Camping and the Hospital...

...But not in that order. A little over a week ago Connor had a special trip to the hospital. It was all routine and he's healthy as ever. With a family history of Retinoblastoma (cancer of the eyes), Connor has to be checked every couple of months for his first 2 years or so of life. We usually go to his pediatric ophthalmologist, he gets his eyes dilated with drops, and the doctor flashes some lights and mirrors and makes sure no tumors have developed. But he needed to have one good baseline checkup where he would be completely immobilized so the doctor could get a really thorough check with ultrasounds etc. So, we went in early in the morning to the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. They took us to a room with a baby size hospital bed (that made me want to cry) and had us change him in to a baby size hospital gown (that made us laugh). He looked so adroable swimming in the tiny hospital outfit that was way too big. Then we got to wait for about 2 hours, we still don't really know why they had us pull our sleepy boy out of bed so early in the morning when they were just going to make us wait for hours to get in! The poor little guy was a trouper. He was exhausted and hungry because he wasn't allowed to eat from 4am to 10am when he got out of surgery. Once we finally got him to fall asleep, about 20 minutes later they came in and said the doctor was ready. Perfect. They let us know what would be going on, showed us the waiting room, and took our baby in the opposite direction. That's when I really did cry a little bit. I knew it was all routine, but watching him be carried away in the opposite direction, knowing he would be anesthetized and that there was always a slight chance they would find something...it was all just a little much for that early in the morning! It was a pretty quick procedure, the doctor came in about 30 minutes later to let us know that they found nothing and his eyes look completely healthy, not even a need for glasses. Then another 15 minutes later and they came and brought us to him. Walking from the waiting room to the recovery room, I could hear his sad pathetic cry down the hall. When we walked in, there he was with all kinds of chords and tubes everywhere. Nothing you EVER want to see on your child! I fed him right away and then he howled for another 20 minutes or so as he came out of the anesthesia, they signed us out and we got to take our sleepy, happy, healhty baby home. His eyes were red and swollen and so so tired for the next day or 2, but besides that you'd never know what trauma he went through! (to put it slightly melodramatically) What a champ!
Hanging out waiting

Dad trying to get him to sleep

Asleep in Mom's lap

The red, swollen, tired look he wore for the next 2 days


That weekend we went camping at the beach with my brother Brandon and Melanie and Ty. The weather was great and we had been dying to go camping, so Brandon organized an overnighter. We cooked hot dogs for dinner, had some s'mores and woofums around the campfire, had a good night's sleep (it WAS camping after all, but we slept pretty darn well) Connor slept cozy and warm in his warm-weather sleeper we never we'd use here in California-it was a gift from Adam's 2nd family in New Mexico-for about 8 solid hours and woke up with a big smile wanting to play! We had pancakes and eggs for breakfast (thank you Batter Blaster my new love), packed up, played on the beach for a little bit, and headed home to our showers. What a great overnight camping outing. Thanks Brando and Mel!
My sleeping boys

Bright eyed and bushy tailed

Our morning visitor

Sandy baby toes