Don't it Make Her Brown Eyes Blue

Back in April (when this picture was taken), we started noticing Sweet Pea doing a lot of this with her eyes, especially when she was reading a book or watching TV.

We asked her if she could open both eyes, focus with both eyes, etc. Slipshod started asking her not to close her left eye, so then she started unfocusing the left eye and letting it wander, which was much scarier for us to look at than her having one eye shut.

Of course we made an appointment with an optometrist, but it took a long time before they could fit all three of us in for an appointment. I needed new glasses, and Slipshod had never been to see an eye doctor for an exam in his life. We went this past Monday.

In the intervening time, Slipshod and I had many talks with Sweet Pea about what she could and couldn't see, why she closed her left eye or let it wander, etc. Slipshod sometimes covered one of Sweet Pea's eyes and asked her how many fingers he was holding up for her free eye to see. She did pretty well with that home test.

She told me that she could see just fine with both her eyes, but that it felt better if she had one of them closed.

Turns out that she is far-sighted, so it takes a lot of muscle to focus her eyes in where they need to be, and it is easier to just focus one eye, just like she told me (not that I doubted, but what she said was exactly confirmed by the optometrist). So, they ordered glasses for her.

Sweet Pea was SO good at the appointment. She had been so concered about going, and initially fought against the idea of having to wear glasses when we told her it was a real possibility for her. That was back a month ago when I made the appointment, though, and all that talking to her about it in the weeks between making and actually going to the appointment did a lot of good. By the time we saw the optometrist she knew that Slipshod and I would also be having our eyes checked, and that she would be able to watch at least one of us get checked before anything was done to her. When it came time for her to get checked, she sat on her daddy's lap and listened really well to the optometrist and answered his questions and looked where he asked her to, etc.

The optometrist was actually really really impressed with how smart she was, and said so on several occasions, which of course made Slipshod and I very proud. Hee. He and his office staff were so sweet with her, too, that she felt very comfortable there and felt at ease going from the exam room to the front desk by herself to ask the receptionists for more paper to draw (kitties, of course) on. When the doctor proclaimed that she would need glasses he beckoned one of his assistants and sent Sweet Pea and Slipshod out with her to look at frames, telling the assistant that "this is Sweet Pea and she's going to need to choose some frames. Her favorite color is light blue."

Then it was time for my exam but halfway through Slipshod and Sweet Pea returned to show me Sweet Pea's top two frame choices. I was REALLY surprised with how pretty and stylish they were. All I could think of when it came to children's frames were the thick plastic frames some of my friends had in elementary school. Both choices that she showed me were delicate-looking metal frames, and of course both were blue.

The optometrist's office called today to tell us that Sweet Pea's glasses were in and as it happened I had already planned to go out to the post office, which is right next door to the optometrist's office. So, Sweet Pea and I left Slipshod and The Bug at home and went out on a little adventure together to mail some things and get her glasses.

The optometrist sat with us and made the necessary adjustments to Sweet Pea's glasses to make them sit straight on her face and be snug enough to her head that they would not fall off. He seemed to really get a kick out of seeing her again. The glasses case they gave her is a little clear plastic purse lined in what looks like pink suede or leather. On the front of the "purse" in silver sparkly letters it says, "Disney Princess." I had to laugh when I saw that an hour or so later. Sweet Pea has still never seen a Disney movie with a princess in it, so she gives well-meaning adults big blank stares when they try to relate to her on a princess level.

Since she is so young, Sweet Pea's prescription needs could change frequently, so we will take her back for a checkup in 6 months to see if she needs new lenses. It is possible that with the correction she's getting now for her eyes, she may outgrow the far-sightedness as her eyes get bigger as she grows. Then again, it is also possible that she may not outgrow it, and may have to continue wearing glasses or contacts as she gets older. Time will tell.

Of course, what with me being me and Sweet Pea being Sweet Pea, our outing today ended with a trip to Jamba Juice before going home. YUM. It has been rather hot here and we were roasting in the car. But honestly I agree with the way Sweet Pea put it: "I think every day is a good day for a smoothie; it doesn't need to be hot outside."

That's my girl.

Here you go - pictures of Sweet Pea in her new glasses!

For the record, The Bug made most of that yogurt mess feeding herself. Sweet Pea probably got more food in there for her than she was able to get in by herself. ha ha!

It's a bird! It's a plane! No! It's - SUPER SIS!

As for me - I will be getting new glasses as well, and can't wait. All this reading on my computer for months on end with no glasses at all (I lost my old ones in last summer's second move between the "yucky house," as we call it, and this house) is really causing a bunch of eye strain for me. Things are the same with my prescription as they used to be: The left lens will correct the far-sightedness in my left eye, and the right eye will be clear plastic (or whatever) just to balance out the other lens, because there is almost nothing wrong with that eye. It could use a tiny bit of correction, but the optometrist saw my eye do something weird when he put that bit of corrective lens in front of it. It sort of balked somehow. That has happened every time an eye doctor has done that. It's like my right eye is a control freak and if you try to correct it, it's like, "no, take that away; I can handle this myself." ha ha!

At this appointment I also learned why I've never been able to see those "magic picture" things. Do you know what I'm talking about? They look like a bunch of dots on a page, usually in gradations of color, and you're supposed to be able to see a picture "pop out" of them if you stare long enough. Turns out the reason I've never been able to see those is because I have amazingly poor depth perception. Who knew? My new glasses will correct that to some degree. In the past I have only worn my glasses for reading, but now the optometrist says I should probably also use them while watching movies and driving at night.

Slipshod's vision is so close to 20/20 that he is not getting glasses. The optometrist told him that he could get them if he wants, but since he could barely tell the difference between what things looked like with no glasses and what they looked like with the tiny bit of correction that would give him truly 20/20 vision, he of course opted to wait. The doctor told him that he will probably need glasses in the next five years, though.