After work today, I took Mary for a check-up on her eyes and we had the most wonderful news. A couple months ago we finished her one hundred chart, and after that, I really burnt out and struggled to be consistent with her eye exercises even though we were still supposed to be doing daily maintenance (15 minutes per day instead of the previous 30 minutes per day with the 100 chart). To top it off, one of the kids (Ammon or Clarissa I suppose) lost the blue lens from the red blue glasses that Mary does her computer regimen with. Needless to say, I was feeling a bit concerned about our lack of work that we did on this last two-month stretch.
But I felt so grateful to learn that Mary’s eyes only got better. Dr. Duval explained that her eyes go to a point of really learning how to work together, and now they are just kindof off an running and getting better and better at working together all on their own just by Mary continuing to live life. Dr. Duval must have sensed my sense of accountability and falling short because he said I could let all the guilt go. He said Mary’s eyes were doing great, and there was no more need for any therapy work at home. When he said that, I felt an incredible release. I loved doing eye exercises with her, but it was often after a busy work day, trying to carve it out of the chaos of home-life with four kids, and often I was feeling very worn out. We had streaks of great consistency and streaks of really dropping the ball, but just to know that it was good enough, that the desired result of her eyes being in a great spot was achieved, and that no more work was required was all such a gift from God to hear. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you God! And thank you Mary for always being so great about doing your exercises when I said it was time to do them either with me or with the computer! When I thanked Mary in the car, she thanked me back for working with her. What a sweet and appreciative girl she is.
One other thing I will mention is that in the Doctor’s office, Mary was so incredibly curious about Dr. Duval’s machines. While we were waiting for him, she circled all around his equipment and asked me repeatedly what different switches, buttons or levers did. I didn’t have the answers, but when Dr. Duval entered, he showed her what some of the buttons did after I suggested she ask him what some of the things did (which she did).
At home, I did story time with the kids before they went to bed. It was fun!
Not too often, but sometimes Basil gets in a mouthy and playful mood in which he just wants to be biting things and being playful. I ordered some blue welders gloves and we are trying to teach him biting humans is only ok when playing with the blue gloves. Hopefully that helps him release and experience some of his puppy and teething natural instincts without learning it is ok for him to bite people! Here is a video of him playing with me while I’m wearing the glove: