Tag: glasses

motherhood

New Year, New You

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First of all, don’t go changing on account of the New Year.  You are much too fabulous for that.

Stay you, stay true.

In the midst of our holiday break, which is whizzing by, the boys got new glasses.  This may seem insignificant but it isn’t.  Due to their unique and complex prescriptions, we have sometimes waited up to a year (a year!) to get new glasses made.

These new frames arrived less than a month after we dropped off the prescription. That has never happened in all of our days of taking boys to eye doctors.

Not once.

Keep in mind T.Puzzle started glasses when he was six months old and Full Speed at twenty months:

T.Puzzle
Full Speed

It’s been a long haul.

The one thing that has remained constant is how incredibly handsome my guys are in their glasses.  I didn’t think they could improve on this, but they did.

I am choosing not to comment on how much older they look in these new frames.

Is denial a viable resolution for the New Year?

If so, I am already crushing it.

Take that 2019!

Here are the before and afters:

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Check out Full Speed’s take on the College Football Playoffs:

Championship Chatter

children, eyesight, humor, kids, motherhood, parenting

Eye Would Do Anything

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DSC_8519At the beginning of summer there was an incident at the ocean.  It involved a massive wave and T.Puzzle’s rec-specs.  Thankfully, only his rec-specs were lost at sea.

Here within lies our dilemma.  Both my boys, and more so T.Puzzle, have highly specialized lenses for their glasses and rec-specs.  So, what seemed like an innocent mishap on the beach has left T.Puzzle without rec-specs for months.  I may not mind so much if he wasn’t a crazy beast on the soccer field, or any field for that matter.  We’ve been putting him in his spare glasses and praying that he and his glasses remain intact while he thunders down the field.

I decided for his eye health and safety, to explore some options.  His eye doctor recommended that contacts might work.  Not only would they be safe for sports but the bonus is that it would improve his vision.   She didn’t have to ask me twice.  If improved vision is possible, we are going to go for it.

Fast forward to now.  The boys have been sized and fitted with their very specialized and expensive contacts.  The only kicker is, I actually have to get them on their eyeballs.

Ha.

I’ve tried many tactics.  We ‘practiced’ for weeks while I pulled and yanked on their eyelids and placed imaginary contacts on their irises.  The hope was that once the contacts were created and ready, they would be so use to me fiddling with their eyeballs, it would be a breeze to pop the contacts in.

Ha.

I’ve tried tough love.  I’ve tried straddling them to keep their arms from swatting me in the face.  I’ve tried to coddle them and it only seems to make them cry louder in frustration.  I’ve tried humor.  Loads of it and granted, we laugh a lot, but no contacts come anywhere near where they are supposed to go.  Unless you count Full Speed’s upper lip as placement, I’ve had zero success.  (No contacts were swallowed or harmed as a result of this incident)

My personal favorite tactic was being reasonable with them.

Ha.

“Once you get the contacts in you will see better and therefore be better at sports,” I said in a probably very annoying and very pleading tone.

“Mom, I’m already really good at sports so I don’t need them,” replied T.Puzzle.

And, just like that, I was back to square one.

Do I give up?  Do I let the pipe dream of improved vision and ease of turnaround time for prescriptions go?  Do I kiss hundreds of dollars worth of contacts goodbye?

I am so ready to throw in the towel and the contacts right along with it.

Unfortunately, parenting doesn’t work that way.  You keep going and keep trying and keep doing all you can to make things better for your kids.  Even when they fight you.  Even when they cry and fuss and scream.  Even when all you want to do is cry and fuss and scream, too.

I keep imagining the future.  My boys are grown and handsome (naturally).  They are confident contact wearers who will look back on this time with humor and love.

“Hey, Mom, remember when you tried to gouge our eyeballs out when we were six and eight?  Thanks for trying so hard to make sure we had awesome vision.”

Then, they both will hug me and I will cry some more.  This time the tears will be ones of gratitude instead of frustration thank god.

children, eyesight, gratitude, health, kids, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting

Walking the Walk

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A typical Snellen chart. Originally developed ...
Image via Wikipedia

I had my annual eye exam yesterday.  I figured if I volunteer for Vision is Priceless and I expect my boys to go through all the machinations of maintaining their vision and eye health, then I should be first in line at to get my own eyes tested.  It was painless, quick and I finally ordered a pair of prescription sunglasses.  Trust me, daily driving in the Floridian sun demands dark shades.

During the appointment I felt disproportionately anxious and emotional to what was actually happening.  Here is why:

1.  I was awake.  Folks, that’s pretty much all it takes for me to feel disproportionately anxious and emotional.

2.  Having to go through some of the necessary and slightly uncomfortable steps of my eye exam, like the pressure check with puffs of air and dilation drops, made me sad that my boys have had to do so much of this stuff at such an early age.  I don’t like having to stand by and watch them cry as they get dilation drops or the doc struggles to keep them still to get a photograph of the inside of their eyes. 

The woman that had walked me through the first steps of testing leading up to my actual exam asked me if it was all going alright.  I confessed that I was thinking of my boys and their eye history.  Since they are very well known at the optometrist, she understood my meaning.

She said that actually I’m quite lucky that my boys  have been to exposed so much to doctors.  She said she has fifteen year olds that refuse some parts of the eye testing because they are scared, defiant and/or crying. 

So, my concern will no longer be feeling bad about their familiarity with all things medical and optical.  I will be thankful they are learning to respect doctors and any tests that are required of them.  My real concern is that soon, T.Puzzle and Full Speed will attempt to usurp the testers and run the show, equipment and the eye testing all on their own.

It’s a fine line for sure.

vision has never held these boys back, not one minute, not one second. We are very fortunate.

 

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children, eyesight, humor, kids, life in pictures, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting, tantrums

Glasses. Wear Them. Love Them.

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T.Puzzle’s new glasses had finally arrived.  There was only one minor problem.

He refused to wear them.

As I sat facing him in the optometrist’s office with his new glasses neatly folded in my palm, I ran through possible actions or threats to get him to comply.

I could validate his sense of injustice at having to wear glasses that actually fit snug on his head (as opposed to his very old, very stretched out former pair).  Maybe if he felt ‘heard’ he’d be open to reason.

Or

I could square up my shoulders, look him dead in they eye and say, ‘Put the glasses on.  If you don’t, you will go to your room when you get home and you won’t come out until you decide to where them.”

I assessed the people milling about the waiting room.

Yep.

They looked like the judgmental lot that we mothers are so used to encountering.

I knew I was going to look like a Mom-with-no-soul (T.Puzzle’s baby face and dimples make him look like an innocent lamb) but I went for the second option anyway.

As my threat of being sent to his room reverberated through the office and T.Puzzle wailed, a ripple of compassion went through the air.

I heard things like, ‘bless his heart,’ and ‘he doesn’t like how they feel, poor thing.’

The technician who adjusts the glasses swooped into the room with his pliers at the ready.  “I’ll loosen them for him.  Maybe that will help.”

Since I already had long surpassed the coddling route I decided to go all the way with it.

“Nope.  They fit just fine (they honestly did).  I have dealt with stubborn boys for years.  He will wear them as is.  Maybe not now, maybe not tomorrow, but he WILL wear them.”

I took the glasses and dramatically placed them in my purse.

“Well, T.Puzzle, we better get home so you can go to your room.”

“Nooooooo, Mommy!  I do wear them!  I do wear them!”

And simple as that, he did.

Not five minutes later away from prying eyes, he was perfectly content and proud to wear his new ‘big boy’ glasses.

T.Puzzle sporting his new glasses just minutes after his adamant refusal.

So at this point, Mom sent herself to her room and will be refusing to come out until further notice.

children, eyesight, happiness, mommyhood

The Rec Specs

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How many times can an overly active five year old boy pop the lense out of his glasses??

To infinity and beyond.

After the 137th lense pop it was time for a change.

Our optical technician has now used industrial strength glue to hold the lense in place. Our other option was to doggedly pursue the possibility of rec specs for Full Speed. Rec specs are essentially safety glasses that should hold up better during karate sparring and soccer (in theory).

The issue with rec specs is Full Speed’s extremely specialized lense prescription.

The solution? Rec specs that are high-powered yet not as specialized. All parties involved (eye doctor, optician, crazed Mommy and matter-of-fact Dad) said let’s give it shot.

Here is the result:

I’m sorry, but have you ever seen anything more insanely adorable than that?

Then again, check out T.Puzzle’s enthusiasm about Full Speed’s rec specs. He didn’t know why we were celebrating but he was more than happy to jump in the fun:

A good afternoon, indeed!

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