1.30.12

Well, today was the big day, Wyatt got his new glasses! As you may be able to tell from the photo, they exaggerate the size of his eyes - this is because he is severely far-sighted (hyperopia). He's at a +8, and the scale goes to +9. This was a total shock to us because he never squints, never holds books close to his face, never complains. His favorite books are the I Spy books! Not something you think someone who couldn't focus on would enjoy. His optometrist told us that up until the age of 4 or 5, kids have a fantastic focusing system, so he can still make out most of these things, his eyes just have to work REALLY hard to see them. The glasses will help immensely with that, and will help his eye development. Our hope is that by age 8 or so, he may not need them anymore. And if he does still need them, that's okay too, but hopefully catching it this early will mean that over time his prescription will lessen as his eyes catch up in development.
He wore the glasses around the optometrist's office for a while, and seemed to be doing okay. We took them off for the ride home so they wouldn't fog up when we got inside. He wasn't very happy to have to put them on again, but ended up wearing them until naptime, and then after his nap until bath time/bedtime. As Josh pointed out though, he seems a little depressed (can a 3 year old be depressed?) about the whole thing. He got a big piece of a monster cookie for wearing them all afternoon, we told him many times how nice/handsome/cute/etc. he looks with them on, and his reply is always, "I look weird." Which leads me to a side rant - who taught my kid that? We have never said that people "look weird" - I know we've said "That's weird," when something odd happens. Is he smart enough to know that weird = strange and even though we're talking about events or objects, he links it to himself? That or I'm blaming it on daycare, just like the whole, "Mommy, you're fat!" incident.
Anyway, I hope that over the next few weeks he realizes how beneficial his glasses are - I looked through them myself, and couldn't see a thing, but he wasn't phased in the slightest when he put them on, so they are clearly doing a good job. Perhaps we can find some more books about kids getting glasses, so far Arthur's Eyes has been the only one we've read (and watched!), and, well...Arthur's an anteater.