09 September 2004 - Glasses, Nanny, and More

Since I last wrote, Nicky got glasses and Zack got a nanny.

Nicky is legally blind (about 20:400) without his glasses, and has been living in a very murky world until now. The opthamologist was wrong about Nicky's wanting to avoid wearing glasses at first. I wish you could have seen the look of wonder and awe on his face when he first put on the glasses and discovered all the detail available to see in the world. He kept looking at things, pointing, and saying, "Wow!"

Since getting them, the only times they've been off his face have been during sleeping and swimming (plus showing them to other people and trying to get Gozer to wear them).

School's been going better for Nicky. He cried when I left the classroom yesterday, but they were the perfectly normal tears of a little boy going to kindergarten. They dried up after a few minutes, and -- for the first time -- he played with some of the other kids. He's developing a bond with his teacher, Sara Price, and a couple of the other boys in class have been trying to make friends with him. Mrs. Price has been absolutely wonderful with him. She is letting him join classroom activities at his own pace, and is finding the balance between pushing him and supporting him emotionally.

Zack has been spending the mornings with Aunt Judy. Besides being a long-time friend of mine, Judy is a licensed nanny and school teacher. She has a lot of experience with behavior disorders, ADHD, and developmental delay, so she's just perfect for Zack. She's been working with him on counting, colors, shapes, and basic kindergarten skills such as using scissors safely, pasting with glue, and drawing. Zack loves his time with Aunt Judy.

I'm still working on getting Zack into preschool. Although Aunt Judy can help with remediating his scholastic skills, he also needs to spend time playing with other children. He's still at the "parallel play" stage, and needs to start learning how to share and interact with others.

Having Nicky in kindergarten and Zack with a nanny means that -- finally! -- I have a couple of hours free every day for all the things I've been neglecting. Work has piled up unbelievably high since the end of June when I left for Ukraine, but I'm starting to catch up. When the kids get to the point where they're both in school full-time, life might actually approach normality again.

Zack work up at 3:30 in the morning today and decided he wanted to play with the dog. Gozer, being the accommodating fellow he is, was happy to romp around the house with him. Nicky and I were decidedly less pleased with all the noise. I finally got Zack to go back to sleep from 5:00 until 7:00.

Nicky woke me at 7:00 by tugging on my blanket and saying, "Guess what?"

"What?" I groaned.

"I love you," he said.

"I love you, too."

"Yogurt, Papa, now."

I sighed, rolled over, opened my eyes, and blinked at him. "And a banana, too?" I asked.

"Yup-yup-yup-yup-yup." He grinned at me owlishly from behind his new glasses, and I heard Zack chasing Gozer again in the other room.

And another day is off and running.