Let Them Be Kids
These kids have such big imaginations and I’m so glad they’re able to have so much free play and reading. The tradeoff with letting kids be kids is that sometimes it’s easy to get carried away! Time gets warped, little nervous systems get overwhelmed, or accidents happen. Video games can go on for 6 hours, reading can go on past 11:30pm, chores and other timely things get forgotten, and Mom has to reign it in.
With summer freedom in full force, we’ve instated a daily max of 1-2 hours of screen time, and a minimum hour of outside time. I think it’s helping everyone be able to rest our minds and help our bodies better!
Here’s what the kids have been up to lately…
When I Let Them Play
Yesterday I sent the kids outside to play while I cared for the baby. What I didn’t know is that they played an imaginary war game where they ambushed each other from literal bushes. W got way into it and ended up accidentally hitting F in the face with a metal rod he fashioned by disassembling a scooter. “I don’t know, I just got this idea…”. 🫠
My heart burst with worry and sadness seeing the damage on F’s head, and I got so angry because I had told W not to mess with that scooter when I saw him kicking it around earlier… They have never played so violently or dangerously before! It was a wake up call for me, that they are still kids even though they’ve been responsible before I can’t leave them unsupervised for so long.
Thankfully F is such a gentle soul and an especially kind Big Brother that he didn’t retaliate. The wound broke skin and was so close to his eye, ear, jaw, and other sensitive areas. I wanted to make sure he got checked out by a doctor and we could have good instructions on how to keep it from scarring his handsome face.
We made it to Urgent Care, and the line was all boys with their Moms 😅 The woman in front of me commented on how that time just before or after dinner must be the Witching Hour in summer. We were able to commiserate over her son’s gushing split chin from the bathroom tub, and my son’s banged up face.
The doctor cleaned him up, and gave us instructions to put ointment on the wound until it’s gone, being careful not to let it dry out or scab over. Not sure how long that will take, but it’s something to add to our routine morning and night. There will be swelling and soreness, and he’d need to eat soft foods for a week. Thankfully he is acting normally and has no broken bones or permanent damage. We are incredibly lucky he is intact!
At the Eye Doctor
Another thing we need to add to our routine is special eye drops for W at bedtime.
His optometrist says he has Progressive Myopia, and his eyes are changing more quickly than usual for his age. In the past 7 months his eyes have gotten worse by 50%, and his glasses prescription is now twice the power.
The myopia therapy will hopefully slow or stop the progression. It’s mostly a genetic thing, but the doctor said to limit screen time and increase outside time. They don’t yet know why being outside helps with this condition, but it’s not the sun and it’s not the screen time.
W is also being encouraged to try nearsighted work (like reading up close) without his glasses. We’re doing the drops, and he’s going to see the doctor every 3 months now.
No More Oxygen
So we totally thought Baby was going to fail that Room Air test, and turns out he passed!! His oxygen saturation rate was 93% or less during 4.9% of the time of the 8hr study, meeting the criteria to stop nocturnal oxygen therapy and monitoring.
No more oxygen at night for him.
Which is awesome for me now that I’m going to need to spend that time / energy doing Wound Care with F and eye drops with W instead!
Chalk It Up
I have been kicking the kids outside since they need 4-6 hours of outdoor activity each day. L brought out the sidewalk chalk and somehow made these beauties! She wished there was a black colored one so the shadows would be better. I loved what she created with a dinosaur and a sunset. She said she knelt there putting layer after layer of chalk to get all the color on. Sadly it washed away completely only hours later when a random summer rainstorm swept across our mountain. It was seriously the ONE day this month it rained.
