History of Our Kids in Glasses

My kids wear glasses, but they frequently loose them, leave them out, or bend them as they rough house. After 3 months in Costa Rica & 3 weeks in Chile, my two boys were left glasses-less. My mother is an angel and so here's a shout out to my amazing Mom for going to Walmart and ordering glasses for them and express shipping them here to Chile so that my kids can see!!!

Ethan and Hyurm wearing their glasses freshly out of the DHL package - THANK YOU MOM!!!

For a laugh, see this eye exam clip by Brian Regan :) Love Brian Regan!

Neither Corey or I wear glasses now. Nor did we wear glasses as children. But 4 of my 7 children wear glasses. Melodie got glasses 1st when she was 4. As we'd watch a movie or something on the computer. she's move her face close to the screen and we'd always impatiently bark at her to move back. I learned she needed glasses when one time she replied back in frustration "I can't see!" Oh! That never occurred to me! Doh, bad mother! I scheduled an appointment for her with an opthamologist. He asked me if she crossed her eyes, and then it occurred to me again that yes, she did cross her eyes quite a bit, and for that too I'd usually tell her to stop crossing her eyes, not thinking that there was a reason for her crossed eyes. You live and learn, and I did learn. Sorry Mel that I didn't do a better job knowing what you needed! Like they say, there's no handbook for raising kids or being parents.

So, I learned: watch for crossed eyes. When Hyrum was a 9 month old baby, I started to notice his eyes crossing regularly as he'd sit in his highchair. I didn't know how the doctor would know if he needed glasses since, as a baby, he probably wouldn't be able to verbally help out with any exams they do. But guess what, they know how to tell, and Hyrum is far sighted, and he got glasses. He was so cute with them on. Couldn't even walk yet, but was wearing glasses. He was nicknamed "The Professor". The Doctor told me that the kids condition is genetic, and thus 9 out of 10 of my children would need glasses. That's 90%! Uhh, I already got 5 kids and only 2 of them are in glasses now, that's only 40%. I better bring in the others! I kept my eyes actively open to notice the slightest sign of crossing.

Ethan got glasses next when he started to cross his eyes. He was 4, diagnosis: near sighted.

Lastly Abi got glasses when she was 2. The same crossing of eyes tipped me off again, so watch your kids eyes! If they cross their eyes, take them in for an exam. I took all my little kids to Primary Children's to see Dr. Scott A. Larson at the John A. Moran Eye Center. He is great.

Fast forward to now -we started our 3 month stint in Costa Rica in September with 8 pairs of eyeglasses for the kids. Melodie had 1, Ethan had 3, Hyrum had 2, and Abi had 2. That's a lot of glasses for me to keep track of, but I'm doing better at it. The kids however could show some improvement. Sometimes it was simple mistakes, other times just carelessness.

Melodie is an angel and kept her glasses safe and unbent the whole time in Costa Rica. She gets 5 stars.

Ethan lost his favorite "Harry Potter" glasses, as he calls them, (in the top photo there) somewhere in the ocean waves of Tamarindo when he was surfing with Corey. He said he felt he should leave them on the towel, but then Corey said they might get stolen, so he followed his father's advice and wore them. Ethan's glasses: 3 - 1 = 2. He was crying when he got home, they were his favorite glasses. Corey teased "Well Eth, if the Spirit tells you to do something, you gotta listen to it! Don't listen to your Dad! What does he know!"

Hyrum's glasses were frequently bent and stepped on and lost from being forgotten and left out by the swimming pool. He lost one pair when he left them out by the pool and some men came to put up a fence around the pool. I found them later stepped on in the dirt, I could only find one lense. Hyrum's glasses: 2 - 1 = 1.

Luckily Ethan's other two pairs were the same frame as Hyrum's, so those frames and lenses got passed around depending on which frame I was able to adjust to fit best on that day. Hyrum lost his glasses at the Marriott in San Jose, can't remember where he set them down, nothing in the lost and found, they just disappeared! Magic. So using two of his old lenses that I had brought along and taking away one of Ethan's frames for Hyrum, we eek out another pair. Hyrum glasses: 1 - 1 = 0 + 1 = 1.

Ethan's glasses: 2 - 1 = 1. Ethan's frames get busted, we take his lenses a

So we survived 3 months without Costco Opitical or the Walmart Vision Center. If we had headed back to the states, we would have been good. But we left for Chile and Ethan and Hyrum's one pair each only lasted us 3 weeks. Glasses are expensive here, as are the exams without insurance (or Costco's great eye exam prices) so I asked my mom to pick up some pairs of their prescriptions at Walmart and we'll just hope those get us by until we make it back to the states. Crossing my fingers. I've been stressed about the kids glasses much over the years. Trying to keep them un-bent, un-lost, and unbroken, such a chore with kids! But what are ya gonna do, they gotta see, right?