glasses

Max had his eye exam Monday. His left eye was turning in when he focused on things close to him. I figured he would be getting glasses. I prefer that over a patch (there is no way he would keep that on!) or surgery. So sure enough the doc. said he needed glasses. They will be bifocal glasses to help his eye focus more. I have dreaded this day since Max has been born. The day one of my kids needed glasses. Pete had really (REALLY!) bad vision before lasik.

I looked at the selection at the doc office (at Children's Mercy South hospital). They did have one type of glasses for special needs. They were the miraflex ones. They are kinda neat to feel and bend around but not sure how those would work for Max. They have to have a strap to keep them in place. I don't know how he would do with a strap. Also, not sure how 'cute' they look on older kids. Although there was a pair that was gray so it wasn't the bright colors like most. The warrenty from the office sounded great though. If I bought the warranty then we got up to 3 pairs replaced at no charge. I came home and looked around online.

I already knew of Specs4us and really wish CMH south had those. They are specailly designed for kiddos with Down syndrome. People with Ds tend to have a flat nose bridge (if you can even call it that!) and lower set ears. That is not a good thing when it comes to glasses. The glasses always slip down. So I found a place that carries the Specs4us glasses (also called Erin's world frames). After school Tuesday I was a bit too brave in taking all 4 kids with me to an optical shop. I was not looking forward to this at all!

We get the the optical shop and while in the car I tell the kids what I expect from them. Stand by me and act like good little kids. NO running, no grabbing glasses, no blah, blah, blah... You get the point. Ike was sleeping. I thought about getting the stroller out and strapping him and Joe in that. However, that means Ike would wake up. I can rarely move him with him not waking up. But I would have the stroller and 2 kids confined. Screaming, crying confined kids. So I opted to skip the stroller. I could grab Ike and hold him on my shoulder and we would stay asleep (it's the putting him down part that he wake up on). Joe knows how to behave so I was OK. We walk in the store. First thing is first, kids must grab glasses. Sam was saying she wanted glasses and these are the ones she wants. Max spotted a 'doctors' chair (you know, the round stool with wheels) and thought that looked fun. He pushed that around while I kept saying "Max come here and try on these glasses." Sam was grabbing mirrors, Max was grabbing chairs, Joe starts yelling he has to go potty and Ike is snoozing. I'm sure the guys working were hoping we would just leave. But I was on a mission. I wasn't sure if I was gonna even order them but I wanted Max to at least try on some glasses.

An older guy finally came over to help us out with the glasses. The kids decide they needed exercise and start running around the store. They had a wall that you could walk all the way around so that must be a great place to do some running. Which they did, several times! After I would tell them to sit in this chair, they would but all the chairs but one had wheels. I'm sure you can guess how that went. Joe had the wheel-less chair. He stayed pretty well behaved after that except for some spitting and yelling. Max and Sam must have had some couped up energy from school or something. OH MY GOODNESS! Finally I just order some glasses. I asked Max which ones, which color and he picked some out but really his mind was on running so he didn't care that much. I could not get out of there fast enough! By the time we left Ike was awake. The whole ride home I listen to them bicker, so I turned up the radio. There was no TV on the ride home and they all headed to theirs room once we got home.

So, do I have any volunteers to take all 4 kids back up to pick up the glasses when they are ready!??

To top it off, I had a $50 off coupon for the store that I printed off from thier website-- totally forgot to use it since my mind was on trying to get the kids to sit down and behave!