Breaking News: Ian's New Glasses

I received the call yesterday that Ian's glasses were ready to be picked up. I raced to the Optical store to get them and couldn't wait to try them on him.

I asked the woman there if there was a way to simulate the way he sees without his glasses... I really wanted to know what Ian sees now. She said putting his prescription on would give me a good idea of how he sees things without a prescription. Wow. My kid is blind. His prescription is one of the strongest I've seen. I asked her how he sees such detail and can identify things, even at a distance. She said kids are masters at faking it and don't analyze or quantify what they can and cannot see at that age. If I had known he was so limited all this time, I would have had him to the doctor our first day back in the states. I'm interested to see if these new glasses translate into a jump in any specific area of development. I have my suspicions that the amount of sleep he currently requires will drop. His eyes are probably so tired by the end of the day that he can't even keep them open. Poor Ian!

So, he was asleep by the time I got home last night, meaning I needed to test them out in the AM. I had them on him within minutes of waking up and he did AWESOME! It helps that his favorite Little Einsteins character, Leo, wears glasses. I told him that Leo needs his glasses to see better when he goes on missions. He was all about wearing them after that.

He lasted about 10 minutes before asking for them off, but he kept lifting them and putting them back down. It obviously made a big difference right away. I put them on again to eat breakfast and to feed Polli, telling him he had to wear them for these things. He didn't argue and wore them all the way up to leaving for school.

I want to take baby steps with how long he wears them until the weekend, when we'll work on lengthening those times, before sending him to school with them. I frankly don't trust his teachers to work with us on it and they'll end up missing. I just know it.

Below are a few pictures first thing this morning with his glasses. I'm disappointed about the glare, but I'd rather have that than scratched up or broken lenses, so it's a fair trade off. They're thick and clunky, but they are also unbreakable, so they'll make perfect "training" glasses. A year in these should get him ready for a lighter metal frame... and then he'll really be ready for the Ivy Leagues!

Charles Nelson Riley? Is that you?

He already likes them and he's not even out of his crib yet.

Getting the hang of actually seeing me clearly from across the room.

His new serious look

He had them on for a good 15 minutes at this point with no problem. I completely underestimated how well he would do. No bribes needed yet!