Another Boise Trip

Nate and I went to Boise last month for his annual eye appointment. It's so much work to take him places by myself but we really do enjoy getting away and having a fun time together. We were, once again, able to stay at the Ronald McDonald house and couldn't be more grateful for them! Nate absolutely loved it this time. He watched the fish in the giant fish tank, played on the playground outside, enjoyed (a little too much) the endless supply of cookies, and played with all the Thomas trains in the playroom. I think his favorite part though was the statue of Ronald McDonald that sits out on the bench as you walk into the house. Every single time we passed by it, he would say "Daaaa Da!" (which I figured out meant Ronald) and have to go and climb on him. Still (a month later) every time he hears someone say Ronald McDonald House, Ronald McDonald, or McDonald's he screams "Yeah!" and "Daaaa Da!"  

On to the appointment details... Unfortunately Nate had an AWFUL night sleep the night before his appointment, which is totally unlike him. And by awful, I mean really awful! He fell asleep for the night at 8:00. I must have woken him up when I went to bed at 9:30. He was awake from 9:30 to 2:30am! He wasn't grumpy, just ready to play. Of course, our appointment was at 8:30 so I had to wake him up at 7:30. You can imagine how grumpy he was after only 6 hours of sleep. The appointment included having his eyes dilated so it was expected to take about 2 hours. He cried and whined the entire time! When it came time for the doctor to look in his eyes, he had had enough. He was screaming harder than I've ever seen before, flailing around, and clamping his eyes shut. It was awful. We ended up needing 3 of us to hold him down so the doctor could pry his eyes open and look at them. The good news is, he said from what he could see, his eyes still looked very good. He is still a bit farsighted but he said it's still not to the point that we need to treat it with glasses yet. Good news!

After the appointment (and a very long, much needed nap), we met Nate's buddy Oakley and his mom at the park to feed the ducks. You may remember Oakley from some of my previous posts. He was one of Nate's roommates in the NICU and didn't come home from the hospital until just before his first birthday. We really enjoyed getting to know his parents while we were in Boise and have kept in contact with them. It was so fun to finally have Nate and Oakley officially meet and play together. They had a great time!

Nate in his sunglasses since his eyes were still dilated from his appointment. Luckily he loves his sunglasses and keeps them on really well.

The next day, we were able to go to the zoo! I have been dying to go to the Boise zoo since the babies were born. The Ronald McDonald House gives families that stay there free passes to the zoo. We never went while Nate was in the hospital and every appointment we've had since then has been rushed and crazy so we haven't ever had the opportunity to go. This time the weather was beautiful so we decided to go before we left town. We were lucky enough to be able to go with one of our other fantastic Boise friends. Carissa was one of my nurses when I was in the hospital. She was unlucky enough to be working all of the days that really crazy things happened with me and the babies. I sure kept her busy but she was still wonderful! She came down to the NICU to visit Nate several times during our 5 months there and we have kept in touch ever since. She brought her 2 little boys along and we had a great time. 

I'm not sure why I didn't get more pictures at the zoo. Here is Nate riding the little tiger. He loved the zoo! He ran around like crazy and loved seeing all of the animals.