Spring Break 2016: Cancun, Mexico

Cancun was... AMAZING!

I love the water.  I grew up a water baby and I've successfully turned Max into one too.  

For the past year I've been trying to find the best time to take a family trip to the beach.  November looked promising but the abundance of seaweed and the fact that Jesse wasn't yet mobile made it a less than ideal time to visit the Caribbean.

As we headed into 2016, spring break was approaching fast.  Last time we kept the kids home for the week it broke us, so a trip somewhere was definitely in the picture.

After spending days researching hotels, making lists and reading trip forums, I narrowed it down to a handful of hotels in the Cancun and Playa del Carmen area that were geared toward kids: Iberostar Cancun, Iberostar Paraiso Lindo, Iberostar Paraiso Maya, Paradisus Playa del Carmen, Royal Solaris Cancun, Barcelo Maya Palace Delux, Paradisus Playa Del Carmen La Esmeralda, Hotel Ziva, Sando Playacar.  

Update: I also just found out about the Barcelo Maya Caribe from a friend and I think we may check out that resort next year. 

We finally settled on the Iberostar Cancun.  The main reasons for this choice were:

1) kids water playground out by the main pool and activity area 
    (read: not tucked in the back of the property)
2) beautiful beach steps away from the pool and visible from the pool 
3) really nice big pool and gardens with swim up bar, of course
4) decent reviews of the food
5) all inclusive

While we typically aren't 'all inclusive' type of people, for this trip it was definitely the way to go.  At first I was very nervous about spending 3 1/2 days just lounging by the pool and playing in the sand, but it turns out that the time flew by and we could have easily stayed a few more days.  The kids kept us active between the big pool, kid water playground, and the beach.

We didn't even get a chance to leave the resort to visit Tulum or Chichen Itza or go down to the water park Xcaret.  Perhaps on the next trip.  

As for food, we did get to try out all the resort restaurants, as I was able to reserve our dinner time as soon as I booked the room.  This was key since they were booked out at least two days in advance.  Of course there was always the buffet option, but being the planner that I am, I always had a special restaurant booked for dinner.  We enjoyed the steak house and Mexican restaurant the best, but the hibachi was good too and Max seemed to enjoy the show.  The snack bar had some really good burgers for lunch and one day they even did paella by the beach.

Some highlights from the trip include:

 - Being able to push the second bed into the corner so Max and Jesse could sleep together and thusly Mommy and Daddy could share a bed.  

- Jesse sleeping incredibly well in the big bed with Max.

- Max waking up, rolling over to Jesse and signing "good morning Jesse"  
(it's a song we wrote and sing to Max or Jesse when we need to wake them up.  As adorable as it is, it's also not so great when Max wakes up Jesse, loving or not.  It's too cute to stop, but come on kid, give us a break.)

- Daily naps for the kids by the pool.  Yep, max would crash out on a padded lounge chair for about 2 hours each day pool side.  It was great.  Poolside naps are, in a single word, awesome.  

- Family nap time poolside on day 3.  Did I mention that we got both kids napping at the same time!

- Sand castles on the beach.  The sand was so nice.

- Getting drinks from the swim up bar!  Max loved his blended fruit drinks.

- Pina Coladas! 

- Being lazy and doing nothing for 3 1/2 days.  

- Fun Frozen show Wednesday night.  Max loved it. 

Overall I'm really glad we choose to come to Cancun and this resort, we had such a great time. 

Check out the full set of pictures HERE.

A big family Christmas - Part II

Howdy Folks!

Day 1 and our little cowboy was ready to go.  We found these awesome hats in the main house and if you've read Part I already then you know that there were just about enough for all of us.

The first two days of our stay were pretty darn cold.  So cold that we even got some snow!  Yes, we traveled from sunny California to be met with snow in Texas.  What is going on with this weather!

The first day the cold didn't bother us too much since we spent most of the day inside unwrapping presents.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the gift table.  It was ridiculous.  And yes, we had to find a way to get all those presents home.

I think it was at least 1 or 2pm by the time all the Christmas gifts were unwrapped and even Max was ready to take a nap.  Though our baby monitor reached from the cabin to the main house, Max was perfectly content to sleep in his "fort" in the kitchen.

Let me explain.

In the kitchen proper there was a small nook, enough for a twin bunk bed and nothing else.  It also had a curtain across it. (see the picture to the right)  So this is where max would sleep each afternoon and also play fort with Uncle Matt and Daddy.

Needless to say the child was quite spoiled this Christmas.  When you are 1 of 2 grandchildren on both sides and the other can't yet talk or walk, you tend to get very spoiled.  His favorite toy was the playdough.  Here's one of many pictures of him playing with the stuff.  Even now, we have to keep it hidden or it will be everywhere.  He especially loves the pusher tool in the lower left of the picture.

That night as we headed back to the cabin it began to snow.  Like, significant snow.  And in the morning there was a beautiful dusting of snow across the ground.  I had to sit Jesse down to take his picture.  His first snowfall!  I'm sure he didn't understand, but he sure did smile big.

Day 2 headed out to some wineries.  We were, after all, in the Texas hill country.  I cannot believe how many new wineries have popped up along 290 out by Fredericksburg.  There was no way we could even hit a quarter of them in our stay.

Because it was so cold, we focused on indoor places.  First we hit up Becker, then Grape Creek, then Woodrose. Although we would have loved to visit a few more, the low 40's temperatures kept us from enjoying the outside.  Also, we'd already purchased more bottles of wine than we could drink, so it was time to stop.

Back at the house we gathered for more play time, drinks, and lively (?) conversation.  Well, lets just say it was a bunch of tired adults and two very awake kids.

Our last day at the ranch the weather was perfect.  And it's a good thing too, because everyone needed some outside time.  Max loved playing on the swing set and enjoyed the bird blind too.  Jeremy, Matt, and their dad played basketball, and the rest of us sat outside drinking wine on the beautiful sunny day.  It was still chilly enough for jackets, but feeling the sun on your face was so nice.  That night Jeremy and I even left the kids at the ranch and headed out for a date night!

We had such a wonderful time at the ranch and we were sad to have to say goodbye to everyone.  In retrospect I wish we would have booked at least one more night at the place.

Austin

Of course no trip would be complete without a stop in Austin.

After our stay in Fredericksburg, we headed back to Austin to visit with friends and enjoy some good Tex-Mex and BBQ before we left.  We were so fortunate to be able to see so many friends in the short time we had there, and to those we didn't get to see, we will catch you next time!

Of course we also enjoyed some scrumptious meals at Hula Hut, Rudy's, and Torchie's.  It was so great to see our friend Mark for our traditional lunch stop at Torchie's and even more fun to be able to randomly text him with a "hey, what are you doing for lunch Thursday" message.    We also got to see our friends new little baby boy who arrived just in time for our visit :)  I'm sure he took us into consideration when he decided to make his debut.

Though it was nice to see everyone, it is great to be home and was nice to have a few more days to relax and adjust before coming back to work.  Speaking of work, I should go...

Check out the set of pictures HERE.  

A big family Christmas - Part I

About a year ago, Jeremy informed me that he wanted to have a big family Christmas.  At the time I thought he was crazy and perhaps had one too many drinks that night.  I reminded him of the hilarious, and oh to real, movie National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.  But he insisted, "It'll be great" he said.

A few weeks later and we were still talking about it.  A few months after that the Quiet Hill Ranch was booked for the entire family, just 30 minutes west of Fredericksburg, TX.  We were committed.

So the day after Christmas, we hopped a plane at 6am and headed down to Texas.

After some short delays and the very fortunate circumstances that allowed us to get a free SUV upgrade from Alamo (thank you), we were on our way to our first stop, Torchy's Tacos!

Living in California, I cannot begin to express how much we miss good tacos and BBQ.  Even my parents in PA miss it.  So much so that they stopped by Rudy's for BBQ before meeting us at Torchy's.

While we all arrived in Austin at different times, it seemed appropriate that our first family gathering would be at Torchy's.

After some quick eats, we loaded up the caravan (3 cars for 7 people) and headed west.  Second stop: Stonehouse Vineyard.

Now, we've been living in California for about a year and a half at this point and because we live so close to Napa and Sonoma we tend to head up there fairly often.  Despite the wonderful bold reds produced in California, I've always held a special place in my heart for Texas wines.  Texas is where I first started enjoying wines and visiting wineries.  A Texas winery, Flat Creek, is where Jeremy and I went on one of our early dates and it's where we got engaged.

However, somewhere in the middle of our first tasting at Stonehouse, I realized something.  I realized that I may have turned into a wine snob.  Even those reds from Australia, the sister winery to Stonehouse, just didn't taste that great to me.  They all tasted very smooth and fruity, not bold and dry like I was used to.  We even left without buying a bottle of their signature Tawney port!  Something has changed indeed.

With two bottles of wine in hand, it was time to head to Fredericksburg.  The boys headed to the grocery store and the rest of us headed to the ranch.

A quick note about the Quiet Hill Ranch.  This place is amazing.  Because we were four families we were able to rent out the entire place to ourselves.  4 cabins and 1 main house.  The cabins were small but cozy and the house was large and beautiful.  Very Texas, very open, huge kitchen.  Also, the cabin that my parents were occupying, #4, was a handicapped cabin.  I'm not sure how we stumbled upon a place so perfect, but it was awesome.  The grounds even had a swing set for Max and an enclosed bird blind for viewing wildlife.  I could have stayed for 2 or 3 more days easily.

By the time the boys got back from grocery shopping it was already 10pm.  For those of us coming from the west coast this wasn't so much of a problem, but for the east coast folks it was pretty late, and we hadn't eaten dinner yet.  So Dad and I threw together some chicken noodle soup, we all chowed down, and then headed to bed.

... To Be Continued with Part II

A trip to see Dr. Lingua

Over the last few weeks we've settled into a state of normalcy with Jesse.  His nystagmus no longer consumes our every waking thought and most days we don't even think about it.  He's just our sweet little Jesse who is probably the happiest baby ever.  Seriously, this kid is so happy.

Well, last week it came time for us to focus on the eyes again.  A few weeks back we were fortunate enough to get an appointment with Dr. Lingua and it was now time for us to make the trek down to LA see him.

Our appointment was set for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and we were very grateful to be able to get in to see him with only a few weeks notice, especially since he only operates on kids over 2 yrs and Jesse is only 6 months.  His assistant, Susan, is wonderful and so understanding.

Also while we were there, another family from one of my FB groups (American Nystagmus Network) happened to also be visiting with their daughter to get this very procedure done.  Her little daughter was having her fourth eye surgery and we happen to have our appointment at the same time as their follow up.  I cannot thank them enough for talking to us and sharing stories like we were life long friends.   Understanding what they went though gave us so much insight into what we may encounter someday with Jesse.

Our appointment with Dr. Lingua was fairly short, but gave us confirmation on what we had all thought but could never say for sure, and that is that the 'hardware' that makes up Jesse's eyes looks great.  Optic nerve, fundus and retina all look good and he has no refractive error.  Dr. Lingua agreed with our opinion not to get an MRI at this time and he did not detect any optical albinism.  If it weren't for the movement he would probably have great vision and even with the movement his vision probably won't be that bad.  Which we can already tell with how active Jesse is.

Though a short visit, we were glad to have someone who is so highly regarded look at Jesse's eyes and we will probably still follow through with our plans to see Dr. Hertle sometime in the new year.  Though Jesse may have surgery someday, it will most likely be to dampen the movement to help him in social settings more than anything.  And though we aren't out of the woods yet, we are really so grateful to hear that his vision looks decent and to watch his development progress each day.

Speaking of development, make the jump HERE to read all about our trip to LA and the recent milestones that Jesse and Max are hitting.

For Part VII click here:  A trip to see Dr. Hertle

and HERE to start from the beginning.

Two for Tuesday

After the initial assessment and a month of anxiety, we have finally settled into a sense of normalcy.   Though we still worry about Jesse, he's proven that his development is right on track and he is doing great.  He loves to army crawl across the floor and he wants to be playing with whatever Max is into.  (Not always to Max's pleasure of course).

Last tuesday we visited San Francisco Audiology to have Jesse's hearing checked.  We didn't really notice any issues at home, but our daycare teachers mentioned that he doesn't respond to his name like the other kids do.  We figured this was either because he doesn't care (like his brother), or because he can't see far enough to make it worth picking up his head to look.

Either way, we knew if there was any concern we had to get it checked out, so I made an appointment with a pediatric audiologist in SF, Dr. Dobbs.  

Dr. Dobbs was great.  He took us in right away and was great with Jesse.  First we did a few inner ear tests to confirm a lack of fluid in the middle ear.  Both tests went great and gave us confidence there wasn't fluid in the lungs or an inner ear infection.  

Next he left the room and would speak to Jesse through a set of speakers, either left or right, to see if he could get a reaction from him.  We knew this test would be difficult because Jesse is only 6 months old, but Dr. Dobbs was very patient and even took a break in the middle of testing to give Jesse a chance to 'reset.'

Though he didn't react to all the sounds, we do know that he would react when Dr. Dobbs spoke at any volume, but he didn't seem to care about the beeps or sounds.  At this point it is hard to say if that's because of a hearing issue at those frequencies or because he's a 6 month old who doesn't care.  We will go back in January to revaluate, but this was a great start and gave us a lot of reassurance.

After taking some time to have a nice lunch out in the city, we headed back home to catch Jesse's second appointment of the day.  Today Jesse was meeting Nicole and another lady from the Regional Center, Early Start program.  

A few weeks ago we'd had Jesse evaluated with some ladies from the school district, but they specifically focus on his vision and not overall development.

The ladies from the Regional Center focused on Jesse's development and ran through a series of activities to gauge his level.  

Some activities involved finding a cheerio on a placemat, picking up red blocks with both hands, passing blocks from hand to hand, anticipating being pulled up when laying face up and the arms are pulled, shaking a little bell, and a few others.  

Well, Jesse did great and he doesn't qualify for services!  Woo hoo, good job Jesse!  (In order to qualify you have to be at least 33% deficient in one area of development).  While I haven't read the full report yet, the lady told me that he's passing all his 24 week milestones and he's even meeting some of the 28 week ones.  And while we are ecstatic that he is being denied services, we will have him reevaluated in about 6 months to make sure he doesn't develop a need for them in the future.

So we are now feeling more confident in Jesse's development which means we've been able to spend the last week or two just relaxing and moving into a "normal" schedule of raising two little boys!  Ha!

Next wednesday is a meeting with Dr. Lingua so stay tuned to see how that full battery of tests go.

Part VII: A trip to see Dr. Lingua

Every baby is unique

The past month has been a roller coaster of emotions and unknowns for our family.  We've been taken on a journey that we didn't anticipate, but along the way we've learned to cope and breathe and realize that everything is going to be okay.  Life is wonderful and we have an amazing family with two beautiful happy little boys who mean the world to us.

As we are now more informed, better educated, and more reassured, we feel ready to share our story with you all.  Join us on our journey.

Part I: The Day Our World Turned Upside Down

The best of the worst

Over the last few weeks Jesse has continued to hit some key milestones in his development.  Like most parents, we are of course thrilled to see our little boy grow and develop, but given Jesse's nystagmus and unknown visual acuity, we are even more excited that his development is progressing so well.

Over the last week Jesse has started to sit by himself for a few seconds, reach out and grab toys with both hands, scoot across the floor, and even balance while standing against a couch.  All of these things tell us that though his eyes may be moving his visual acuity is good.

How good?  Well, we still won't know that for a while.  But at least good enough to be developmentally on track.

Additionally, this week we were visited by a vision specialist who is a teacher with the Oakland Unified School District and a program coordinator through California's Early Intervention Program.  This program is designed to help young children ages 0 - 36 months who have a visual impairment and get them started with vision therapy as early as possible.  This is especially key since a child's vision develops so much within the first year or two of life.

The two ladies who visited were very pleased with Jesse's development and found that he was actually exceeding some of the typical milestones that they would expect from a 5 month old.  Phew!  In fact, he is doing so well that we collectively decided that dedicated vision therapy would be something that would not really benefit him at this time.  Though we will continue to monitor his progress and meet with them again in about 5-6 months, we are happy that his nystagmus doesn't seem to be slowing him down at all.

Over the next few months Jesse will continue to develop and we will monitor his progress.  In November we will visit Dr. Lingua in LA and around February we will probably visit Dr. Hertle in Ohio to discuss options.  Though we will visit these doctors to understand what they can offer, most likely we hold off on any major decisions until Jesse is older and we can see how much the nystagmus calms down on its own, especially if it doesn't appear to be hindering him at all.  We will also have a follow up appointment with Dr. Orel-Bixler in March along with a follow up with the ladies from Early Intervention.

One thing that drives me crazy is how everyone we meet with tells us "there is no cure."  I suppose that is true, but it really bothers me how many people aren't even open to the idea of surgery.  I know surgeries are risky but such close mindedness, especially in California, displeases me.  As a parent I will consider every option before closing any doors.

As we take this wait and see approach, we are optimistic about the future and excited to watch Jesse grow and develop each day!

Part VI: Two For Tuesday