Rough Day at the Fair

Our local county fair was this weekend, so despite being kind of tired from the races on Saturday, we went ahead and took the kids to the fair today (hey, it was free this year!). Ryan had no interest in the animals, with the possible exception of a newborn calf. In fact, he said he was afraid of them. He all but went berserk when we went into the poultry exhibit! When we saw the llamas and asked him if he knew what it was he said, "It's a cow." That's our city boy!

He really wanted to ride the kiddie roller coaster called the Tiger Ride, but after one lap he was screaming and clawing Mommy. So I had them stop the ride on the next lap, and we got off and watched Abby and Daddy enjoy it. They gave us a voucher to use on any other ride, so he chose the giant slide. I'm still not sure if he really enjoyed it. First he said he did but then he said he didn't want to do it again.

The things he seemed to think were pretty neat were the Monster Trucks and the tractors they had on display. All in all, I don't think Ryan enjoyed the fair very much (though he cried all the way to the car because he said he didn't want to leave!).

Me and Daddy

Ryan is definitely a Daddy's boy. He adores his Daddy. If Daddy is home, that's where Ryan wants to be, that's who's hand he wants to hold, and that's who he wants to tuck him in!

Portland Grand Prix

Daddy is always winning something from our local radio stations, and this week he won weekend passes to the Portland Raceway to see the Le Mans Grand Prix! Ryan was very excited to see the races. It was incredibly hot (track temp of 112 degrees!), and pretty loud too. He especially enjoyed the paddock area (Ed won passes to that too) because he got to get up close to the cars and even touch them and sit in some. The racing staff were really great to the kids and several offered to let the kids sit in the race cars. Ryan wasn't quite brave enough the first time he was offered, but after seeing his little sister sit in it and survive and enjoy it, he sat in the next one!

Strangely enough, when asked what his favorite thing of the day was he said it was the military vechicles. There was a National Guard unit there with several Humvees and trucks on display, and Ryan was enamored with the medic truck especially.

"Ryan's Day"

Every year we celebrate the day we finalized Ryan's adoption and he legally became a Garner. July 12th is the official date, and we call it "Ryan's Day." We try to make it a special day just for him alone with Mommy and Daddy. This year we took Ryan to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) to celebrate. Ryan had a blast! There is so much to see and do that there is no possible way to do it in one visit. His favorite activity was the crane. It's a full scale model of a crane that you can work to pick up cargo and move it to a barge or a ship. We also watched a magic show, and Mommy got recruited to go up on stage. Ryan thought that was pretty funny to see Mommy up in front of everyone with the magician (so did Daddy!).

Ryan doesn't know it yet, but Gramie sent Ryan a gift so we can add it to the admission price we paid and get the annual membership for OMSI. Now we can go back and see and do everything at a slower pace and really get to enjoy all the museum has to do. Maybe we'll go this week as a matter of fact!

Mt. St. Helens

We went to Mt. St. Helens on Friday after Ryan's eye doctor visit, and Ryan had a fun time. In addition to learning about volcanoes, we had a fun drive in the van, got to watch a movie about the volcano, and he got to play in a really cool playground at one of the exhibit centers there. In addition to a fantastic play structure, it had a replica of Mt. St. Helens with slides coming out of it and a really neat gravel pit with backhoes to play with.

More Patching

Ryan had another appointment with the ophthalmol- ogist Friday. His eyesight (with his glasses on) is almost 20/20! We are to modify his patching to just one hour per day of close-up work and two hours just doing whatever he wants. So he actually has to wear it longer, but he doesn't have to sit still for so long. This makes Mommy and Ryan happy! We go back again in four weeks, and if he's seeing the same or better, then we will schedule surgery. So in all likelihood, he will have the surgery in September sometime.

The doctor told me something that surprised me. I commented that he seems to be crossing quite frequently with his right eye now and not just his left. She said, "That's good!" Huh? She said it means that he's seeing equally well out of both eyes and his brain isn't showing a preference for just one eye. She was very happy to hear that and said it makes his prognosis good and less complicated.

I Can Read

One of the neatest outcomes of Ryan's patching time is that he's learned to read. We have had to spend two hours a day doing close-up work, which for a three-year-old means I need to sit with him quite a bit of the time. I decided to put the time to good use, so I checked out a book from the library and started teaching him to read. He's known his alphabet since he was 20 months old, and he's known the phonetic sounds of the alphabet since before he turned two. But I haven't really worked with him beyond that.

He's been asking about words lately and wanting to put the sounds together, but nothing I was doing was clicking with him. We began "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" at the beginning of June, and he is already on lesson 70 and actually reading! I am amazed at how quickly he picked it up, and it's been such a joy to teach him to read. The experience has really renewed my resolve to homeschool our children, which had started to waver as the time to begin has gotten closer.

New Glasses

Around the first of the year, we started noticing Ryan's left eye turning inwards. We finally got in to our ophthalmologist in March, and, sure enough, Ryan was diagnosed with strabismus or lazy-eye. He was somewhat farsighted too, so she prescribed glasses for him in hopes it would straighten out his eyes (though we only noticed one, both eyes actually cross). We got his new glasses, and he looks adorable in them!

We went back to the doctor after he had been wearing his glasses for a month, and although they were correcting his vision, they weren't fixing the crossing. What we also learned was that he also has amblyopia, or vision in only one eye. Because children's brains aren't done developing, they don't see double vision when their eyes cross. Instead their brain just shuts the crossed eye off. The doctor said we needed to force his nonseeing eye to work or he would permanently lose vision in that eye.

So we began patching his good eye for two hours a day and having him do close-up work during those hours. He has made good progress, and he is starting to see quite well with his left eye. We're hoping things will improve to the point where we won't need surgery to correct his strabismus.

In the Beginning

Ryan was such an answer to our prayers! We had suffered many miscarriages in our struggle to build a family. After seeking the Lord for years for answers, He began to turn our hearts toward adoption.

Ryan was born on Feburary 6, 2002, in Montana. I had the awesome privilege of watching him being born and cutting his cord. Within minutes my husband joined us as we began our long-awaited journey as parents.

We will forever be grateful to his birthmother for her brave decision and her selfless love for Ryan. We keep in contact with her through pictures, letters, and phone calls.