Fangirl moment

Posted on April 29, 2009 by Sherry

I apologize for posting two videos in a row, but anyone who has been reading me for awhile knows that I am a huge fan of both American Idol and Canadian Idol. Last year I was cursing the fact that, as a Canadian, I couldn’t vote in support of David Cook.

This year, I found myself initially a bit ambivalent, but I’ve ended up becoming a *huge* Adam Lambert fan. I also really like Danny Gokey quite a lot and would most likely love his music when he puts an album out in the future, but after the past several weeks I fully expect that Adam is going to win this season and after last night’s performance I really think it would be beyond shocking if he doesn’t. Check this out, from last night’s “standards” theme:

As soon as it was over and the judges thew their praises upon him I immediately fired up Skype and started discussing how amazing that was with my fellow Idol fan.

Are you watching? Who are you pulling for?

(I promise I’ll have an actual *content* post up soon!)

A little bit of joy to kick off the week

Posted on April 27, 2009 by Sherry

My sister sent me this link to a YouTube video this morning and I swear to you, it just set my morning off on the best foot. It’s really hard to watch it without smiling.

Apologies if the song is now stuck in your head, but really, how well done was THAT, right? Seriously awesome.

Field Trip

Posted on April 25, 2009 by Sherry

I think that one of the best things about working from home (aside from having business meetings over Skype while wearing pajamas) is that my schedule is flexible. I still have to get certain things done each day but I don’t have to account for every single second of my day as long as I’m done when I go to bed. That meant that when Hayley’s teacher sent a letter home saying the grade one students were going to the Montreal Biodome as part of their current rain forest studies, I was able to sign on as a volunteer parent.

The Biodome is seriously one of my favorite places in all of Montreal. I’ve been there more than ten times now and I never get tired of it because there’s always something to see that I missed the time before. There are still countless animals that I have never even seen yet.

Anecdotally, the first time I went there was about 13 years ago. I worked at Second Cup as a Barista and I hated it because the boss was a sexist pig who screamed at the girls – even in front of customers – for the same mistakes that were overlooked if it was one of the guys. I was standing in the metro station, waiting to go to work and decked out in my black uniform shirt, a black skirt, and striped tights. I had absolutely no desire to subject myself to another day of crap, and I suddenly noticed an advertisement on the wall for the Biodome. I thought, “you know, I still haven’t been there. I bet that would be more fun than being screamed at for minimum wage.” And so, when the metro came, I got on and I didn’t get off at my stop. I went all the way there, spent – literally – eight hours at the Biodome, and then came home. While walking around and looking at animals and birds I decided life was too short to put up with that and I quit.

Anyway, there was no question that I was going to go and volunteer for Hayley’s field trip. I was thrilled when two other moms that I know pretty well also volunteered. It was a lot of fun. The kids enjoyed it a lot, and I think they learned quite a bit too. It will be so helpful for them as they keep studying this segment, having seen some of the rain forest with their own eyes.

It was also a bit stressful, just because it’s a huge responsibility to be keeping a bunch of kids safe. I had five kids in my group, Hayley and four classmates. I swear, I spent so much of the day counting heads over and over and over that by the time I crawled (exhausted) into bed, I was still saying “1, 2, 3, 4, 5… 1, 2, 3, 4… where’s?! Oh. 5. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…” Still, I never lost anyone. Lost track of one from time to time, but always found them within ten seconds. Thank God, because no one wants to be that person who says, “uhhh, I lost your kid. My bad.” Also, for anyone who thinks that little boys are scary, they totally aren’t. I love having two girls, but there were two boys in my group that were just awesome and so cute. One insisted on holding my hand everywhere we went, and the other never stepped more than two feet from me. Awww!

Of course, there are other ecosystems, not just the rain forest, and as was to be expected, the penguins were a HUGE hit with the kids.

We spent about an hour or so at the Biodome, then we gathered to have lunch in the cafeteria. After that we had a majorly long walk to the Botanical Gardens so that we could go through their greenhouses. The kids were a little bored. I understand because I was too when I went in elementary school – at that age you just don’t care about plants and flowers. Now, as an adult? I would love to go back for several hours with my camera and just take a billion photos.

What they did love was the “Butterflies Go Free” exhibit. In one huge greenhouse there are hundreds of butterflies just fluttering around. Sometimes they land on people, sometimes they just hang out on plants. They have fruit platters out and there were always several butterflies getting their fill. They were just spectacular. I couldn’t get a shot of my favorite unfortunately, which was this beauty. When they flew up high, the light filtered right through their wings, making them glow a little.

This guy never even flinched when I closed in for a photo. So amazing.

Day 113: Caligo eurilochus (Owl Butterfly)

We were also supposed to go to the Insectarium but by the time we got out of the butterfly exhibit and made the long walk over there we only had five minutes to check it out. I did get to show Hayley cockroaches though (the enormous ones from tropical areas, ewwwww!) and I told her that’s what we’ll have crawling around if she doesn’t stop leaving her food lying around. Mean, perhaps, but effective so far!

The kids were all exhausted by the time we piled onto the bus to come back to the school. I’m sure that they all slept like the dead that night. On top of all that walking, when we got to the school we saw that George and Breanna were waiting for us. We drove over to George’s parents’ house for a bit and we ended up playing in the back yard and going for a walk in the woods. By the time we got home and ate some supper, Hayley was totally wiped out. She was asking to go to bed by 6:15 that night and the only reason I said no was because I didn’t want her to wake up at 5 am. You can tell she was tired.

She was in bed a little before 8, after eating very little of her pre-bed snack, and I swear it took five minutes tops for her to pass out.

I had a great time, though let’s just say it wasn’t only the kids who were tired. My pillow was very wonderful last night. I would definitely do it again. I know this is a yearly trip in grade one so I look forward to round two when Breanna gets there!

You can check out the full set from the Biodome here. (And yes, I have all the proper names on the animal/bird/fish photos but that’s just because I’m a huge nerd and pored over the Biodome website to find which one went with which picture.)

We need a yard

Posted on April 19, 2009 by Sherry

I’ve already known this for awhile of course, but the simple fact of the matter is that we desperately need a yard. At this point I figure it doesn’t really matter much whether that yard comes attached to a house, a townhouse, or a lower duplex, as long as it’s there and it’s ours.

We’re lucky. Our apartment complex surrounds a fairly large courtyard and we can play down there, but it’s not fenced in, so there’s always a complete inability for me to completely relax. I’ve tried taking a book downstairs with me while the kids play ball or pick up pine cones, but I just can’t read because I’m always watching to make sure they’re in sight and not headed for the busy street. Still, we are lucky because other apartments and condo buildings on our street don’t have much in the way of grass at all.

We’re also lucky because we can walk to our park in five minutes, and the park is bordered by woods. The park is small and it’s very inconvenient in the dead of summer because there are NO TREES whatsoever in the actual play area (I wish I could pack up the park near my parents and bring it over here because it’s a nice size, has a lot of great equipment, and a ton of trees spread out). The lack of shade makes it really difficult to spend much time there once the sun is blazing hot and the humidex is sky-high. Also, the woods have been shrinking bit by bit each year, but at least they’re still there and it’s fun to go walking in them – it helps to appease the fact that I would give anything to essentially live in the middle of nowhere. I envy people who live out in the country with woods galore surrounding them.

There’s also another apartment complex about a five minute walk from here that has a great courtyard full of trees and rocks and benches and grass and sometimes we like to go there, even though I feel a bit weird about playing in a courtyard that I don’t pay for with my rent.

The thing is, though, although we’re lucky to have the courtyard and we’re lucky to have a park and some woods so close by and a fun courtyard within minutes, it’s not the same as a yard. A yard would let me relax. If we had a yard I would bring my laptop outside and do my work in the shade while the kids ran around. I would sit and read a book with my feet propped up while the kids played. I would splash in a pool with them. It would be different.

Going outside requires a great deal of prep work. There’s no bathroom at the park so we have to make sure everyone has peed at least once (if not twice). We have to bring snacks, drinks, toys, etceteras and lug them with us. It’s certainly no huge ordeal, and I realize this is definitely a first world complaint when you think about third world kids playing with broken nails and bits of rubber from a blown out tire. But it still means that if someone has to pee or is thirsty after the last juice box is gone, or if it’s lunch time, we have to pack everything back up and head for home.

If we lived somewhere with a yard, we could run in and out as needed. Hungry? Go in and grab some fruit from the counter. Thirsty? There’s water in the fridge, go get some! What? You want the soccer ball instead of the beach ball and the bubbles instead of the jump rope? They’re right inside the door, go ahead! Are you jumping like that because you need to pee? Don’t be silly, go to the bathroom and come back out!

I know that it means we’d be outside so much more than we already are.

On Friday we picked Hayley up from school and we had to get a few things from the Dollar Store (I <3 the Dollar Store) and Hayley wanted to get a little set that came with two plastic golf clubs and two balls. We bought them and then decided to drop by to see George's parents since they live a few blocks away from us. When we got there, they weren't even home, but George called them on their cell and said we'd just hang out in the back yard for awhile.

It was great. George has a key so we were able to get the kids a snack and something to drink and we had access to a bathroom. Meanwhile, the kids played golf (they decided that while it was fun, Wii Golf is much easier!), picked up fallen branches and tossed them in the woods, and did somersaults.

We were there for over an hour, just playing out back and hanging out outside, and the fact that we could go in when we needed to was a stark comparison to the park or the courtyard (which is four floors below our apartment, a bit of a pain). When his parents got home, we went in for about ten minutes, then went home, but it was the chance to play in an enclosed yard that made the difference to the kids. I didn’t have to keep an eye on them as much (other than to make sure they weren’t hurting each other or digging in the garden), and I could relax and take pictures more easily. I thought about how much fun it would be to have Pearl out on her long leash that attaches to clothes lines (she can’t run free unless it’s REALLY fenced in 100% because Beagles just have too much of a habit of bolting).

So it’s official. We need a yard. I don’t care as much about the building sitting on the yard, just as long as that yard is closed in so the kids can play to their hearts’ content. It would make the upcoming summer a whole different ball game.

Anyone got a house they’d like to rent out?

EPIC

Posted on April 15, 2009 by Sherry

This video has crude language, so be warned, but it really sums up a lot of the idiots that you can find online – We Didn’t Start the Flame War. It’s actually quite brilliant.

The other half of a good one

Posted on April 14, 2009 by Sherry

Sometimes I worry about these long four-day weekends because Hayley is used to every second being used up at school that I feel like I need to create a full schedule to fill in the time that she’s off. Then I remember that it’s FUN to just go with the flow and not necessarily have any set plans. Because that gives you time to just sit around eating too much Easter chocolate and spend another two hours in the park on the final day of the long weekend.

The kids were both up bright and early on Easter morning. Hayley has had a lot of questions about God and Jesus lately, and I’m doing my best to answer them in ways that she can understand. However, on Sunday it didn’t matter to her about things like Jesus rising from the dead and sitting at the right hand of God and salvation. At 7:15 all she wanted was the chocolate that the Easter bunny had left lying around various parts of the living room.

(How did the Easter bunny even come to be? I should go Google it because while I understand giving gifts at Christmas and the tie-in to the three Wise Men bringing gifts to the baby Jesus, what in the heck does a large bunny leaving chocolate eggs out have to do with the Resurrection?!)

Anyway.

Breanna was still asleep when Hayley woke up but all it took was hearing her big sister say, “Breanna! It’s Easter!” and she was sitting bolt upright in bed, ready and raring to go. They were not impressed that they had to wait for me to take Pearl out to pee, but I really didn’t relish listening to “arroooooo” for the entire egg hunt.

They were pleased to see that the bunny had eaten his salad and apple that they had left out for him, but mostly they were ecstatic over all the eggs they found.

We also gave them a gift from us, a little Easter pail with some jelly beans, markers, a notebook, and a Precious Moments soft doll. I *love* the doll and wouldn’t mind one for myself to be honest. Those dolls then went everywhere with us for the remainder of the weekend.

In the mid-afternoon we went to see George’s parents and had our Easter dinner of chicken, ham, black-eyed peas and rice, vegetables, and key lime pie. We had wanted to visit my parents on Monday for an Easter lunch but the timing didn’t work out so hopefully we can get out their way next weekend.

Breanna was so eager to eat that when she was done playing, she went and sat all by herself at the little table set up for the kids. It was at least 20 minutes too early for her to be waiting for supper but she flat out refused to get back up, and she sat there drinking some juice and waiting patiently.

It was totally delicious but poor Hayley got a little carried away. She ate so much that her evening went down the tubes because she got a huge tummy ache from all the food.

Luckily she was all better by Monday morning. It was quite nice out and I didn’t want to waste the day so I put off most of my work until the late evening so that I could take the kids out to play. As per Breanna’s request, we first went for a walk in the woods again. Her new thing is that she insists on leading. Just to bug her, I ran ahead and taunted her because I was first. She then charged straight past me, yelling, “no you’re not! I’M FIRST!” And then she gave me this face.

Well she sure told me!

When we got to the park, Hayley was ecstatic to find a five-year-old girl there with her family, so they played together for a long time, further proving that language barriers are non-existent in kids – she spoke Spanish and French and Hayley is still learning French, but they managed anyway and had fun.

Meanwhile, the girl’s older brothers and father were practicing soccer on the grass and you could tell by the way they kicked the ball around that they play on teams. Breanna ran straight for them and I cringed as I thought of the scene she might cause when I would go to remove her from the middle of the game.

Instead, they immediately welcomed her and let her play. They would kick the ball hard back and forth a few times and then one of the boys would stop the ball and kick it very gently to Breanna, and then they all hooted and hollered at her in encouragement when she would take off kicking it along the grass. They did it for a good half hour with her, and I let them know I could take her to the swings but they flat out refused and said as long as she was having fun, it was fine.

At one point Hayley thought it would be funny to climb into a baby swing but was unamused when she realized she couldn’t get out. The father came over to help me when he saw me struggling to pull her out and on the way back to the grass he mentioned his sons were 14 and 16. I told him that they were both incredibly nice kids because really, how many teenagers would be willing to play soccer with a three-year-old? Those are exactly the kind of kids I want to raise.

We were all so exhausted when we got home that by bedtime it took very little prompting or effort to get the kids to sleep. And frankly it didn’t take me long either.

I think all weekends should be long ones. Four-day weeks and more weekend time to spend playing would be a wonderful thing.

(You can see all the Easter photos right here.)

The great outdoors (finally!)

Posted on April 11, 2009 by Sherry

While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the weather so far this weekend has been WARM, it’s certainly been warmER. Especially when you consider the fact that it snowed halfway through the week. But I refuse to talk about that any further, and since it melted by lunch time, I’ve decided not to hold it against Mother Nature, though there will be WORDS if it happens again. Ahem.

Anyway, with the weather being pleasantly sunny on Friday (more overcast today) and of a decent temperature both days Hayley, Breanna, and I spent many hours (hours!) outside. It was so nice. We decided to hit up the park both days for awhile for some playing on the swings and the slides.

After doing that for awhile, we decided to take a nice hike through the woods. Breanna demonstrated her utterly fearless leader behavior (as long as you don’t turn out the lights!) by leading the way the whole time.

Can you TELL how happy I was to finally be able to enjoy the great outdoors again, instead of just trying to survive it? It was so nice!

When we finished our hike we stopped by the park again for a little while since some kids had shown up. Neither Hayley nor Breanna were very keen on coming home, but I finally managed to convince them – plus we were hungry! We had eaten a really early supper after Hayley’s eye appointment on Friday, so by the time we were done running around outside, we all needed a little something else to fill us up.

(Hayley’s eye exam was inconclusive. It’s been determined that she will most likely need glasses but because of the scope of the issues with Hayley’s eyes and her history with strabismus, he said he’d feel more comfortable referring us back to the hospital, so we’ll know more then. At least I still have an appointment for May!)

Today wasn’t quite as beautiful as yesterday but it was pleasant enough. The kids were both all wound up and high strung because they were excited about Easter being tomorrow, so I figured the best thing for my sanity was to take them back out again to kill some of the afternoon. Another two hours passed in a blur as we spent time at the park and in the woods again. We took a different trail this time but it was cold enough that I didn’t want to go too far; I figured it would be better to go back to the park instead and let them run around to keep warm.

That photo of Breanna makes me laugh because after all the playing she sighed and said she was tired, so she ran over to sit on the bench at the newly installed picnic table. She said, “Oh, I never sat here before!” Then all of ten seconds later, she hopped back down, announced, “I feel better now!” and ran off full tilt to play some more.

We also took Pearl this time which was an exercise in patience (I failed) because she still pretty much sucks at understanding not to pull on the leash. She knows not to, but she doesn’t care. I don’t understand how she can enjoy walking for long periods while constantly gasping for breath since she essentially strangles herself, but I guess that’s part of what they were talking about when the SPCA folks told us Beagles are stubborn. STUBBORN IS PUTTING IT MILDLY.

She enjoyed it too, though, and is currently passed out asleep by my feet. I love this picture of her sitting on the park bench (attached, naturally), because you can tell how utterly unamused she was.

I know it’s cliche for a mother to say that her kids are gorgeous, but you know, duh. Of course my girls are beautiful. But even knowing that, every once in awhile I take a picture that takes even MY breath away. This would be one of them:

I think that happy smile sums it all up, you know?

I hope you’ve all had a great weekend so far too!

Fast forward to the future (or, is it May 8th yet?)

Posted on April 5, 2009 by Sherry

Day 94: To boldly go where no one has gone before

Today George and I took Hayley and Breanna to the theater to see Monsters Vs. Aliens. I really enjoyed it. The story was cute and engaging, and although I worried it might be a bit scary at a few pivotal moments for Breanna, she appeared to be completely unfazed.

It was Breanna’s first time in a theater and she did pretty well. She did walk back and forth among our little row but no one else was sitting there so she didn’t seem to bother anyone, and she didn’t get bored or loud at any point. It was a fun outing for the family.

But I’ll be honest. All this movie excursion did was make me long for May 8th more than I already was. I had seen the previews on YouTube, but today was the first time I saw this trailer on a big screen and I just about peed my pants.

I have GOT to go and see that in theaters so I can experience it with a big-ass screen and the crazy sound and just freak out completely.

Did you know I was a Trek fan? No? I’m honestly more of a Next Generation fan. I always thought Picard was the best captain and I was a little head over heels for Commander Riker (“number one” indeed), but Trek is Trek is Trek and this movie looks AMAZING.

(Note the fact that I had to stop and take a photo of the awesome Enterprise hanging over the movie theater lobby on the way out. Cough.)

I think George and I will be having a little date on May 8th.

Being a mom

Posted on April 2, 2009 by Sherry

Catherine, over at Her Bad Mother wrote a post about what she loves about being a mom. She then asked if I would participate – I agreed but warned her that my post would either be cutesy/sappy or highly sarcastic depending on the day I had had with them when I wrote it.

Luckily for my kids, it was a pretty good day. I had many ridiculously adorable moments, such as having Breanna “exshersize” with me while I was doing the 30 Day Shred. As if a three-year-old bouncing along beside you while you work out isn’t cute and funny enough, she added to the hilarity by using some Mega Blocks as hand weights. I would have taken a picture but I was busy sweating and breathing and occasionally cursing Jillian Michaels and her damn killer workout.

Then Hayley came home from school and after a quick supper we all went to her school – in lieu of Parent-Teacher night after report cards were distributed, they had student-led conferences. Just like last year’s conference, it involved having Hayley bring us into her classroom so she could show us her work. She read a book to us, showed us her recent classwork, and took us on a tour of all the things they’ve been learning as they study Ancient Egypt, including her very own pyramid, mummy, and sarcophagus. So I came home all over-the-moon proud.

Between the two of them, despite fighting bedtime with a lot of effort, they have forced me to write the happy post instead of the snarky and sarcastic post. Well, maybe a bit of humor, but no sarcasm.

Five things I love about being a mom? Okay.

1. That feeling of pride whenever they say/do/learn something amazing. Seeing them take their first steps, hearing them say their first words, it’s incredible. And it isn’t any less exciting the second time around either. And the older they get, the better it is. I’m so proud to hear Breanna rattling on and on about her day or explaining – in great detail – how to play golf on the Wii. To go from mumbling two-syllable words to rambling paragraphs worth of storytelling is awesome. And listening to Hayley explaining all about Egypt to us in her class tonight made me so proud that I could have just about burst. Kids will disappoint you at some point, it’s inevitable, but my god, they will make you so proud that you produced someone so intelligent/funny/engaging/etcetera that it’s not even funny.

2. Seeing everything in a new light. I can walk out my front door and walk around the block and not really notice anything in particular. I’m too busy listening to my iPod or thinking deep thoughts about, you know, what to have for dinner that night or why the hell George made me watch The Boy in the Striped Pajamas when surely he knew it would make me cry until I feared I would vomit, so I don’t see the little things. Kids do. Kids see the bee buzzing among the wildflowers on the side of the road. They stop to inspect the crack in the sidewalk and wonder aloud as to what could have caused it to break like that. They look at the clouds, the leaves, the ants, the gum wrapper being swept down the storm drain, the bird sitting on the roof, everything. And I will tell you right now that sometimes it is really goddamn annoying because when you really just want to hurry the hell up and get home so you can pee, you don’t want to stop and blow yet one more dandelion seed or pick up any more pine cones. But you know what? If you stop and just follow their lead, it is truly amazing to look at our insane world from the simplicity of a child’s point of view.

3. Kids break up the monotony of life. Being an adult sucks. Sure, we don’t have a curfew and we don’t have to eat our vegetables if we don’t want to (but we should since we’re now role models!), but we have to pay rent/mortgages, pay bills, buy groceries, cook, clean, blablabla. It’s exhausting. Which is why kids rock, because when you’re sitting there with your online banking open and you’re transferring all your money to this utility and that creditor, it’s just really nice to have a good excuse to go outside and kick a ball around, get down on the floor to play with dinosaurs, or get your ass kicked by your kids on the Wii. It keeps me young. I think.

4. Candy and chocolate. Kids love to get cookies and candy canes at Christmas, chocolate bunnies at Easter, and candy of all sorts at Halloween. But seriously, they have these itty bitty bellies that can’t hold all those treats. And their teeth – think of the havoc on their teeth! Let’s not even talk about the sugar rush and subsequent crash. Kids just can’t have all that junk. Which is why it’s so handy that we’re around to help them out by eating some of it. Or half of it. While they’re asleep and completely unaware. Hey, it is TOTALLY for their benefit! It’s hard work eating all those Cadbury eggs!

5. Unconditional love. I’m sure that there is a point where you can break a child enough that they no longer love their parents. Generally though, I like to assume that most of us are just doing the best we can, making mistakes, and dusting ourselves back off so we can try again tomorrow. There are days that are so much fun and so full of laughing that the hours fly by. Other times there can be days where the kids fight non-stop, push every button I’ve got, and I end up realizing that I yelled more than I laughed. But I love my kids with everything in me and just as wonderful, I know they love me too. No matter how frustrated we all might get with each other, at the end of the day, the love is still there and it’s still there the next morning when we start all over again. The unconditional love – mine AND theirs – is one of the best things in the entire world.

There are times when my list of five things I love about being a mom might have included sarcastic quips like, “I love to clean the same thing up 8742934 times a day!” and “I love never ever getting to use my own toilet without a three-year-old talking to me!” but today was a great day so you get the great list.

Because I have great kids.

*******
Catherine’s purpose in starting us off on writing about this topic is because she’s working on a project to see if you can get “around the world in 80 clicks” – connecting moms all over the world like one giant playdate. Here are the basic guidelines from Catherine herself:

Here’s how it’s going to work: this post that you’re reading? Is the departure lounge. I’m going to link to a couple of other mom bloggers here in Canada, and to a couple of mom bloggers from other countries around the world, and they’ll write their posts, sharing 5 things that they love (or maybe what they don’t so much love – this playground doesn’t force conformity) about being a mom, and then they’ll tag a few more bloggers from their own country and from other countries, and so on. And you’re more than welcome to join: just write a post of your own (5 things that you love about being a mom) and find someone to link to and tag – someone from your own country, if you like, but definitely someone from another country (Google is a good resource if you don’t know any; google any country name and ‘mom’ in their blog search function) (be sure to let them know that you’ve tagged them!) – and link back here and leave a comment and we’ll add you to the ‘itinerary,’ which David will compile and post and update as the tour proceeds.

If you play along, please go to Catherine’s entry and comment, and definitely comment here too so I can go read what you write. In the meantime, here are my tags – some local, and some international.

Angella, a fellow Canadian on the opposite side of the country over at Dutch Blitz // Tertia of So Close, blogging about life after infertility in Cape Town, South Africa // Jodi is an American mom in Tuscany (ohhh, Tuscany…) // Mara of Monkey Jumping on the Bed, a Canadian living in Panama // Neera of Our Life, A Jigsaw from India.

Check them out over the next few days when they will hopefully join in, and please remember to let me know if you do this too!

Eye Spy

Posted on April 1, 2009 by Sherry

If you’ve been reading my site for awhile, you may remember that when Hayley was a baby, she had a condition called Strabismus. In simple terms, it meant that her right eye crossed in, waaay in. We treated it by using a patch on it several hours per day, and then she had a surgery to correct it at the age of ten months. It was much better but not perfect, and they did another one for her at age three. Her eyes were nice and straight and the only time they would turn in a bit was if she was really tired, and even then I think it was more noticeable to us just because we knew to watch for it.

Prior to the first surgery, she was given a prescription for glasses, and good lord a little baby in teeny little glasses is adorable. Check her out at seven months old:

After the procedure, she no longer required them. However, the other day she mentioned that things sometimes looked a little fuzzy. George also noticed that her eyes looked a little unfocused from time to time. Her class is mostly laid out so that the shorter kids are in front (which makes sense) and with Hayley inheriting George’s tall person genes, she sat in the very back row. I asked her if she could see the board and she told me that sometimes it was hard.

I wish she had told me sooner if she was having problems, but regardless of that, I immediately called our eye doctor at the hospital. The earliest they could see us was in May (!), so I took it anyway, along with one for Breanna who has never had an eye exam. Still, I didn’t want to wait that long, so I also called Lenscrafters and booked an appointment for Hayley next week. If there’s any sort of real problem, they’ll refer us back to the hospital anyway (which is why I kept that May appointment), but if it’s just that she needs glasses now, we can get everything taken care of sooner rather than later.

Hayley is eager to have her vision fixed but she asked me if she would look strange in glasses. Ah, the joys of getting older and being in school with other kids – that’s the sort of question that never would have crossed her mind once upon a time. I assured her that she would look very nice with glasses. It’s a tricky step for me since I personally hate my glasses and prefer my contact lenses. George and I explained that I don’t like MY glasses because they’re really old – the anti-reflect coating is partially worn off which makes it look cloudy when I look through them and it bugs me. I told her that I plan to get some new glasses soon and then I’ll probably wear glasses and contacts equally. I also showed her pictures of other young kids in glasses, showing her how nice they look.

I do hope that it’s just a simple matter of glasses. When you’re sitting at the children’s hospital, waiting for surgery to finish on your kid, it’s just a whole ball of stress. I would see other kids who were obviously very seriously sick or I’d chat with another parent who was waiting for their child to finish a major surgery (such as the mother of a young boy who had a perforated intestine and bowels and it was like some 7-hour procedure), and I would remember that at least eye surgery wasn’t quite that scary, but no one ever wants to have their kid put under, so glasses would be a much better solution. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

Plus, if she has glasses, I’m hoping that maybe it will allow her to better see the mess that she makes and that it will make it easier for her to CLEAN UP after herself a bit. What? They don’t make glasses for that problem? Well, I can hope, right?

RIGHT?!

(The photo above shows Hayley with the mummy she made out of clay and t-shirt strips since her grade one class is studying Ancient Egypt. I never got to study Egypt in grade one, she’s so lucky!)

Chaos Theory

Monthly Archives: April 2009