Andrea Loses her First Tooth!

On Friday, Andrea came home from daycare with exciting news: she lost her first tooth!

She told us that it fell out at lunch time, while she was eating some potatoes! Her teachers put it in a little envelope for her to bring it home, and gave her a special certificate to celebrate her losing her first tooth at daycare.

We asked Andrea if she had noticed it was lose, and she said no. When we looked in her mouth, we discovered two interesting things: 1.) the tooth next to the one that fell out is also very loose and 2.) her two adult teeth are already coming in behind the the loose ones. It looks really odd, since she has the two teeth coming in behind the row that's already there. I said it reminded me of the rows of a shark's teeth! (Of course, I didn't tell HER that. She'd be insulted.) Daddy looked it up online, and this is a bit unusual, but shouldn't be a problem since the teeth in front are already out/almost out. They even call it "shark's teeth," just like I said.

Andrea was so excited about the tooth fairy coming. We played "tooth fairy" all evening, and she was anxious for bedtime. I pulled out a little tooth holder that someone had given me as a gift for Andrea when she was a baby, and we put her tooth in there, next to her bed. The Tooth Fairy brought her $5 (apparently that's the going rate) and Daddy took her to Dollarama for a shopping spree the next day. :) She is growing up too quickly!

More Andrea Fun . . .

Right now, she likes drawing stories. I usually write out the words for her, but she creates it all and illustrates it herself. This is a sample of Andrea's work:

THE END

The other thing Andrea is great at is entertaining Ryan. If he's lonely, or fussy, Andrea can make him laugh, anytime. He just adores her. She makes him laugh every time; they are so cute together. Andrea is very proud of her ability to make Ryan happy. :)

Kevin's Eye Appointment

We went back to see Dr. Moussa, the eye specialist, about how Kevin's left eye tends to wander sometimes, and has done this since he was a baby. We noticed that it gets worse when he's tired or upset.

Dr. Moussa's assistant did a basic vision test, and the result is that Kevin's sight is normal. They used an eye chart that had little symbols instead of letters, so it was easier for Kevin. They also did some colour and depth perception tests. His depth perception was a little off, but everything else was normal.

Then, Dr. Moussa himself did some tests in the exam room, just like he had done for Ryan a few weeks ago. After a while, Kevin's left eye started to wander a bit, and he definitely noticed it.

Here's Dr. Moussa's conclusions: Kevin has a problem called convergence insufficiency. It's not that uncommon, but is often misdiagnosed--especially in small children. Basically, it's the inability of the eyes to focus well/work well together on one thing (you can click the link above for more information, if interested). It affects depth perception a bit, so the doctor warned us that Kevin may be clumsy (duh, really? Kevin? clumsy?), and not to stress him out by trying to teach him to catch a ball! He said it will make reading difficult in the future, so it's good we caught it early. This way, we can start treatment when he's a little more mature (in about six months or so), but before reading becomes a big deal at school. Treatment will be eye exercises to improve his convergence and strengthen the eye muscles. When he mentioned that it is a developmental issue and may be related to other muscle issues, I mentioned Kevin's history of physio, speech, and occupational therapy needs. The doctor said yes, that's all linked.

So, we'll see Dr. Moussa in six months, and hopefully Kevin will be mature enough to start some in-office and at-home exercises to help his condition. :)