An excuse to share photos of my amazing, precocious, adventurous, adorable, smart, little girl? Well alrighty then. (And the best picture is at the end of the post!)
We began to notice about a month ago that Birdie’s left eye was pulling in towards her nose. It wasn’t all the time, and it wasn’t predictable. But it begin to happen enough that I knew it was time to see an eye doctor and find out the reason behind it. Though I’ve worn glasses since I was 4 years old, and her dad wears them too, I don’t think either of us were worried about her eyesight. She’s the tot picking at the wispy hairs around my face and finding birds in the sky. But, my mom and myself both have congenital cataracts, and there’s a strong genetic probability that she might too – so it was worth a visit regardless! After “waiting” (in reality: running to and fro down the very long central hallway and saying hi to everyone she passed, repeatedly) we finally found ourselves in the familiar chair. We were both mesmerized by the genius of the assistant and the doctor. They run a coordinated magic show of singing, stickers, little lights, animated toys, smoke and mirrors. No lie. Then, sigh, the dialation drops and another 2o minutes of waiting for her eyes to grow as big as saucers.
The verdict? First, she doesn’t have cataracts! Like all children, Birdie is farsighted. But her farsightedness is almost double that of an average toddler. Wow. No wonder she was always looking at the birds in the sky – she probably saw them better than we do. When a tot is farsighted, they can still focus on things near at hand. But the eyes end up overcompensating: causing them to cross. Aaaah. So we need glasses! The little eyeglasses shop there suggested these rather … quirky … silicone frames that wrap around with a one-piece strap. Completely indestructible, uber plasticy, and I’m not sure they could be considered cute. They were trying, but not making it.
So we trekked over to a specialty children’s glasses store that I knew about – it’s two whole blocks from my old single-girl apartment in the city. Wow, memories and circumstance collided that day: walking the same route to my same old bus stop with my husband and daughter. Travis at The Glasses Menagerie gave us the opposite advice: straps and glasses are very demeaning and frustrating for kids. So their shop doesn’t use them. Instead, he showed us beautiful glasses frames from all over Europe. Aaaah, now that’s more like it. We finally settled on frames from the Netherlands (pictured here, by BBig) and London (arriving next week). After two days, Birdie keeps them on most of the time – it’s obvious she can see better with them, so they’re only a liability when she’s tired, cranky, or feeling extra wily (then they’re projectiles). The only downside so far? Prices, shockingly, were the same as my own glasses. But, I think the results were with it. These little red numbers (with an orange and white striped interior!) prove my point, no?
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