So... Meredith will start wearing glasses once the ordered pairs from Costco arrive. Yesterday, I took her for her first eye appointment ever, to see the pediatric ophthalmologist at UC-Davis. She's had intermittent exotropia for some time - otherwise known as wandering eye - and The Blonde was able to convince them to work her in for us on short notice, thus using up a huge number of favors in the process (perhaps a trip to Hawaii will assuage the pain of using up all of those favors).
She was a little intimidated about going to the eye MD as she's already spent far too much in the dentist's chair for a kid, but hey, I don't go to the dentist that often and I don't like having people I'm paying and sort of knowing after a few visits sticking their fingers in my mouth either, so I can't say as I blame her, but I noted this would be completely painless except for a brief sting when they put in the dilation drops.
I was very impressed with the efficiency of the ophthalmology eye clinic and we were in and out a lot faster for a work-in appointment than I thought we'd be... arrived about 8:30 for the 8:45, and with drops and all were out by 10:30. The good news is her eyes are healthy, she has great 3-D depth perception and color, and the doc thinks her exotropic has a good chance of going away because... she's mildly myopic (I'm a -12 in both eyes, her mom is -4 to -5, I don't know Sarah's script, Davis is a -1.25L -2.50R) - which is no big surprise, 75% of children born to parents who are both myopic will need glasses - and glasses help in many cases with curing exotropia in children.
So, off to Costco we went for lunchtime pizza and looking at frames, and we picked up two radically different styles and got each in Transitions lenses so she won't need prescription sunglasses when she's outside (I'm a very firm believer in either UV protection for the eyes or polarized sunglasses when you're out In The Light). Pictures are on my FB page. With any luck, the glasses will be in before they leave on the 25th; I've had good luck with Costco filling an order within 7 calendar days. (and no, I'm not being paid to pimp for Costco).
Anyway, my daughter and I have always been very close "clicking" with each other, which is to say she probably has me totally conned, and we take turns attempting to talk the others' legs off, so we sat and chatted in the exam room and out in the clinic while waiting for the drops to take effect. After the initial exams by the nurse, the MD, and a ophthalmology resident who did the RX, she was moaning "I don't want to be a dork like Davis, he looks so dorky in his glasses." Now this is the part I *love* about being a parent, I really enjoy taking my kids to the doc - even when they're sick or when its something oogy like a shot being part of a general checkup, and I feel like its my job to make sure that they feel comfortable and realize that whatever the outcome of the visit that its just all part of life to be taken in stride.
"Meredith, you're a smart girl, you're cute, you're going to look just fine in glasses, and seeing well is very important. You'll understand what I mean after you put on your new glasses for the first time (her script was -2 in each eye - very mild, but she really blew the reading lines tests up before they got the machine on her face), you'll say "I can see!"".
She still pouted a bit, but then brightened up when I asked her the question "wasn't your brother a dork *before* he got glasses a year ago?" and agreed with the question. "They just *add* to his dorkiness." I noted that was fine, but that she no longer could tease him about being a dork solely on the basis of his glasses as she would soon be a wearer of them as well (she teases him mercilessly; she's incredibly lucky he's so mild natured, because most brothers who weigh 80 pounds - he's 2x as heavy as she is and a head taller, as well as 2 years older - would regular pound the owlsnot out of a mouthy younger sister - he just giggles and laughs at the teasing. Its a good thing, I think).
"I mean, Meredith, I wear *seriously* thick coke bottle lenses when I'm not wearing my glasses. Am I a dork?"
"No dad, you're cool... and you're even cooler because you play guitar (now I just love hearing this and what's even better she frequently comments on this part of my coolness in this area) and you play it SO fast!"
(I have to be careful when practicing with her not to show off too much as she's unfortunately also a perfectionist like her old man. This means she gets frustrated quickly; I try to be supportive by noting the positive things she is doing - which is a lot - and that she's youngest player in her class, by far, and yet is not the poorest player. I've been helping her learn to read music and understand where the notes are on the guitar using the book required for her summer school guitar class. I whip out the hollowbody and play the notes and sing the pitches and names while playing the notes, and also count loudly 1 2 3 4. Apparently that's sinking in somewhat, as last night, after she fell asleep, she started almost shouting in her sleep "1 2 3 4!" I forgot to ask her this morning if she remembers any dreams from last night involving shouting time counts LOL).
Tonight, I'm going to take them to Oshima for the 3rd Thursday jam (could take them next week as The 3rd Floor Jazz Club also is playing the 4th Thursday this month), the jam starts much earlier than Cap Garage so I can have them back home at a reasonable enough hour I won't have to drag them out of bed bitching and moaning about not wanting to go to summer school. Might have Meredith take her guitar to show it to Nayhum and Joel (if he's there). I know both of those guys will be *so* charmed by her cuteness she might get an impromptu lesson/pointer or two (Nayhum, in particular, has the air about him that I think he's really good at working with child musicians and he does summer jazz camps for teens around here).
Back to spectacle type stuff, when I dropped Meredith off after lunch/glasses picking at summer school (she missed her beading class, but there was plenty of time for her to enjoy some recess and catch her guitar class, which is at the end of day's class schedule. Saw Davis playing, walked up to him, and said "Dude. Meredith is going to have to wear glasses now" and he aped one of my favorite expressions and said "*Yeah* man." LOL.
We attempted high fiving each other (I deliberately missed 2x, and said "Oops, I don't think I've got my glasses on").
My little engineer-mad-scientist in the making is into paper airplanes right now. He fished a paper airplane book out of the shelves in the mini-library that's in summer school, and has been doing trial-and-error paper airplane making the last few days. He's not at the Burt Rutan level yet - in fact, most of his planes pretty much suck in term of flying anywhere (but I think this is a paper quality available to him at school and not necessarily a design issue), but he's learning many important design principles.
Moreover, he's fixing his design flaws so no matter how shitty the paper the airplane is made out of is, it flies better. He's *so* geeky and once he gets rolling on a subject, like his father, he just won't shut up (unlike Meredith, who has an opinion on everything and often will speak for Davis when you ask Davis a direct question (he just sits or stands there with a smirk on his face) and talks constantly).
I asked Davis once "Is Meredith your official spokesperson?" and before he could possibly answer she blurts "Yes I am." Last time she did this, I said:
"Meredith, what are you doing to do when Davis heads off to college your junior year in high school... I figure by then, two way video calling on the cell oughta be common, so when he needs to talk to someone, he'll just simply call you, hold up his cell by the other person's face, and you'll do all the talking, right?"
My, its been an interesting visit here at the halfway mark...
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