Leetle Bateese has been doing exercises for his eye muscles. They're as simple as looking at a succession of high-contrast black and white shapes, each on one 8 x 10 sheet of paper, several times a day. He'd been doing it for a week by the time I arrived in Kelowna, and his Gran had seen marked improvement, she said. She is so good with him; she talks to him loudly, steadily and in her animated, lilty Scottish accent and he answers her back with opinionated gusto, loving it.

After I'd been there three days, I thought I too saw a difference in his ability to focus on my face.

And when Joan sent these pictures the other day, my immediate excited response was that his eyes seem 10 times better than they were when I left Kelowna. When he looked directly at me once while I was there, it was a big deal. It wasn't often either eye came into line with my face. Here Stinkerfella is looking at the camera; it is an achievement.

(((((((((((((((((((()((((((((((((((()(((((((((((((()(((((((((((