Maddie's Exciting News

Well, two weeks ago we got a letter from the school nurse at Maddie's school. Mads had failed her eye exam. I really did not believe it, but the next week I decided on one of our down days to go and get her eyes checked. She was so excited at the prospect of getting glasses. (not always a good attitude when going into an eye exam).
When we got called into the exam room, she was very excited, and starting to be fidgety. (also not a good thing in an eye exam....or anytime for that matter). By the time the doc projected the Eye chart on the wall, she was struggling to focus. She got an itch on her bottom, and kept trying to scratch it on the chair. The doctor was trying to get her to read the letters, and she was having a hard time. Add to that the itch that was taking most of her focus.... I was seeing that we were headed for disaster. We had to get two lines bigger from the normal for her to be able to even recognize the letters. We did the "which one is better...one or two" about a hundred times.
The right eye was not too bad, we missed quite a few, but did not seem like we were "special". The Left eye on the other hand was a different story all together. He would put up a line, and ask her to read it. She would say what seemed like any letter that came to her head. Nothing like the line that she was supposed to be reading. (ie. If the letter was a "B" she would say "M". and he would ask her to read it again... "M". Then he would tell her it was a "B". She still did not see it.) Meanwhile, Halle kept yelling the answers out to her. It was comical. Halle cheating for Mads, Mads looking like she was SLOW and did not know any letters, all the while scratching her bottom on the chair. I did not know whether to laugh or die of embarrassment. I did both. It was really funny. I wish Mike would have been there.
We found out that Mads really was blind. It does explain why she has to be 4 inches from the T.V. when she watches. She has a lazy eye. Not one that wanders, but one that just has stopped working like it is supposed to and the other eye pretty much takes over. She picked out her own glasses. I would have gotten her a pair that I loved. I did not love the pink ones, and she did. I figure that she will probably loose them or break them in a couple of days,... weeks.. maybe if we are really luck we can make it months. So a not so beautiful pair works well. She is excited. And tells me all day long about what she is doing with them. It is pretty funny. So my first grader is joining the bad eye the ranks of our family. I am just glad that from what I saw at the eye doctor's Halle is not going to need glasses any time soon.