Glasses No More!

Thing One, who will be twelve this year (gulp!) has been in glasses since she was two. Just after her second birthday, we had some friends over for dinner, and my girlfriend and I were chatting, and I smiled at Thing One in her high chair. She smiled back at me, and her right eye TURNED INWARD, all on it's own. I looked at my friend, and she looked at me. We'd both seen the same thing.

I took her to a pediatric opthamologist. The diagnosis? Accommodative Esotropia. Lazy Eye, due to extreme farsightedness. She basically couldn't see anything three feet in. Her food, her color books, ME, etc. I should have recognized the signs. She had been grumpy and frustrated a lot lately. She had lost interest in a lot of things--being read to, eating, coloring, playing with playdough, etc. She COULDN'T SEE!

I cried and cried. My perfect first child, who was still very much a baby, was getting GLASSES. Not only glasses, but bifocals. And we would need to put a patch on the bad eye every day for a few hours, to try and correct it. And she might need surgery, eventually. Needless to say, I was devastated.

Until the day we got her glasses. I remember vividly, she was sitting in her stroller, and they put the glasses on her. She looked and loooooked around, like she was seeing everything for the first time. She saw my face, and broke into this huge grin. How long had it been since she'd seen my face close up? I started crying tears of joy for her newfound sight, and after that, everything was fine. Patching? No big deal. Glasses? No biggie. My baby could see, and she was happy again. That was all that mattered to me.

Fast forward to yesterday, when the Dr. proclaimed that she could remove her glasses. For now. Frankly, I was thinking it was a miracle. But the truth is, the Nearsighted gene we have in our family has slowly been cancelling out her farsightedness, and now, she has perfect vision. A few years down the road she will probably need glasses again, for nearsightedness, as it worsens.

But for now, NO GLASSES! She's free! I haven't seen her more excited in ages. Her glasses have never been a source of teasing or embarrassment, but you know Tween girls--they are picky. Last year she wanted contacts, and the Dr. said not yet. Now I know why. She doesn't need them!

We are happy for her. She is a beautiful girl (I'm biased, of course) with long blond hair and big bluish-gray eyes, and the LONGEST eyelashes ever. I am highly jealous. She got those from her dad. But today she is excited to show her friends the new HER. After nine long years.

I'm so happy for her!