Emily's glasses

Since Emily was about 10 months old, we have noticed her left eye will cross from time to time. We brought this to the attention of our pediatrician and he said that it is something she may outgrow and not to worry about it until she turns 3. When she turned 2 we really stopped noticing it. Not sure if we were not as observant or if we were just not seeing things or what, but then when she turned 3 we started noticing it again. In bringing it to the attention of our pediatrician again, he referred us to a pediatric eye doctor in Charlottesville. Our appointment was yesterday. Dr. Carter was really great with her! Though I have been fortunate enough to never have visited an eye doctor he really seemed like he did a lot of different things since she is a small child. He showed her pictures, lights, animals . . . had her look though the eye machine, but while holding the "handle bars" of the "bike." She would not actually talk to him (a little shy), but answered his questions by nodding her head or pointing. She did a great job! He dilated her eyes and determined that she does have a small problem.

Emily is too farsighted. All children are farsighted, but Emily has to sometimes strain to see things that are close up. For a three year old, most of their day is spent with activities that are up close. Her eye crossing is actually her eye shutting down. Each time it crosses it shuts down and shuts down that part of her brain for that moment. He said her vision is good, but her eye needs aligning. If we do nothing, she could potentially go blind in that eye over several years.

As much as it broke my heart to think about having to put a three year old kid in glasses, we took her for her fitting when we returned from Charlottesville. She picked out her pink frames (pink at the ear piece) and they came with a little princess glasses case. It looks like a little purse and Emily refers to it as her suitcase:). She has not tried to take them off and she says she can see things better. We have made a very big deal about her new glasses! She looks very pretty in them and is so proud of them. We are a little concerned of jealousy with Lydia not needing glasses, but so far Lydia will put her sunglasses on and tell us she can see things better too:).