The Inevitable

The week before school started, Elizabeth had her annual pediatrician appointment.  Before she left, he checked her eyes and she had a little bit of difficulty with the eye chart.  He thought that her vision might be around 20/70 and suggested that we take her to an opthamologist.  Fortunately for us, our eye doctor and family friend is an opthamologist (not an optometrist) and had a cancellation just before I called, so we were able to get her in for an appointment just two days later.  Their assumption was that the pediatrician was probably wrong (because little kids get nervous about this kind of thing, it was at the end of the appointment, etc.), but that she should have an eye appointment anyway.  Dr. Samson is an excellent doctor - who happened to save Lee from going blind in one eye several years ago - so we were happy to put her in his very capable hands.  What we learned was that Elizabeth's vision is much worse than we expected - a staggering 20/275, which is worse than Lee and I combined!  Although she never complained about not being able to see the board in school, he feels that the amount of reading that she did over the summer is the likely cause (see The Reader).  Apparently, it is very important, especially for young eyes, to take frequent "breaks" when reading - to look across the room, refocus, rest a moment, and then start reading again.  While Dr. Samson examined Emily's eyes (she does not need glasses - a fact that is making her quite upset), Elizabeth tried on no fewer than 75 different frames, finally narrowing down the decision to two and then to one final candidate (of course, Lee, Emily and I all like the frames that she rejected).  When her glasses arrived, she was so happy!  She could care less what people think of them, she is just so excited to see everything so clearly.  Lee and I both feel a bit guilty about the fact that she obviously couldn't see at all, but are just happy that everything is so clear now.

Trying out frames at the doctor's office. 

First night wearing glasses! 

So happy. 

She looks so adorable in them - but trying to photograph how cute she looks is hard!!