It was time for M's yearly vision check! Last year we found out she was slightly far-sighted and needed "reading" glasses to use whenever she is on the iPad or computer or whenever she is working or reading. We did pretty good this past year enforcing this and it helped that M really liked wearing them.
That was then.
Now, as in today, she told me (quite dramatically) that she didn't want to wear glasses anymore or EVER. They're not cool and by the way, thanks a lot mom, it's all your fault.
Yes, it is. My eyesight is horrible. I was wearing glasses full time when I was three. And in my opinion there is nothing cuter than a little girl in glasses. Hello...Bernice?? You know from, Hope Floats? I love her and have secretly wanted my own little Bernice. :)
So I guess we both had a little anxiety walking in today. She told the doctor that her vision was "perfect" as soon as she saw him. But of course, the doctor was in charge of telling us that. After a couple minutes, M was delightfully answering all of his questions and trying her best to see the little letters on the screen.
Bless her heart. She wasn't able t read the small letters and even got some on the top row wrong. Yikes!
I see a little Bernice in my future! Yes!
So after her evaluation, which I thought she was totally bombing, we learned that M's vision hasn't changed all that much and, in fact, may be a smidge better than last year! Interesting.
I'm actually quite grateful since we are leaving town in a couple days and glasses aren't cheap. We are blessed to be able to keep her same pair from last year. Myla was relieved!
There was one area he said she did poorly on...her smooth pursuit or tracking, like when the dr held the pen from side to side.
He gave me some suggestions and ideas of different things we could do to help her develop that. (one idea you will see later in this post!) He mentioned that this may affect her reading. :( It is hard for me to hear that but also hard to admit that I notice a resistance in her when it comes to reading on her own. She likes to be read to but honestly, she would rather be on the iPad or computer or playing outside. There is not a lot of interest from her to try reading on her own. So I don't push it. She likes to look at pictures, especially nonfiction, and talk about what she sees. All good signs that she will get there eventually. We will keep doing our fun activities and she will read when she's ready. It's the literacy teacher in me that wants her to be doing more. I gotta get over that.
Anyway, after our appointment we headed home to do our Motor skills (and vision tracking!) activities.
I saw this on Pinterest and thought it was a great way to get some gross motor skills practice and exercise!
All you need is some sidewalk chalk and a driveway!
I wrote the letters C, S, L, and H in a square area on the driveway.
Each letter stood for an activity for M to do when she landed on that letter.
S is for stomp!
L is for Laugh!
H is for Hop!
C is for clap!
We did it a few times, I would just call out the letter and she would have to get on it quickly and do the action.
She liked Laugh the best.
It was incredibly hot so we didn't last long. We will have to try it again with Noah, he was hanging out with Granny still since I had to take M to dr.
Then after a quick drink of water and a change of clothes, we headed out to the backyard to do our Vision Tracking activity!
The Dr. had recommended having her swing and try to high five my hand as I moved it to different spots while she would swing towards me.
Pretty hard to capture a picture during this but it was fun trying!
She did pretty well!
Then the other vision activity was to hold coins in my hand and have her pinch it off while she would swing forward.
We decided to start off with one coin at a time since she easily knocked them all out of my hand and into the grass on her first try.
Started with the biggest coin, the quarter!
Great for fine motor too!
This was a breeze for her and she had fun too!
Now for the tiny dime!
Way to go!
I would've never thought of a swinging activity being related to helping with vision but it sure was fun (and perfect for Motor Skills Monday!)
After our mini activities it was time to go pick up brother for his haircut. His hair grows so fast.
Here he is sporting his new haircut and Elsa sticker (that he picked out)....because he's cool like that.
Just when I thought we were done running errands for the day, I also took M to the doctor to get her hands checked out. Last night, after a loooong day of swimming at Nana's pool, we noticed the kids hands had blisters or a rash on them. It was mostly Myla whose hands were covered in red blisters. She had a few spots on her feet too that she said really hurt. N just had a few spots on the tips of his fingers. My first thought was it was just from the side of the pool or from scraping her feet at the bottom.
My mom had a different theory...POPSICLES! She thought M had red popsicle stain all over her hands. Ha!
The next morning when it didn't wash off and she still complained about it, I worried it was Hand, Foot, Mouth disease. She's had it before and because we were about to hop on a plane, I had to find out for sure. She was also complaining about being super tired. Then when my mother in law saw her hands she worried it was a chlorine allergy. She is allergic herself and we already know M has such sensitive skin. So it was a mystery....to the doctor we go.
While in the waiting room, we ran into our neighbor and another friend who both said their girls get the same blisters every summer from swimming and hanging on the the hot sides of a pool.
Great, about to head into the doctor's office to hear the same thing. I had a feeling they were right!
Until then...
Waiting patiently for Dr. Kelkar
Wow, could it really be a SHARK magazine!? Yes, we read the whole thing. Sharks are so cool.
Anyway, after being all checked out, we could rule out Hand, Foot, Mouth pretty quickly since she had no sores on her throat, no fever, and was acting perfectly fine. Thank goodness.
Then the Dr considered an excema flare up since she does have excema. Not sure if I spelled that right. Anyway, she could also eliminate a chlorine allergy since she didn't have it anywhere else on her body.
SO... the final diagnosis?!
It was just blisters from the hot surface of the sides of the pool and from running around on the hot pavement yesterday. Yes, I paid $30 for the doctor to tell me what I originally thought. BUT, it was a good call to be sure. Not much to do for it except to stay away from a hot pool for a few days.
AND...We are headed to Cali on Wednesday to visit my dad and step mom who have a pool. We will most likely be in it the whole time! Yikes! Won't be able to keep that little water lover out of the pool, just need to keep her hands off the sides!!
I may be taking a brief hiatus from our daily summer activities and blogging since we will be out of town on VACATION for a week. But can't promise that, blogging is so relaxing for me and I never get to blog as much during the school year...
Tune in to find out!
No comments:
Post a Comment