Rebecca is doing great!

Rebecca had her probing procedure on Wednesday morning. She did absolutely wonderful and it is apparent that the procedure was a success. I could tell a huge difference by Wednesday afternoon. Her eye is not gooping up anymore and no more random tears. Chad even commented last night that she seems even happier than usual. Thanks for all the prayers for our little sweetie!

Rebecca's Procedure

Rebecca had an appointment with the pediatric ophthalmologist today. She confirmed that Rebecca does have a clogged tear duct and would benefit from a probing procedure. To my surprise, she recommended right away - like tomorrow morning. So we did pre-registration and pre-op right after her eye appointment. Her procedure will be Wednesday at 9:30. It is a very quick procedure (like 30 seconds) and she will only have a general anesthesia. She will have no pain and I'll give her eye drops for 10 days to prevent infection. Please pray that the tear duct opens and heals without any complications.

Rebecca Picture

Here is a good picture of Rebecca from last Friday. I think Pink Puppy is gonna start looking like Piglet one of these days. If you haven'ts seen Hannah's lovey lately, Piglet is missing part of an arm now. LOL And doesn't Rebecca look so adorable in those Baby Legs? Thank you McGrath clan!

New Train

Proud boy earned a new train last night. :)

Mom's Birthday Party (38 photos), by Julie Smith

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M&M Field Trip (56 photos), by Julie Smith

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The Missing Trains

Zachary is doing so well with his potty training lately. It was like something had to just click and he enthusiastically pees whenver his body allows. We have been implementing an incentive program where he earns a sticker for each pee and then a certain number of stickers equals a new Take Along Thomas train. (I didn't actually buy a bunch of new trains - bought a box of gently used trains for $20 off Craigs List. Woohoo!) The boy is doing so well that he gets a new train every two days now! Needless to say, a new incentive program will begin after he completes this sheet.

Now for the really funny part. He requests certain trains on a regular basis, not realizing that his requests won't really make a difference because it is what it is, you know. Tonight, he lined up all his trains. Then he created spaces between some, pointed to the empty spot, looked at me sadly, and named off the ones were missing. "This is Edward," he said longingly of the first empty spot. "This is Cranky." He continued on about the missing Bulstrode, Trevor, Douglas, Skarloey, and so on. I just looked back at him sadly and confirmed that they were, in fact, missing in action. Work it, baby, work it.

Rebecca's Stats

We went to Rebecca's one year appointment last week. She got two shots and Hannah cried more than she did! Eczema is still an issue, so we will all be switching laundry detergent soon to something more gentle and chemical free. Her tear duct is still not cleared up so we have been referred to a pediatric ophthalmologist. Here are the big girl's stats:

Weight: 21.6 pounds (53 %)
Height: 29.5 inches (60 %)
Head cir: 17.75 inches (48 %)

She was officially big enough to turn her car seat around, so she got that plus got to move to the back seat with Hannah. Zach (who is prone to carsickness) moved up to the middle row. All the kids love the new seating arrangement!

Rebecca's Birthday Party (70 photos), by Julie Smith

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Preschool Update

I get questions periodically about how the homeschooling is going. I am actually enjoying it quite a bit these days. We have school on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (unless there are special circumstances such as an illness) for about an hour, depending on the art projects we are doing.

Hannah absolutely loves school and asks for it nearly every day. Zach joins us when it looks interesting. :) We are currently on letter L, the color orange (anaranjado), the number 8, and the shape square. We also study the current Cubbies verse, learn Bible stories, work on handwriting, phonics, math, creative activities and have a social studies and science lesson surrounding the Bible story almost each lesson. For example, we are studying the days of creation in Genesis 1. We have been learning about grass for the last week (types of grass, how it keeps soil from eroding, what eats it). Since the kids already know their colors, we always translate those into Spanish. We play outside when we can, sing songs all the time, and Dora and Mickey are never too far away. LOL

By the way, I keep all of the papers and colorings they are doing with school. If any grandparent would like to take some samples, you are more than welcome!