(no subject)

[the_rck]

I've found a book that's convincing me that I need reading glasses. The print is small enough that I need it in close, but when it's in close enough, my eyes can't bring the print into focus. I can kind of stumble along with it, right at the edge of what I can manage, but I imagine it will only get worse from here. I don't know when I'll get the prescription for reading glasses filled. The mall is the best place to do that, and that requires a trip across town. I'm not sure that I want to go near the mall at this time of year.

Of course, Cordelia is giving me more clothing trouble. I bought several pairs of leggings for her, but she's now saying she can't wear them in cold weather (and it was hardly cold as such things go Tuesday when she started complaining). I just plain can't find things she's willing to wear that will be warm. She has about three pairs of jeggings that are warmer, but one pair has a big hole in it, and the other two are coming apart at the seams (I'm not sure if we can repair them or not). Three pairs is not enough to get her through a week, particularly not when she wears them to bed as well as during the day.

Maybe I need to buy some boys' jeans on eBay so she won't know they're boys' jeans. I just hate to buy without having her try stuff on so that I know her size. Is a girls' size 12 equivalent to a boys' size 12?

I did my three hour stint in the school library this morning. The librarian had me go around and straighten the shelves. There are going to be people in there tonight and tomorrow morning who she wants to impress. Tonight is the Expo, the time when all the kids are going to do presentations on their projects and the time when all the teachers are trying to show that the school is working to expectations. It's not going to just be parents. They've invited 'community leaders' and expect folks from some of the businesses that are putting money into the STEAM program. There will also be a delegation from Singapore that is visiting various Ann Arbor schools (that delegation will be back Friday morning to see more of the school).

Cordelia's class was in the library for about half an hour while I was there. That isn't usual. The librarian and their teacher were talking to them about using their iPads and their Google accounts to save documents and to turn in homework.

I also did a little more work with those sticks that have barcodes and log in i.d.s on them. I believe I was working on the first graders. I kind of slacked off on that. I had 45 minutes, and I only got through half a class. I was making mistakes in terms of not getting the tape to wrap smoothly, and I didn't think I should push for more speed when I was already having trouble.

My cold is just bad enough that I want to crawl into bed and sleep for a few days. It's not actually bad enough that I can't do the things I need to do; it's simply bad enough to make the process unpleasant.

Cordelia wants to borrow my weights for her group's presentation tonight. Apparently, they need something weighing forty pounds. My weights, all added together, weigh thirty six. I hope Scott gets his shower in quickly today-- I'm not at all sure of my ability to carry those weights to the school. I'm not really supposed to lift more than fifteen to twenty pounds.

The black skirt we ordered for Cordelia from Amazon arrived yesterday. It fits, thank goodness. Cordelia likes it a lot. She wore it for about half an hour this morning before school, just because. She didn't wear it to school because she was going to have gym.

Cordelia no longer likes gym. With the old gym teacher, the one who died last year, she loved gym and really looked forward to it because he made everything fun. The new gym teacher isn't so good at that and is trying to sell the kids on exercise because it's healthy rather than because it's fun. I don't think that approach works particularly well for kids. Cordelia, at least, is deeply skeptical even when we tell her that it's important, too.

Comments

[heavenscalyx]

The new gym teacher isn't so good at that and is trying to sell the kids on exercise because it's healthy rather than because it's fun. I don't think that approach works particularly well for kids.

I don't think that approach works well for anyone, honestly. :}

[kyrielle]

Agreed. It certainly is healthy and that's a valuable thing to know, but having it be enjoyable makes it doable, IMX.

[the_rck]

I miss the old gym teacher. He was so good with the kids.

Exercise is definitely a hard sell. I've fallen off the wagon recently and need to get back to doing my exercise programs regularly.

[kyrielle]

Is there any chance she could wear the leggings under one of the looser pairs of pants she's otherwise not fond of? That would be warmer, and also might get some use out of those.

[the_rck]

I can suggest it. I don't know if she'll go for it.

What she seems to want is more jeggings.

[ramenkuri.livejournal.com]

Maybe you could first order boys jeans from online retailers with free return policies so that you can figure out what sizes will fit Cordelia?
I have had good experiences with Zappos and Amazon for shoes. Then you could return the jeans (drop off at UPS store) and buy them on eBay, with a bit more security that they will fit.

I wonder what would convince Cordelia to wear pajamas or something.

I don't suppose you have a carryon suitcase with wheels that you could transport the weights in?

[the_rck]

We've been bad about buying pajamas for Cordelia. She doesn't like the texture of most of what they make (she's too young for us to find flannel nightgowns or pajamas at Target or Kohl's or JC Penney's) that's warm, and in the summer, a t-shirt and shorts do pretty well for pajamas.

The problem with returning anything mail order is that I can't drive. That means getting to the UPS store is extremely difficult. I can get to the post office in good weather, but I try to avoid taking the bus as much as possible during the winter. Waiting at the bus stop is miserable enough that I don't want to do it unless I have to.

Scott ended up carrying the weights. We only took twenty pounds in, and that was quite heavy enough. They wanted forty pounds of weights to demonstrate how much people walking long distances to get water have to carry. One of the other kids on the team provided the other twenty pounds of weights.

[ramenkuri.livejournal.com]

Ah, I should have realized the UPS drop off locations would be inconvenient. It seems like UPS charges a fee for pickup so that is out.

I like shirts and shorts for sleepwear - I just designate them as sleepwear and only wear them to bed. I guess Cordelia doesn't like the texture of sweatpants?

Cool that the weights worked out.

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

I can take off my glasses and read if I hold something an inch from my eyes, and that's how I deal with teeny print.
As for the boy's jean's, what you do is take a waist measurement and go from there. Tape measures are you friends.

[the_rck]

Would it be waist measurement or hip measurement? Cordelia's hips are wider than her waist. I had the impression that boys' jeans wouldn't widen at the hips.

I can't see print closer in than about six inches. My eyes won't focus at that distance. That means that there's a tipping point for small print-- I can either have it far enough away to focus and not be able to make it out, or I can bring it near enough to make out and be unable to see it anyway. I think reading glasses.

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

I buy men's Wrangler jeans by waist measurement (as that's how they're sold) and my hips are bigger than my waist. I find that the fit is much less problematical than with women's jeans. (I have a lovely little roll of fat that looks terrible in women's jeans.) I don't know about boy's jeans (haven 't bought any in a couple of years due to hand-me-downs).

Yeah. About eyes, mine are a BIG outlier. I have astigmatism out the wazoo, so faces without my glasses are just Impressionist blurs unless I am an inch away. Then they're just less blurred. And then there's the nearsighted addition. And the loss of a giant part of my field of vision. So my experiences are .... shall we say .... uncommon.

[evalerie.livejournal.com]

If you're comfortable ordering glasses online, I've heard a lot of people say good things about www.zennioptical.com and www.39dollarglasses.com , though I haven't personally ordered any glasses from either. (I feel like this topic came up recently and there was a reason why you didn't want to order online. If it did and I forgot, I apologize.) What you describe about not being able to read the print in that book sounds exactly like the way my eyes started needing reading glasses.

UPS will pick up packages from your house. So will the post office, for that matter. I am not sure if UPS charges to do that. The post office doesn't.

I'm pretty sure that girls' and boys' sizes are the same all the way through, and the differences between male and female clothing sizes don't kick in until you switch to adult sizes. I mean, girls' clothes might be *shaped* differently, for older girls, but the overall size should be the same. I often google for "size chart girls" to check the sizes of clothing; I suppose you could do that and compare girls' and boys' sizes if you want to check.

I hope your cold gets better soon!!!