Bria and the Student Counsel

I think this story is too funny not to share. The kid’s school decided to have a student counsel this year. Anyone in grades 3-5 could run. They wanted representatives from each class. Plus the fifth grade (I think) got to have a grade president, etc. This kind of thing is right up Bria’s alley. She is super motivated and loves any kind of project. She was thrilled that they were doing this.

Last week, she brought home two blank posters and said that she needed them done by THE NEXT DAY. I have to tell you, this experience worries me for when she’s in high school. We stayed up late and got those posters done. That was Tuesday and the voting was starting on Thursday.

While we were making her posters, we talked about what it meant to run for office. Bria wrote down a list of things that she wanted to do if she won. Some of them were pretty good, and some of them weren’t. She wrote that she wanted to have the lunchroom serve pizza every Friday. So, we talked about campaigning on things that she actually could change and not something that she couldn’t. In the end, she really had come up with some great ideas! My favorite was having a fun run to raise money that could fix leaky holes in the school roof. She came up with that on her own. I was pretty proud.



(This isn’t the greatest picture, I took it from my phone).

Thursday was parent teacher conference. Her teacher told me that she was really impressed with Bria and the campaign. There were 9 kids in her class running for class representative – more than any other class in the school. That day, her teacher had all of the kids running get up and give an impromptu campaign speech. She said Bria did an outstanding job. She said that Bria had some really solid ideas. Then, she asked Bria if she remembered to vote for herself. Bria said that she felt bad for her friend Regan and decided to vote for her instead. So, during the parent teacher conference, we had a discussion that if you’re running for office, you think you’re the best candidate and should vote for yourself, not someone else.

The kids had a 4 day weekend and went back to school this Tuesday. All of the kids who ran for office were so anxious to find out the results of the election. Bria said that every class was announced over the morning announcements, but her class was asked to go to the principal's office. The election came down to a tie. It was between Bria and another girl. So, the class held another election and the other girl won. Bria was so devastated! She cried the whole drive home from school. This was a day that I’m so glad I drive our kids.

The ironic thing is, Bria would have won by ONE vote if she had voted for herself. She was pretty discouraged, but I talked her into running next election. I sure love my girl!!

New Eyes

I’ve been avoiding this blog because I’m so behind. I still do want to catch up, but I realized this week that by procrastinating the catch up, I’m getting more and more behind. This week has been crazy. The kids seem to have a million things going on in life. Bria and Logan both got new glasses. It’s been less than a year since Bria got her eyes checked and she’s been complaining about headaches and saying she couldn’t see. I decided it was time to get her eyes check again. The first time I let her pick out her own glasses. Not that I didn’t like them, but I wanted to have more say this time. She really could have kept the same frames, but I always felt like I couldn’t see her beautiful eyes. We settled on a beautiful pair and I don’t think they hide her face as much.



I think she is such a beautiful girl!

Logan needed to get glasses, too. I actually posted this part on my other blog. I’ve had so many people ask me how I knew he needed glasses. Max has never had his eyes checked and Bria only did because her teacher noticed that she was struggling to see the board.



Honestly, the answer isn’t because I was a super observant mom and noticed a problem. After we got his eyes checked, I still was amazed that he needed glasses. He acts like he can see everything! He constantly points thing out that he sees from a distance. He plays games up close on the iPad and never seems to act like it bothers him. He just seems like a normal 3-year old to me.



A few months ago, one of my friends asked me if Logan has a lazy eye. Ummm…no. Not even close. I wasn’t sure why she was even asking. I decided that he has big beautiful eyes and that’s why she thought that. Plus, if he’s looking at something sideways, of course one of he eyes would gravitate toward the middle. She obviously didn’t know what she was talking about. My children are perfect, right?



A little while later, I had another friend ask the same thing. And I’ll be honest. I was kind of offended. Who asks that to someone? Hello….filter! My kids are my pride and joy! Anything even slightly offensive comments bring out my mama bear instincts.



I was a little discouraged. Was there something that I wasn’t seeing? More than one person pointed it out, so there must be something worth looking into. So, I finally scheduled an eye appointment. I just went to our regular eye doctor, but I’ve had a few friends mention that I should have taken him to a Pediatric Ophthalmologist. I didn’t even know those existed. But, I do think that our regular doctor did a stellar job. I still can’t believe they charge the same fee to examine a 3-year old as everyone else. It’s a lot more difficult.

His appointment lasted over an hour. It didn’t help that he was a little star struck by the doctor and kept nervously giggling instead of answering questions. Kids this little obviously can’t read, so he had to examine him a lot differently. He held up a stick with pictures on it and would ask Logan if the butterfly was on the top or bottom. Then, he had him look through the gigantic exam glasses. Not to mention shining lights in his eyes about a million times. He dilated Logan’s eyes and did more and more tests to determine his exact prescription. I still can’t believe how patient my boy was. Oh, and I learned that a good eye doctor can determine a person’s prescription just by looking inside their eyes. Before that, I was convinced that advanced eye technology was on the way to replacing actual doctors.



So, what was the diagnosis? He is far sighted and has been primarily using his right eye to focus. His left eye muscles are weaker and when he tries to focus on close things, that eye is used less and goes slightly off centered. Like one millimeter. He doesn’t have a lazy eye (and when the doctor said that, my inner mama bear was screaming “See? I was right!!”) BUT, if he doesn’t wear his glasses, his left eye muscles could get weaker and it could cause major problems down the road. I guess once your eyes are done developing in early childhood, problems like that are irreversible.

By the time the appointment was done, Logan was incredibly tired and wanted absolutely nothing to do with trying on glasses. I had to just choose a pair and cross my fingers that they would look good on his face. I was pretty worried that he wouldn’t wear them after he refused so adamantly then. But, as soon as his new glasses came in, he was so excited. Of course, we had been telling him how awesome glasses are. He’s left them on all the time ever since. He loves all of the attention he’s been getting from just about everyone. Even strangers at the store comment on how cool his glasses are. Yesterday, he told me that his super glasses turn him into a super hero. That’s my boy.

And to be super clear, I am so grateful now that I had friends willing to ask me something that I didn’t notice myself. I feel like we are so blessed to know what his problem is and be able to get it fixed before any permanent damage happened.