little four eyes

Ann mentioned this in passing in her last post, but I thought it was cute enough to warrant a full description.

Zoe no longer views me as the cleaner-of-glasses. She formerly would hand me her glasses for cleaning, then gather up everyone else’s glasses and bring them to me for cleaning. Not anymore – now she’s the cleaner-of-glasses.

The cycle generally begins with her walking up to me and pointing at the pants pocket where I keep my glasses cleaning cloth. I’ll give it to her and she’ll take off her glasses and “clean” them. She understands that the cleaning process involves a cloth and rubbing, but she’s not exactly clear on the mechanics. This frequently means holding glasses by the lenses and rubbing the earpieces. Zoe cleaning my glasses is probably the leading cause of dirty glasses.

Then she’ll work her way around the room, getting each person’s glasses and cleaning them. Usually there’s only one pass and she’ll return the cloth to its plastic envelope or try to put it back in my pocket. Sometimes she’ll start the process over.

At this point, the adults will be tempted to re-clean their glasses. This is a mistake. If Zoe sees you cleaning your glasses — well, that’s her job. Start the process over.

Maybe Ann should make another parenting flowchart.

I’ve been collecting a pretty random list of links to articles, websites and blogs about children and vision and vision problems and other related topics, with the intent to post and share them, but I keep getting distracted by other things – like trips to the eye glasses store, or just how cute it is when Zoe tries to clean her glasses. But I have no excuses now, which maybe tells you a bit about my current life and lack of things to do on a Friday night, but ah well.

(this list is in no particular order)

• Impact of Computer Use on Children’s Vision – from the American Optometric Association. Zoe doesn’t do anything on the computer now, but given her parents’ habits, I’m sure she will at some point. I found the information and advice here to be thoughtful and really helpful.
• Maino’s Memos – a blog a Professor of Pediatrics/ Binocular Vision at the Illinois College of Optometry, and Doctor of Optometry. His blog collects links to research on children’s vision, developmental disabilities, and other topics, and often include his own comments on the topics.
• Bright Eyes – another blog, this one by an optometrist in Florida that discusses news, new developments in vision care and other topics. There are categories for Children’s Vision, and Infant’s Vision with some very interesting posts.
• Infants Fine-tune Visual, Auditory Skills in First Year. I think cognitive development in children is fascinating, and this article in Science Daily, explains about how children’s vision is tuned in their first year to specifically differentiate between those things they’ll run into the most (ie human faces and voices and sounds).
• Babies with glasses – a site for parents and families of kids with glasses. They have a variety of tips and tricks, FAQS and a forum, though it doesn’t seem to be very active at the moment.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

The eyeglasses store is rapidly becoming one of our most frequent trips. Between adjustments, prescription changes, and scratched lens replacements, I think I visit the place as often as I visit to Target. I did a quick count and came up with at least 8 trips since the start of 2008. Luckily, they have a nice play area and an aquarium that entertains Zoe whenever she’s there. Oh, and they give her stickers. She’s a fan.

This last trip was to see if we should replace Zoe’s left lens that now has a scratch running down the center. They agreed that they would replace it, but said they’d need to send the glasses in (why they need to this time, but didn’t need to last time, I don’t know). The woman also said that she didn’t think Zoe would notice it – being farsighted means that things like that are less noticeable, and it’s a very thin scratch. Since Zoe now really likes wearing her glasses, and we have another ophthalmologist appointment in less than 2 months, if not sooner, and I’m betting she’ll change the prescription at that visit, I decided not to make Zoe go without the glasses for a week.

While I was there, I also asked about clip-on sunglasses. They said that clip-ons – even custom ones – just don’t fit glasses as small as Zoe’s, which is why they recommend the transition lenses. Disappointing, since I imagine clip-ons would be less expensive. We’re holding off until after the next eye doctor visit before deciding whether to get them. It’s rainy enough in MN in the spring that I think Zoe will be ok.

I’m sure we’ll be back to the glasses store again in no time.

Earlier this week, while we were on a walk, Zoe pulled off her glasses and threw them out of the stroller. Neither Chris nor I noticed until we’d gotten home. At which point, both of us saw her without her glasses and asked the other if they had them. Cue ominous music and that bad feeling in the pit of your stomach. Chris went out and retraced our steps, while I tried to put Zoe down for a nap. I think she realized something was up pretty quickly. She kept putting her hand up to the bridge of her nose and looking at me with concern. As we walked up to her room, we passed one of the glasses cases we have for her glasses (we have four of them). She lit up and grabbed the case, opened it up, and then looked with disappointment at the fact that there were no glasses.

Happily, Chris was able to find the glasses without much trouble – there’s a case to be made here for brightly colored glasses that don’t blend in with brown leaves. And while I would not recommend it as an intentional strategy, she hasn’t thrown her glasses since. She’ll still take them off when she’s upset, but now she hangs on to them tightly.

At Zoe’s daycare, they decorate the different rooms with cut-outs and pictures for each kid (for instance, last summer, they made construction paper picnic items, and put one kid’s name on each item – Zoe’s name was on the hot dogs, I think). Every few months they change the theme of the decoration and we get to take home whatever they’d previously made for our child. Usually, they just end up in the recycling bin, but this time, they’d made little figures for each kid, and Zoe’s was too cute not to keep – it’s hanging on the door to her room now.

She’s dressed as SuperZoe – her Halloween costume, but I particularly love the little red glasses.

Franklin in his sunglasses

Originally uploaded by Ann Felicia

Today was sunny, and it sort of made me sad. I took the kids to the zoo. After we got everything from the car into the stroller, I took out my daughter’s sunglasses and put them on her face. Franklin said, “Mommy, did you bring my sunglasses?” Sigh. I had to tell him he couldn’t wear sunglasses anymore because he had to wear his SpongeBob glasses, and he was pretty upset with me right away. We talked about how it’s very important for him to see clearly and he can always wear his baseball cap to protect his eyes, but still. He told me he will miss his star sunglasses, as seen in this picture with his cousin.

It’s going to be sunny all summer, what do you think? Should I let him wear sunglasses sometimes? I just don’t know, I feel bad that he can’t be cool in his shades anymore. Maybe he won’t care after a few weeks, maybe I’m over thinking it, but I still feel bad. It’s just yet another thing to deal with!

Honestly, pretty much everyone that has commented on Sam’s glasses think they are really cute. I’ll admit, I’ve come to think so, too. And in just a week and a half, I’ve come to think he looks better with them on than off.

His sisters, especially Ellie, have had to be told to keep their comments to themselves, though. Ellie said several times in the first few days that she didn’t like them and Sam looked stupid (thank you kindergarten) with them on. Both girls have turned into Sam’s glasses monitors, though. If he takes them off, they come running to tattle. Being 5 yrs old, they tattle about everything, though, so what’s one more thing?

His first day back at preschool with them on, one little boy in class looked at Sam when we came in and yelled, “Uh oh! Sam got gwasses!” Sam just scowled at him and went on about his business.

But Sam’s preschool teachers are getting on my nerves a bit. They’ve done nothing but gush, and I mean GUSH about how cute he is, how handsome he is, and how they just knew he needed glasses and they are so glad we took him to the doctor.

Ok, it’s the last comment that really got to me. Miss Anita sort of acted like she didn’t believe me when I told her it took a month to get the referral to the eye doctor. That coupled with her “I’ve been around children for a long time and I know when they are having trouble seeing” comment has rubbed me the wrong way. She has also told me that Sam is talking a lot more and participating, knows his colors and numbers and all now. And I know he knew his colors and numbers before. I might buy the participating part, if he couldn’t see what was going on, but in general, they are laying it on a little too thick for my liking.

At least he’s gotten used to them and only takes them off about half a dozen times a day instead of twenty or thirty times like I was expecting.

I have a picture of him posted on my personal blog if anyone cares to see him.

http://innerpieceblog.blogspot.com/

Nerd Strap

Originally uploaded by Ann Felicia

In response to Ann Z’s question about keeping a kid’s glasses on, I’d like to share this picture of Franklin’s Nerd Strap. I’m not sure how it would work on Zoe, but for a (now) 4 year old, it really helps keep the glasses up on his nose as well as on his head when his little sister grabs them. He can still get the glasses on and off by himself, but we were really having a hard time keeping them on his face when he plays with other kids.

But does it look nerdy? There’s a huge part of me that doesn’t want him to wear it because deep down, I think it looks dorky. ACK! He’s slowly moving down the road to complete Nerd-dom! (I’m kidding, but still…) It is a daring fashion statement, but if it’s this or constantly breaking them, I’ll go nerdy any day.

For the most part, now that she’s used to her glasses, Zoe is great at leaving them on. She takes them off when she sees Chris cleaning his glasses, and hands him hers to get cleaned as well. Then she’ll take my glasses off and hand them to him. She’s big on glasses cleanliness, I guess.

Otherwise, she generally only takes them off when she’s throwing a tantrum, and then she whips them around and throws them, which is where I’d love some advice. We’ve tried so hard to always stay positive with the glasses, but now I’m thinking we need to find a way to communicate that that isn’t acceptable. Any advice or experience on keeping her from expressing her anger with her glasses?

Thought I’d post a link about the InfantSEE program from the American Optometric Association. They’re a public health program working to make vision screening a normal part of the infant wellness care. They recommend having children screened at 6 months of age, and in fact provide free infant eye assessments in the first year of a child’s life. I’m not sure if a 6 month screening would have made a difference for us – Zoe’s strabismus didn’t show up until 9 months, but providing assessments at no cost is a great service. I looked through their section of information for parents and read that 1 in 25 children develop strabismus, so Zoe’s eye problems are really not at all uncommon.

I did have to laugh at this quote in their section on why to have your child screened at 6 months:

The good news about a trip to the optometrist is that there are no shots or cold stethoscopes. While the doctor will be shining a light in the baby’s eyes, and may spray a mist on eyelids or use eye drops to dilate the baby’s pupils, many infants seem to enjoy the “games” they play as part of the professional assessment.

Ha! I think Zoe hated the dilating eye drops followed by bright light in her eyes far more than any shots she’s gotten.