Jeepers, Where'd She Get Those [Little] Peepers?

At her last check-up, the doctor noticed that one of Grace's little eyes seemed to be wandering. He tried to show me and I didn't see it. He gave us a referral to an opthamologist, and in the mean time suggested I watch her and look at pictures of her so I could spot the misalignment. I took the referral and made the appointment, but closer examination only convinced me more that he was seeing things. Her little eyes seemed to be working just fine to me.

[Editor's Note: Gracie refers to each of her body parts with the prefix "little", as in "I hurt my little finger!" We shall observe this convention here.]

Today was the appointment. They gave me a pile of new patient forms, and I didn't even bother filling them all out, so sure was I that we would never be back.

Well, let's just say the parental instincts were way off this time. The poor girl is not only farsighted, but one of her little eyes is significantly more farsighted than the other and has astigmatism (gesundheit). So both of her little eyes have been compensating, and her little brain would slowly begin ignoring the confusing input it gets from the more impaired little eye unless something was done.

In short, not only did this girl need glasses, but she needed them pronto!

The worst part of the appointment for Gracie, by the way, was the eye drops. She seemed mostly just annoyed at first, wiping her eyes indignantly. But then after a few minutes, when she noticed she could no longer see the little cut on her little hand ("I can't see my boo-boo!") she became alarmed and wanted to go home. The appointment was over as far as she was concerned and she participated in the rest of it reluctantly.

The doctor said the farsightedness, the astigmatism (gesundheit), and the early onset are all inherited characteristics. He was surprised I didn't know of any close relatives who had them. I explained that Sarah has astigmatism (etc) but she only needed glasses near adulthood. My mother (before her cataract surgery) was nearsighted as Mrs. Magoo, and she passed that on to Aunt Amy and me (we have both since had our eyes zapped back to near-normalcy). So if you are the offending relative, or care to report one, please speak up.

Our plan was to go get the glasses later in the week. We soon realized, though, that to do it during the day meant I would have to select the frames without Sarah's supervision, which would surely doom the poor girl to fashion disaster every minute of her little life. So we decided to do go during an evening when Sarah was home, and eventually realized that this evening was as good as any other, particularly since we never know from hour to hour how many evenings at home we have before we get The Call from Ohio.

So tonight, mere hours after hearing that Grace's little eyes were not quite as functionally perfect as we assumed (although, aesthetically, they are still top notch), we went to the mall to select her glasses at Lenscrafters ("Glasses in about an hour"). She loved the whole process. The Frames Lady would try out new frames on her, and she would look in the mirror and do that little sly, demure princess thing she does which might be annoying with any lesser child but with Grace is just adorable. She finally picked out a red pair. We liked the silver ones better (due to the fact that they could literally be twisted around and spring back into shape) but clearly what was most important here was the SHE like them. We went to dinner and she asked every five minutes if her glasses were ready yet. She loves them.

She is supposed to wear them all the time except for sleeping and bathing. We want to make sure both eyes are participating all times.

We didn't think it was possible for Grace to be any cuter, but the glasses may just have done it. To her Phyllis Diller little curly hair and big, round little brown eyes, she has now added a bit of precocious intellectualism which actually matches her personality and pre-academic interests quite well.

So it all ended well. We just want to know who is responsible. Please leave confessions or report the guilty in the comments section.