My daughter asks a lot of questions which is just what most five-year-olds tend to do. Her questions a lot of the time are the same kinds of questions any child would ask, but some of her questions are about things she would know about without asking if she had sight. My husband and I try to explain things to her in a way she can connect with without functional vision.
We have to go over a bridge to get to the island on which my brother- and sister-in-law live. It’s a small island and they live close to the bridge so the children know we’ve almost arrived when we cross the bridge. I started talking to my daughter more about the bridge yesterday, saying boats and jet skis go under it and when we’re out on the boat going to the inlet, we always go under the bridge.
Then later in the day we were driving back onto the island I told her to listen for the change in sound when we started going across the bridge. Because it’s made in sections there’s a rhythmic thu-thump, thu-thump that you can feel and hear. I told her we were going up because the bridge was tall and could she figure out when we started to descend and that meant we were past the half-way mark of the bridge. She announced, “we’re off the bridge now” when she stopped hearing the bump bump of the bridge sections under the car.
Later we all decided to go jet skiing as a group to the inlet. My daughter and I were on the same jet ski so I told her as we got close to the bridge we would be going under it. I asked her to see if she could feel when we went in the shadow of the bridge and were out of the sun? And then we all yelled to see if our voice bounced off the bridge and echoed back. We did that and she liked it, and we practiced again as we returned home.
I thought about my daughter a lot as I was riding on the jet ski. I closed my eyes and listened to the sound of the engine and wind. I felt the vibrations as the jet ski revved and sped us along and I felt the wind on my body. I also noticed how the jet ski turned left and right as we navigated the channel. And I wondered what it was like to be blind and have no idea what’s coming up and why we’re turning and changing speeds. She didn’t know where the other jet skis were so we told her when she asked saying they were up ahead or beside or behind us.
It was an interesting experience, seeing what it would be like to be blind, even if only for a few minutes. My daughter is fearless though and never seems bothered by her lack of visual information. Just now she came off the dock by herself, found the steps to the house and ascended two levels, walked safely around the grill and opened the door. She called in, “Uncle Eric, can dad and I go for a jet ski ride?” Uncle Eric said that would be fine and to be careful. My daughter called back, “we will” as she closed the sliding glass door and started to carefully find her way back down two flights to the dock where dad was busy getting the jet ski ready.
The Big Boy Update: We were all getting on jet skis yesterday afternoon to go to the inlet. My son and Aunt Kelly backed out first and as the jet ski revved up my son joyfully exclaimed, “O M G!”
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My husband just got in from running this morning. He was hot so my daughter thought they could get in the ‘galoon’ to cool off. So now they both have their bathing suits on and they’re swimming in the ‘lagoon’ together. Or rather my husband is swimming—my daughter is floating around on a huge rubber duck raft and laughing as she’s blown around by the wind.
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