Junior's blinking

We took Junior to the doctor yesterday. For the last few years, he has had this little nervous habit of scrunching up his face and blinking hard. He does it when he is on stage at school concerts or when he is reading something to a group. He will blink hard and scrunch his nose and wipe his face, those sorts of things. Gama does stuff like that sometimes (like when he made a video and was speaking right into the camera) so we didn't worry too much about it. But just recently, the blinking has gotten more and more. It started to look more like his actual eyeballs were bothering him because sometimes he wouldn't scrunch his face, just blink normally but very often. And then last weekend, he started winking one eye on and off. He doesn't do it constantly but now that I think about it, it is usually while he is talking to us. I don't see him do it much when he is doing homework or something.

He just had his vision tested at school and while they haven't given me the results yet, he said he was able to easily read everything the woman told him to and that she said he did a perfect job. His vision doesn't seem to be affected which was a relief to me but I just wanted to make sure he was OK. I had tried giving him Visine drops and it is always a fight because he doesn't want to open his eyes for them.

So we went to the doctor and he looked at both of his eyes, including some little spots that I noticed last weekend in the white part of his left eye which happens to be the eye he is winking. He said the spots don't look like anything (Chicken-hair happens to have a little one in one of his eyes too and doesn't have any blinking issues) and that his eyes don't look dry or like he has allergies. He pointed out that they aren't bloodshot at all and that they look very healthy. He looked at them a lot with his light, bringing it back and forth in front of his eyes.

What he really thinks is going on, after examining his eyes and then watching him play around in the room with Chicken-hair and Kidney Boy, and seeing the blinking, is that it is just a nervous tick. He said they come and go and that he might have a new blinking tick in addition to the scrunching up his face one and that the winking might be even another one. He told me that the most important thing to do is to not call attention to it. He said if it gets excessive, to bring him back. I asked him what he meant by excessive and he said, "If the teacher mentions it to you" which his teachers never have. So we are keeping our eye on it for now, but that is it.

Junior story from 2004

This happened on Nov. 18, 2004:

Tonight, Junior's Religion homework was to dictate a letter to me. It is a family letter, thanking God for all of our blessings. I wrote exactly what he said to me. I thought it was really nice and pretty cute too (of course I always think the stuff he does is cute LOL) But I did think that you would enjoy this...


Nov. 18, 2004

Dear God,

You are not mean. And we love everything that You do for us on the planet Earth. Thank You, God, for our pets. We love the Bible Book that You made for us. And when we are scared, we must put our hands on our hearts because we know You are saying, "I love you." Thank You, God, for electricity. You are the Whole Mighty. Thank You, God, for food. Thank you, God, for our family. We know that every child is Yours, because You made everyone.

Love,
The Rodriguez Family
Christine, Gama,
Jr. and Chicken-hair

St. Faustina

We were driving in the car tonight and Chicken-hair said, "Why don't I learn a lot about science?"

I told him, "You will learn a lot about science in school. Trust me! And actually, you already learn some science now." I was about to remind him that he learned a lot about dinosaurs, spiders, and snakes.

But before I could say anything else, he said, "Well, I learned about St. Faustina."

Gama said, "A ver... que aprendiste de St. Faustina?"

And Aidan said, "I don't remember."

Juan Diego's grandpa

Saturday morning, Chicken-hair got into bed with us and started telling us the story of Juan Diego and the Virgin Mary. When he got to the end, he looked over at this picture,


which has been in our room for about 2 years, and said, "And there is the Virgin Mary, bringing his grandpa back to life." I asked him whose grandpa and he said, "Juan Diego! He died and Mary is bringing him back to life!"

I explained to him that it is Pope John Paul II and that he is giving respect to the Virgin Mary who is comforting him. But I think he liked his own version better LOL

Chicken-hair, the faker!

Yesterday, Chicken-hair pretended he felt sick so that the school would call me to come get him!

It all started last week. Junior and Chicken-hair both got very sick. In fact, they gave it to me and to Gama as well. Gama got so sick, he ended up with an infection in his lungs. Anyway, Junior missed school Monday and Tuesday. He went back to school Wednesday but got sick again and they called me to come get him. While I was there, I picked Chicken-hair up early too and it turns out he was just starting to come down with what Junior had. They both stayed home Thursday and Junior went back Friday. Chicken-hair didn't go back until Monday.

So this week, he keeps saying he can't go to school. He just wants to stay with me. He is perfectly healthy. Well yesterday, his teacher saw that his nose was running constantly and his eye was watering. These are just the leftover symptoms from being sick last week. He had clogged tear ducts as a baby and to this day, his eyes water when he gets a cold.

She didn't know that and wanted to be sure he was OK so she asked him if he felt sick. Seeing his opportunity, he said he was. She asked him what hurt and he said his arms. LOL He came up with that one because he has some dry skin on his arms that I have been putting thick lotion on. The school calls me. I show up and find him on the floor, playing blocks with his friends, swinging them around like crazy. I told him, "Chicken-hair, your arms look fine. Do they really hurt?" At this point, Mrs. S starts telling me about his issues, nose, eyes, etc. The whole time she is telling me, he has a little smirk like he is trying not to laugh. I said, "Look at him!" LOL

She told him she wasn't happy that he told her a fib and that she didn't want him to laugh about it because it isn't funny. He has to be honest with her and not say he is sick unless he is. So he felt bad and told her OK and he and I had a little talk about it later too. He said, "But I just wanted to be with you!" How can you yell at a kid for that? hehehe...

Today, he promised to tell the truth all day and to be a good boy at school. So far it is lunchtime and they haven't called me yet!

Birdie Munch

Yesterday, Chicken-hair fell asleep on the couch for about 90 minutes. Later, when he woke up, he said, "Mommy... I want to see Birdie-munch." I had no idea what he was talking about and he said, "You know -- the show we saw yesterday with all the kids." Brady Bunch! hahaha...

I saw it is on one of those local stations in the afternoon and had decided to try and get the boys into it because they watch those annoying Drake and Josh and iCarly shows. Sure enough, it was a big hit. They love it and I would rather have them watching that. Chicken-hair was bummed when he realized he missed it yesterday. I promised him he could watch it today.

Chicken-hair's idea, last night...

Chicken-hair came up to me while I was typing something on the computer.

Chicken-hair: What if Junior and Daddy and me and you, not Kidney Boy... he can babysit with Meemaw, but all of the rest of us can sell puppy chow?

(He means the crispix/peanut butter/chocolate/powdered sugar treat that Connie taught me how to make ages ago. I make it every year at Christmastime and He LOVES it.)

Still Chicken-hair: ...and you could make it and we could sell it and everyone would come and buy it and give us money!

Me: Well, that is a nice idea but where would we sell it?

Chicken-hair: (thinks for a minute first) How about if Daddy could make something with wood and he could paint it and we could see it there? (as he said this, he motioned with two fingers on each hand, like a house-shape)

I just loved the "Kidney Boy can babysit with Meemaw" part especially LOL