Dilated Eyes and Groundhogs

Today was Ethan's appointment with the pediatric ophthalmologist to see whether or not he has exotropia (our pediatrician was concerned at his 6-month check-up that his eyes may not be tracking together correctly). A nurse gave Ethan eye drops to dilate his eyes before the exam, and he did really well with them (no crying or fussing at all). Fortunately the Dr. did not think that there is any problem with the alignment of Ethan's eyes. He scheduled a follow-up appointment though because his left tear duct is still partially blocked. If it continues to "goop up" as we get closer to his first birthday, the Dr. will schedule a procedure (under anesthesia) to open the tear duct. Poor Ethan's eyes are still dilated at 7pm! The Dr. warned us that they may stay dilated for the entire day.

When we got home from the appt., Waggles was going absolutely nuts at the back door (he usually only does this when our neighbor's little dog wanders into our yard). I took a look outside, and there was an enormous groundhog making its way across our backyard! I tried to get a picture of it, but it scampered off before I could get the camera. The picture to the left is from a wildlife website (I looked up a pic of a groundhog to make sure that is what I saw today). We have had all sorts of other interesting wildlife in our backyard/neighborhood since we moved in: deer, a large hoot owl, a gigantic toad, many decent sized snakes, woodpeckers, coyotes, moles, and we had both a snake and an opossum in our garage (on separate occasions). You wouldn't guess it from the wildlife, but our neighborhood is completely residential. A very small part of it borders an open field, so the wildlife must "visit" our neighborhood from there.