I can see clearly now

If there is one thing Mandy & I are good at in terms of parenting, it's being able to accurately gauge when something is wrong with one or both of the kids. Nose bleeds, an asthma attack, a virus....we typically catch things in advance and are able to get a jump start on getting everyone back healthy. Don't get me wrong; we aren't germ-a-phobes (well not over-reactive ones anyway), we both just have a sense as to whether something more serious may be going on or not. To back this up, we've been told countless times that had we waited a couple more days or not brought them to the doctor at all, things would have been much much worse. Which leads me to the story of Alex getting glasses last week....

Alex had mentioned to Mandy a couple times lately that he had to go to the board to do math problems and couldn't see things real far away. You never know though; Adam said he couldn't see the board from his desk too, only to find out after his eye exam that there was a girl with big hair sitting in front of him and he couldn't see around her. Then a week ago last Saturday while watching a basketball game on TV, I caught Alex squinting real hard and saying he couldn't read what the score of the game was. It was then that we decided he better have his eyes checked. Considering that everyone on both sides of the family needs glasses, it just made sense that Lex might be having issues also and we still think it's just a matter of time before Adam needs them as well. 

Because of the chance of severe weather, we all piled into the optometrist's office knowing there was a good possibility Alex would be getting glasses. The only question was just how thick would they be and would he be okay with it. So the nurse points to the eye chart which reads EFQRZ on the top line and other letters in smaller print on the lines below. She then asks Alex:

"Can you read the top line for me?"

"no" very quietly very shy. 

The nurse holds up something over his eyes and covers one side up "What about now?"

"no" barely saying a word.

The nurse flips a switch on the thing over his eyes and says it again "How about now? What does the top line say?""

"I can't read it..."

At this point Mandy and I are thinking 1) Alex is blind and 2) what kind of terrible parents are we that our son can't see two feet in front of his face and us not know it?!?!" From the look on her face, the nurse is thinking the same thing as well. Then suddenly it hits me! 

"Alex those aren't words. We just want you to say the letters."

"OHHHHH! I thought they spelled something!!! EFQRZ"

Funny, but also a huge relief as Mandy & I really panicked for a second there. Alex did end up with glasses, but nothing like the giant Coke bottle things he almost got had we not figured out at the last second he thought we were trying to get him to read German. 

Immediately after putting them on, his face lit up and he started laughing at all the stuff he could see now. That night before bed, he even made us tear up a bit by giving his mother a kiss on the cheek and saying thank you for letting him see again. The kid sure knows how to pull at our heart strings.