New Eyes

Both kids now wear glasses.

Looking at the world with new eyes.

Zane first.  He is nearsighted with high astigmatism.  About 20/30, so not terrible.  On an amusing note, the day we had the appointment we were sent an article by Temple Grandin.  I was familiar with the article already (Genius may be Abnormality), but there was something in the article I never really noted before and it made me laugh out loud.  "A study of mathematical giftedness, conducted at Iowa State University by Camilla Persson, found that mathematical giftedness was correlated with being near-sighted and having an increased incidence of allergies."   Considering we had just gotten glasses *that day* and had realized his seasonal allergies had kicked in and refilled his prescription two days before, it was an amusing coincidence.

Happy with new glasses

The eye doctor we go to specializes in kids with special needs, and was impressed with his ability to cooperate this time around.  No eye drops this time.  The biggest problem we had was getting him to sit still to try on glasses.  Any time I turned to look at a different pair, he gravitated away from the optical area and back down the hallway to a big poster that described a variety of eye conditions.  (the same photo repeated, each distorted differently to illustrate the different eye conditions).  He kept asking "What is wrong with my eyes?", slightly distressed that something was wrong.  After telling him, he had problems pronouncing "astigmatism" and I had to stop him and clap out the syllables and have him look at my mouth a few times.  He was determined to get it, but was upset enough he wasn't processing what he was hearing.  I finally had to make a deal with him that I would let him look at the poster for a while AFTER picking out the glasses.

End result:  Glasses he picked out and seems to be fine with wearing.  All reports from school say they don't have a problem getting him to wear them, and he isn't ripping them off his face as he walks away from the school like he did the first few days.

And, now Zora.

The same day we picked up Zane's glasses, Zora had an eye exam.  Although she is borderline for needing glasses, hearing that they would probably not be optional in 6 months prompted me to go ahead and relent to the begging.  She wanted glasses SO BAD.  Pink ones, and ONLY pink ones.  And none of mom's suggestions of "just try these" was met with anything resembling enthusiasm.  My own mom found this funny.  Can't imagine why.  Going home without the glasses really ticked her off.  She did not "get" why she had to leave her glasses at the office.

A few days later, her glasses finally came in.  I got the call the morning of a planned "Oma Day", so instead of just Oma and Zora, I came along too and we picked up the new glasses.  She was SO excited.  She even got a pink lens cleaning cloth from them, which she has made ample use of.

Pink glasses are awesome!

Adjustments.

Want to know who had the hardest time adjusting to the glasses?  

Come on, Guess.

It wasn't Zora.  

It wasn't even Zane.  

It was the Dad.  

I come from a family where glasses are practically a rite of passage, so I always assumed that the kids would be wearing them.  Zach, owner of freakishly good vision, did not have this expectation.  Not even a little bit.  His tongue probably still hurts a little from biting it those first days, making sure not to say anything that wasn't completely positive within earshot of the kids.  Being the awesome dad he is, he came around pretty quickly, but it was an adjustment for him.