Vision has impacted my life as an athlete for sure. I don't regret who I am at all, but sometimes it provides some humor as well. A lot of times it has also involved my youngest child too. I think as she grows, she wants to test how much I can see. She is worried I don't know what she looks like. Even if you have complete sight loss, I believe you know your children. I can tell you which one is coming up the stairs to come home, which one is vacuuming or in the fridge. Kids…people have their own unique sound, smell and habits. And I love my family for their individual qualities.
Growing up, my youngest challenged me. She liked to hide to see if I could "see" her. In the toy box, on top of the fridge and at 18 months, this scared the daylights out of me. She always responded with “Hi Mommy!" As she got older, she became more creative with my sight. My oldest wasn't so much this way, she asked questions instead. One day on my way to teach a fitness class, I placed a water bottle on the counter and went about the rest of my things. Before I walked out the door, I grabbed the water bottle. One of those clear plastic bottles that you buy in the store with spring water or filtered water in it was what I happened to have that day. I have no idea why, but I looked at it closely that day before I left and I am glad I did. I was really not sure how this happened, but there was poop in my water bottle. Poop! I went and found my 3 year old and asked her if she did this.
"Yup. I pooped in your water bottle."
" How?" I asked.
“It was not easy" she said.
"Why??" I asked.
"To see if you could see it." I had to explain to her that this was very yucky. I could have drank this. She just shrugged her shoulders. Needless to say I went to work without water and always checked my water bottle after that.
Many times it's my own doing. From mistaking a cardboard box for a cat on my walk (you just hope no one is looking in these cases), to walking into the men's room on many occasions, airports get me every darn time. Being very tired after the birth of our daughter, baking buns, and mixing up the Mr. Clean and oil. This where a sense of smell comes in handy…you know immediately what you have done wrong. You figure out your pants are on backwards quite quickly, pain in the hinny to fix those around. I left the A535 next to the toothpaste. You never want to brush your teeth with muscle rub, that is truly awful. A535 brings me back to my daughter. She thought it would be very funny to put in on the toilet paper in the house…..not cool.
I don't want to make her sound bad, this is my girl figuring me out. She is also one of my biggest defenders. She will stand up for me when people in town poke fun. She has been amazed over the years when I tell her to get to sleep and how I knew she was awake. I can hear you blinking. (This struck fear into both my girls…haha!) The typical mom, "Get your fingers out of the cookie dough!"
" How did you know!" not typical answer... "I can hear you!"
Now my oldest. She is the inquisitive one and the worrywart. The girls have also asked me some amazing questions "When you dream do you see normal?" They think all the time. My oldest has watched some of the vision tests and seen my vision decline. She even played goal ball (a blind sport) at Nationals with her mom.
I go by feel, smell sound. Large crowds can be sensory overload since I do have some remaining sight…the giant blur and everything else heightened. I mix up plates in my lifting room, drank curdled almond milk (it doesn't seem to smell when it curdles…yuck) and the list goes on. It adds a little humor to my life some days, we all get a laugh and my kids remind me to slow down a bit. With my husband the best was him throwing s giant thing of toilet paper at me in the store and saying 'Catch!" and then I hear…" Oh no" as it hits my face full force. I don't see things in the air at all. Nothing. So smack! With the toilet paper I laughed so hard. The poor guy felt so bad, "I forgot I am so sorry!" I hugged him and said "Thank you for forgetting. Just don't do that with soup cans."
I adore the humor and the oddness of my household. I believe it adds to all of our personalities. Laughing makes me a better mom, better wife, better athlete, better person.