Norah's eye appt...

Norah continues to love school. She is doing well, and last night as we were talking before bed, she was listing all the kids in her class. She really pays attention to their names, which is impressive. We started her first homework packet last night, which, if you have talked to Norah AT ALL about going to Kindergarten, she would have told you she was excited to do homework. Well, last night that was the same story...she enjoyed sitting down and working on her handwriting, also reading books.
When we took Norah to the Kindergarten screening, she had to see the school nurse, who tested her ears and eyes. Funny, but she passed the hearing test, and failed her eye test. Not really failed, we were just told to take her in and see the optometrist as it appeared to be about 20/30 vision. It really didn't surprise us too much, we both wear glasses. So, at the end of June, I had an eye exam scheduled for myself, and Norah came along with me for hers. The optometrist did all of the testing, Norah started to get a little nervous when he told her he might put some eyedrops in, and agreed 20/30 in her left eye and 20/20 in her right eye. Then he noticed a little haziness in her left eye. He had me look, and mentioned it could be one of a few things. Either a cataract OR possibly something like Retinoblastoma. What!?! My jaw must have dropped, because he tried to say "It's probably not, but I'll stop there. I'm going to refer you to a Pediatric Ophthamologist, I'm sure they see this kind of stuff all of the time." My heart dropped into my stomach for a minute...wow. So, of course later that night, I did what I absolutely shouldn't do, google retinoblastoma and pediatric cataracts. I was pretty certain it wasn't the retinoblastoma - that looked way to severe on the google images, but in any case, made an eye appt. for Norah for the Pediatric Ophthamologist for today (7-27-10.)
In the meantime, with Norah's history of HATING eyedrops - and I mean holding her down, prying her eyes open, while she is screaming - we bought some Natural Tears for conditioning. My boss has done some nursing work in the Phillipines, and when she has gone to work with the kids who have to have cataract surgery, they hate the drops before the surgery, too, but a few weeks before, they start giving them natural tears. By the time the surgery comes around (after cataract surgery drops are MANDATORY every few hours)- the kids are giving drops to themselves, so this suggestion came from her. It worked. Norah wasn't giving drops to herself, but she was actually asking for them, and then tipping her head back in the chair to let us administer them. Today at the Dr's office, Scott reported that she did JUST FINE with the DR putting the drops in. Big sigh of relief!!!
Anyways, Norah DOESN'T HAVE retinoblastoma, but a small cataract on the side of her left eye. Barely in her vision, but is obstructing it a little. So, surgery at such a young age can be risky, and especially with her cataract being so small, surgery isn't totally necessary right now. We will have to do follow up visits, though, so they can monitor the growth of it. She has her next visit in 3 months, so I will keep it posted here on the blog.

After the first week...

Norah loves Kindergarten, that is about all I can say to describe it. We knew she'd do ok - after all, she has never had a problem when we left her at day care or with the occasional babysitter.
One of the concerns we did have, however, was that she is SUCH A SLOW eater. The problem, we thought, was that with only 20 minutes to eat, she would not eat fast enough, nor enough food, to last her through the afternoon. The first day, I packed a turkey sandwich, chips, applesauce, and some fruitsnacks. When we got home, I looked in her lunchbox and held up the half of sandwich- she immediately came over, asked if she could have it for her snack, and SCARFED it DOWN. I really mean INHALED it. The fruitsnacks were also untouched. Well, needless to say, the second day of school, she ate her WHOLE sandwich, along with everything else I packed. Yesterday, she finished her sandwich on the way to pick up Maya, but I am confident she has learned to eat a little faster.
The other "concern" we had was Norah's bedtime. No matter how early I tried to get her to go to bed early, she would always stay awake in her room looking at books - yes, even in the dark. She would stay up until 10 pm many nights, even if we tried to start bedtime so she would be in bed by 8. This week, it all changed. On Tuesday night, she was completely exhausted, and was ready for bed and tucked in at 8:30. She was sound asleep by 8:32. On Wednesday, it was 8:30 again, and she thought she'd be sneaky and try & read a book. I found her with the book unopened and covering her face- at 8:35. Funny, kinda, because she didn't even realize how tired she was. And then last night, since it was Friday, I told her we would pop some popcorn and maybe she could stay up a little later. We sat down on the couch to watch the D-Backs game and she took a few handfuls of popcorn - soon after, she pushed the bowl away and said, "I'm just gonna relax, Mom, and maybe shut my eyes." I looked at the clock - it was only 8:35. When I looked back at her, she was sound asleep. Wow, I love how school tires her out!!

The other cute story I wanted to share - We were sitting at the dinner table on Wednesday evening. Scott and I were talking and Norah was eating. I asked her a question and she stopped me and said, "When you raise your hand, then I will be able to help you." Scott and I were stunned. We laughed a lot, and then both agreed that at least she has learned that so far!

Anyways, starting next week, Mrs. Conrey will send home a weekly homework packet and also daily behavior reports. I am curious to see how she behaves at school! We are establishing our routine for the school year, which is nice...

Maya, on the other hand, had a rough week. She was teething, & woke up a few times during the night on Monday, Tues, Weds, AND Thursday screaming. She was also drooling constatnly. It was awful, so we alternated the Tylenol and Ibuprofen, as well as the OraGel. She chewed on cold washcloths, and loved the freezie pops. Poor thing- it seems to have passed! She is getting to be herself again - smiley and eating well. Thank goodness!!

The First Day of Kindergarten!!

And she is ALL ready!! Lunchbox is packed, backpack weighs about as much as she does, and she CAN'T STOP talking about KINDERGARTEN!!



Walking to school. Notice Norah is carrying both the backpack AND her lunchbox. In about 100 feet, Scott is carrying both. The school is just on the other side of the houses-nice, when it isn't 100 degrees at 8 am. OK, not 100, maybe 90.



Getting ready to go into the school...



Found her table, and is getting it all set.



playing with the kids

Getting Ready!!

She has all of her supplies, ready to go!! Tomorrow's the big day!!

5 days until Kindergarten!!!

Only 5 days to go, it is all we seem to talk about at our house. Norah has started reading. And I mean EVERYTHING...at least she is trying to read everything. She has started the Bob Book series, which, for those with new readers in your home - leads to attempts to read everything. The English language is tough - the minute I start telling her about the silent e at the end of the word makes the vowel say it's name, like in "note," BUT THEN she tries to pronounce "done," and I have to step back and explain it is in MOST words that the silent e makes the vowel say it's name... I will be sure to give her Kindergarten teacher lots of credit !!! I just can't imagine how tough it is to have a classroom full of kiddos and teach them all to read.

Norah received her letter from Anthem K-8 yesterday with her teacher's name and the classroom's supply list. They have many items that they will need for themselves, and then also some for community use - i.e. all of the "centers" in the room. Among the school supplies were dry-erase markers (the letter sd they all have their own dry erase board,) and also 2 packs of glue sticks (Scott took this to mean the jumbo packs of glue sticks, so Norah will be showing up to school with about 20 sticks, oh well, more for the "community") - She packed her backpack last night, and is now looking in it again, between books she is reading out loud to herself. I love the sound of it...