25 February 2011 11:30 am
Four Four-Eyes
In about a week, Andrea will join the rest of her immediate family in wearing glasses. She had her eye exam this morning, which revealed that my motherly instincts were correct. (It had been a year since her last exam, and she needed one for kindergarten, so the visit wasn't all driven by instincts.) She had been holding the book a bit close, and she had been leaning toward the television to help see. She has both nearsightedness and an astigmatism in both eyes. And, there is no doubt about her need for correction. The eye doctor commented that she was very consistent with her answers to "which one is better, one or two?"
Andrea picked out a pretty purple pair of frames. I'm not sure how much was driven by the Disney branding on them. However, the trusted woman on the staff at the eye doctor's office agreed that it was one of the best looking on Andrea. I might have had a slight preference for one of the pink frames, but I'll defer to Andrea's fashion sense. We will be able to pick them up in about a week.
We knew that eventually Andrea's genetic deficiencies in the area of vision would catch up to her. I am surprised that my ability to see without glasses until the age of seven and a half is the record among the four of us. I guess if a need for glasses is the worst trait that we pass on, she'll do okay in life.
13 February 2011 7:54 pm
She Can Read!
For the first time, I heard Andrea sounding out words as she read a book by herself last Sunday. She has slowly, and somewhat secretively, been making progress toward this for a while. There was the "First Words" book that she enjoyed reading, which involved some guessing of what word matched the picture. With that, she was often confused by words such as 'knife' which don't start with the sound you'd expect.
The first book that I heard her read to herself was "If You Give a Pig a Party!", and the word that she had to really think about before saying was 'want.' In the past week, Andrea has impressed me with the many words that she can read. She has read books that I was not even aware that we had, which convinces me that she hasn't simply memorized the words. I expect her repertoire to expand rapidly. I only hope that she will soon start to read during the day in addition to at bedtime. It's tough for me to remind her that it's time to sleep when I hear her practicing such a wonderful, life-long skill.
