Music and Family

We are resting after a busy and fun weekend of concerts and family.  Nanna, Grammy, Aunt Talisa, and Uncle Jason visited from Pennsylvania.  We spent the weekend hanging out and attending a couple of concerts that I played.  

Like just about everyone else on this continent, Henry has been enjoying the brief glimpses of spring weather.  He and his mom were out and about in their matching U of I gear:

Henry attended his first CSO kids' concert and got to hear his dad perform!

He also attended his first chamber music concert and was quite well-behaved.

But best of all, he got to spend quality time with family and friends.

Hi everyone, it's Meade.  Sean is playing a concert tonight so I thought I'd do a quick blog update.

There's not too much to report.  Henry is still getting acclimated to his glasses, so we haven't noticed too much difference in his behavior.  He does seem to be fixing on objects and faces better, however, and we did see our first real smiles!  We are only sorry we didn't have our camera at the ready.

We are increasing our physical therapy appointments from 1x/week to 2x/week.  Carol, our therapist, is terrific and Henry enjoys his visits with her.

We had a really fun Easter at my mom & dad's.  Here are a few pictures.  To see the rest, click here.

We also celebrated Sean's birthday yesterday.  Happy birthday, Sean!

Happy Easter

Henry has glasses!  They are cute, but also a bit challenging to keep in place.  Here is Henry hanging out with his new specs:

He also is getting teeth:

Here are some cute pictures of Henry hanging out on his mom's shoulder:

And here are some cute napping shots:

Glasses

We took Henry to the Chicago Lighthouse this past Monday for a thorough evaluation of his eyes and vision.  Because Henry cannot tell us what he sees, the eye doctor showed various objects to him while observing his responses.  Henry performed for the doctor as he usually does for us: occasionally tracking objects back forth, never tracking them up and down.  One test he was able to do repeatedly demonstrated that he has at least 20/400 vision.  

Basically, the tests of his vision simply confirmed what Meade and I have known for quite some time – he sees, but not well.  This doctor's inspection of his eyes led her to agree with our ophthalmologist that Henry is very near sighted.  We ordered glasses for him.  These should arrive within two weeks.  

The glasses should help his vision, but we do not know to what extent.  The glasses will enable his eyes to provide a sharp image, but that image needs to be transported by his optic nerves and interpreted by his brain.  The facility of the nerves and brain is not yet known.  Our hope is that the glasses will improve his vision and that improved vision will increase his motivation to control his head and observe his world.

Here are a couple of pictures of Henry with his cousins:

Here is Henry all dressed up for Wesley and Natalie's wedding:

And here he is all dressed to go outside and enjoy the Spring weather:

Henry's friend Hilary came to visit, but Henry was napping:

Finally, here is Henry with some of his many adult friends: