiving!

This years turkey king: Elias Benjamin Dryden
I hope you all had a nice thanksgiving and hope we can all remember to continue to be thankful throughout this next year!
Elias had his first few bites of rice cereal this Thanksgiving, and a taste of sweet potatoes. It was fun to watch him taste the potatoes, and try to eat the rice cereal, which of course ended up all over...I think I'm too lazy to introduce him to very much solid foods.
We spent thanksgiving lunch with the Hawthorne/Lee family eating chilaquiles, a Mexican breakfast food and then ate dinner with the Dryden family, eating turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes like good thankful Americans.

Tutoring

One night a week, Andy, Elias and I go and tutor a family from Burma. We do it through Catholic Charities Refugee mentoring program. It has been fun to get a taste of their life and keep my foot in the door of the ESL teaching world. Although the youngest (2 year old) boy of the family we tutor is quite jealous of Eli, I am sure some day they will turn out to be good friends.