Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Meet The Professor

Quick reminder of three giveaways here, here, and here.

***

When Mister Man was going to kindergarten this year, he had to have a vision exam before the school year started. We went to a developmental optometrist who doesn't just look at whether you can see or not but focuses also on how well your eyes work.

Just like that, we had an answer as to why t-ball was so painful and frustrating for him last year. And things we should have noticed as parents but didn't became clear. Mister Man had no depth perception, and his visual spatial acuity was severely underdeveloped - meaning that he couldn't see and track things the way you or I can. It made reading interesting, as he read by context without seeing the individual words - which explained why he would skip words when reading aloud or add words that weren't there.

Vision therapy started soon after, and it's made a world of difference. He can actually catch things now because he's been able to get his eyes to work together and develop the fine motor skill in his eyes. Ditto with reading and tracking items in dense and random places. Phew. Fingers crossed he'll finish up with this soon, especially as my insurance started denying claims at the end of January (and yes, I do have an exemption letter covering this exact service and I'm still fighting it, but grrr).

Point being, we have update appointments with the doctor every eight weeks or so to measure his progress and ensure that he's getting where he needs to be. So far we're on track, and it's possible we'll even end the therapy early given how well he's going.

In late January, we had a checkup and the doctor noticed that Mister Man's right eye was at 20/40. His left was fine, so we went on our merry way. When we went back for our next check-in a couple weeks ago, his right eye had deteriorated again and was now 20/70 with an astigmatism. Bummer.

The good news the doctor gave us was that he only needed to wear glasses when doing board work at school, so we don't have to worry about getting sport glasses and sunglasses and all sorts of things that basically just look like giant dollar signs to me.

We shopped around to find some glasses that he really liked and could wear comfortably. Mission accomplished, I then started to drill the rules into him - they go on and off with two hands, don't touch the clear part, keep them on whenever you're seated in school, they either live on your head or in their case, etc. I'm hoping that this sinks in, as I'm not too interested in replacing these anytime soon.

Regardless, he's pretty proud of his new look. And I'm wondering how long before Little Miss also needs glasses. Apparently Daddy passed on his eye genes - maybe that's why no one has my blue eyes?


And of course, so is Little Miss who can't bear the thought of being left out.


So was it smart or paranoid to buy the second backup pair?

13 comments:

septembermom April 7, 2010 at 8:22 PM  

Smart to buy the second pair. He looks very handsome :) Cute picture of the kids.

Melisa Wells April 7, 2010 at 10:15 PM  

SMART. Totally.
You'll know it any day now. :)
(okay, but I hope not.)

WeaselMomma April 8, 2010 at 10:34 AM  

He looks wonderful in them!

Tara R. April 8, 2010 at 1:42 PM  

He looks very handsome!

A backup pair is very useful.

Anonymous April 8, 2010 at 2:06 PM  

Totally smart! He is so handsome in them! I am glad they were able to catch this early and that intervention has worked so well.

And I am terrified that my children have inherited my vision! I have my fingers crossed that glasses are a long ways off for any of them!

MrsJenB April 8, 2010 at 4:04 PM  

They are both too precious!! And yes, it was smart to buy that backup pair!

To answer your question re: lilikoi, of COURSE it's worth the trip!!!!! :-)

Claudya Martinez April 8, 2010 at 11:03 PM  

Smart, not paranoid at all. He looks great in them!

Alexis AKA MOM April 9, 2010 at 2:19 PM  

SMART, take it from the lady that 2 y/o broke her only pair and can't wear contacts and the fastest I could get the new ones was a week! Yup always go with a second pair :)

SUPER cute pic, he looks so handsome in his glasses :) and little miss of course is too cute!

Michelle April 9, 2010 at 8:42 PM  

Kelly - Thanks... I love her expression. I have to put up a post explaining why I never have normal pictures of my children though!

Melisa - So far, so good. He's got the rule of either on his face or in the case, but I know that won't last forever!

WeaselMomma - Awww, thank you!

Tara - Yeah, for when he forgets the case at school. He thinks. Maybe. ;)

Nichole - My only concern is that his prescription will continue to deteriorate. The 20/40 to 20/70 happened so FAST!

MrsJenB - I think they are. Most of the time anyway....

Unknown Mami - Is it sort of like carrying an umbrella to keep it from raining?

Alexis - A week? Yikes! We got his in an hour, which actually surprised me!

Hyacynth April 9, 2010 at 8:50 PM  

OH. MY. GOODNESS! He looks so grown up with those. Take them off of him!! Just kidding. But he does look like a very big kid now. Like, overnight grown up to your blog readers. (Oh, is it just me?)

Michelle April 9, 2010 at 10:46 PM  

Hyacynth - I completely agree that he looks much older with them on. I was wondering if anyone else was thinking the same thing but didn't want to bias anyone. I guess it's not just me :( He's getting so old!

Pat April 12, 2010 at 9:47 AM  

Smart!

Michelle August 15, 2010 at 10:12 PM  

Pat - That's my boy! :)

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