New Look

For the past few months, Barrett has enjoyed living without the worry of glasses.  It's been nice not to have to say "Where did you put your glasses?" and do the whole house search to find them in some odd "they're safe here" place.  

Last week Barrett had an eye doctor appointment.  The night before the appointment he asked me in a rather concerned voice, "Is the doctor going to make me wear glasses again?"  I didn't know he'd even given the appointment a 2nd thought...but obviously it was on his mind.  We talked about the different possibilities of the appointment and then went on about the day.  

At the appointment, his eyes were examined by a nurse and three different doctors.  His vision is 20/20 in his right eye and 20/40 in his left eye.  His eyes are tracking together, however, his right eye focuses first and then his left eye follows suit.  When we were patching and using glasses, his eyes had continually improved, however, over the past few months there was no improvement.  Since we know that with help we can see more improvement in Barrett's vision, Dr. P decided that he needed to go back to glasses.  After 4 months of wearing glasses we'll re-evaluate and then decide if we need to also start patching again.

Barrett was extremely disappointed.  I could see that he was biting back tears when Dr. P was talking.  Instead of crying, he took a deep breath and then went to the store with me to pick out his new glasses.  I let him decide which pair he wanted and he loved these (I think the neon green on the inside helped finalize the decision.

Today was one of those really hard parenting days.  It was hat day at Barrett's preschool...and it was his first day to be back at school with glasses on.  He was a little nervous about the glasses, but I kept telling him how cute he looked and he finally started smiling.  At school I hugged Barrett at the classroom door like normal and started to walk off when I heard one of the little boys say in a loud voice, “Look at Barrett!!!  He looks FUNNY!!!”  I turned around and said to the little 5 year old, “Are you talking about his hat?” and he responded, “No!  His GLASSES!  He looks funny!!!”  Barrett hid his face in my legs and began to sob.  I had to bit my lip to keep from crying myself.  

What had just happened?  I know 5 year olds just say what the think (whether or not it's politically correct)...but he couldn't have said a worse thing!  Here my little boys was already sooooo worried about having to wear glasses...and now a friend is making fun of him!  My first thought was, "How do I help him recover from this?!?"  I knelt down and wrapped my arms around him and began to speak words of encouragement to him.  Soon Mrs. Lisa realized what was going on and joined me in lifting Barrett's spirits.   After a few minutes he walked into class and had a good day (Mrs. Lisa sent me pictures of him having fun today at school to ease my mind).  I, on the other hand, went to the car and cried!

I thought he’d probably forgotten about the entire incident and moved on (like kids easily do), but on our way to soccer I overheard him telling Brody, "A kid at school was making fun of my glasses."  Brody asked, "What did he say?"  Barrett said, "He said they look funny."  Brody said, "Well you know that's not true...right?  They're cool!"  Whew!  I can always count on Brody to stick up for and encourage his little brother.  I'm just praying that he puts more weight in the encouraging words...because I think his glasses are pretty cool too!