Friday, November 5, 2010

Parker,

While you were in Kindergarten I had two different teachers of yours (one from church and one from school)tell me that you squinted when trying to read in class. I knew I needed to take you to the eye doctor, but you never voiced a complaint so I put it off. Well, last week during your yearly physical you failed the eye examine, and the pediatrician told me to get you to an eye doctor.

I took you on Tuesday night, and sure enough you were diagnosed with having an astigmatism. I am not even sure what that means...I do know, however, that is exactly what is wrong with Daddy's eyes. You are his mini-me for sure. For now, you just need to use them while you are at your desk, trying to read the screens at church, or when you are watching TV. You just have trouble seeing detail from a distance. The glasses will help that. So for now, you don't need to wear them all the time.

You were very compliant throughout the whole exam, and when the dr. led us out to the glasses in front to select a pair, I think you realized what was going on. You looked at me quietly and then just began to bawl your eyes out.

"I don't want glasses. Everyone will laugh at me. Glasses are ugly.." and so on and so forth.

"Clark Kent wears glasses", I offered.

Nothing doing.

I hugged you tightly, and got a little misty eyed myself. I complimented your big blue eyes, I told you how Daddy wears glasses and he got himself a beautiful wife (you laughed at that and that helped to ease your initial dismay), and then I told you that we could get royal blue glasses for the Cubs. Well, that is all it took. You then tried on several pairs, and were giving your opinion in no time.

You settled on a royal blue (for the Cubbies)pair with a more rectangular shape. We picked out a gray pair as back up. The women working in the office all gathered around you as you were modeling the glasses, and they were all swooning over your eyes and eyelashes. You were LOVING it! They will arrive in a week, and we'll take a picture then.

We celebrated with ice cream from DQ, and talked about this more.

"Mom, what should I say if someone makes fun of my glasses?"

"Well, you can tell them, "Yes I got glasses, and now that I can see better, I can see that you are uglier than I thought." HA HA. I couldn't help myself. Of course, we had a laugh, but I instructed you that you are NOT ALLOWED to use that response. You are simply going to say, "Yes I did, and I LOVE them!". We practiced your response a few times, and each time you sounded more and more confident. Once they know you are not bothered by the glasses or by their comments, they will drop it. Confidence is a bully repellent.

Your blue eyes are beautiful, and your inside is even more attractive...glasses won't change that.

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