more news

Well, we got some not too great news yesterday at our follow-up visit with the surgeon. Calum's eyelid has been lifted slightly too high by the surgery so we have to take him back in on Monday for an adjustment. It shouldn't take very long but will involve more general anesthesia :-( Send him some good thoughts.

The surgeon explained to us that it's not uncommon for the droopy eyelid to need further adjustment when you correct in a child this young. Because the child is asleep when you do the procedure, you can't be sure what the finished product will look like. Most of the time the surgeons try to err on the side of "too much" correction because apparently undercorrection is really common. In Calum's case, that didn't work too well but they tell us it will be a simple matter to loosen the sling (the device that has attached his eyelid to his brow and lifted it). Fingers crossed!

In more positive news - today is Calum's fifth birthday and he is very excited about it. We plan to spend some of the day running around doing errands, but will have our usual special dinner chosen by the birthday person. He has asked for macaroni & cheese, mashed potatoes and apples. This will be followed by chocolate cake with cream cheese icing.

This weekend is our last one together as a family until September, because the kids and I are leaving next Saturday for 2 1/2 months in Toronto. We've decided to take them to Portland and check out the zoo and science museums there. Hopefully I'll have some photos to post this weekend. And I've promised myself that I will be very very good and only buy ONE book at Powell's.

Yesterday, Calum and I attended an orientation day at his future kindergarten. He told me afterward "I love my new school!" after spending an hour or so playing with the toys in his future classroom while I listened to a presentation for parents. I was one of the few parents there with an older child so a lot of the stuff they were saying wasn't new to me, but I did appreciate the chance to meet Calum's teacher, "Madame Fiona". She seems like a very energetic, direct, no-nonsense kind of person who I think will be perfect for Calum. I was also very pleased with her answer when I asked her how she implements the French Immersion program - I think it will be more of an immersion experience than Megan had when we tried the program back when she was five. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Megan gets to have a similar orientation day for the late immersion program that she's enrolled in for the fall, so I guess she will just have to wonder about it all summer. Suspense is not something she likes!