Wishing for a bubble today

Kendal wore an eye patch to school for the first time today.  Its one of those days that you wish you could go with your child to protect them from mean words, to make them feel good about themselves, and to just give them a solid comforting hug all day long.  Well, that can't happen, so I am at home thinking about her all day long.  I worry about this day.

We went to the eye doctor yesterday afternoon and he was so impressed and happy with how much her bad eye has improved in just the one week of her wearing her new glasses.  He thought this process might take 6 months, but now he is thinking 2 or 3.  That would be wonderful!

He put a patch on her before we left and we came home and finished a math page of homework and a few more minutes of reading.  I was actually impressed she did so well.  The eye doctor showed me what Kendal can see with her good eye patched and covered, and with the glasses on the bad eye.  It is not not not pretty at all.  So blurry, plus her 3D perception is messed up since one eye is covered.

After homework I was thinking this was going to be a breeze.  Well, not a breeze, but not as horrible as I expected.  She only messed up words like "than" for "that" and easy mistakes like that.  What do you expect with super blurry vision?  Then we had dinner.  The poor thing took a few minutes to realize where her mouth was!  She made a mess for the first half of dinner because she really kept hitting her cheek with her food.  She figured it out after a bit, but that is going to be an issue for awhile.

We had a talk this morning before school about how hard the day might be.  We talked about PE and recess, we talked about lunch, we talked about what the kids are going to say and what she should and shouldn't say back to them.  First graders don't have the ability to censor what they say.  They are just curious, and most of them are not trying to be mean, but some of course are mean.  Kendal can take things pretty well, and hopefully today will be a good day for her to be confident in herself.

Matt took her to school today, which rarely happens because he is usually long gone by school time, but not this morning.  Kendal adores her dad and that was a good start to a hard day.  Matt called me after he dropped her off and said "Rach, I think you are doing a great job with Kendal."  Now, mothers rarely get complimented on the mothering we do.  We get complimented on the quilts we make, the dresses we sew, the delicious dinners we serve, the flowers we grow, even the new pair of shoes we waited 2 years to purchase.  But we rarely get complimented on being a good mom.  That right there added to my emotional day because it did mean so much to hear.  I do hope I am the mom Kendal needs me to be, so I can help her develop into the incredible person she is destined to become.

I will continue to think about her all day long until she gets home.  Then I will hug her and tell her how sweet she is, how smart she is, how brave she is, and how pretty she is.  (It seems like the book 'The Help!')  I will remind her that our home is a safe and loving place.  I will give her something good to eat, because Heaven knows that always makes me feel better!