A New Look

Benjamin has undergone a few changes recently:

1. He lost his two front teeth a few weeks ago -- both came out within days of each other. So we've been telling him that he should be a vampire for Halloween, since the hole in the middle of his teeth makes his side teeth look like fangs!

2. Two weeks ago I walked past Benjamin's open backpack and noticed there were some papers inside. (Sometimes we all forget about unloading backpacks on Fridays.) Among the papers was a note from the school nurse . . . he had not passed his vision screening.

As soon as I mentioned the note, he broke down into tears and insisted that he did NOT need glasses. I tried telling him the story of when I got glasses and how much clearer everything looked, but he didn't want to hear it. Ryan and I would try to casually bring it up over the next week, and every time he got upset. Based on some of his comments, I think he was worried that kids would make fun of him once he got glasses.

When I scheduled his eye appointment, I tried to get him in last Thursday (almost a week after I found the note). It turned out to be a blessing that the soonest I could get him in was a week later -- just a few days ago. Benjamin came home on Friday of last week and excitedly announced that a friend in his class has glasses now.

"Oh," I said, "does that mean that now you are okay about getting glasses?"

"No, Mom. Now I WANT to get glasses!" was his reply. And he's been excited ever since!

He got a little nervous when we got to the appointment, and started to tell the doctor that he didn't need glasses. This worried me for a minute, but then he warmed up and had a good appointment. I loved seeing his face light up when Dr. Bird held lenses up in front of Benjamin and he noticed how much clearer everything was!

Once we picked out some frames, it took about 45 minutes for the office to make the lenses. Since it was near dinner time and I had all the kids with me, I opted to head home and was planning on bringing Benjamin back after dinner to pick up the glasses. Later we realized Ryan could just pick them up on his way home from work . . . I've never seen Benjamin so anxious for his dad to get home!



I'm so glad he was happy for his new glasses! All evening long, he kept lifting the glasses up and down -- looking at things in a "before and after" way. And my favorite was when he said, "I wish we had school tomorrow {we were out for Fall Break}. I want to show everyone my glasses!"

I took some pictures over the weekend of his new look.

going to The Brick Oven for dinner

after church on Sunday

I was trying to get a candid shot as he finished walking home from church . . . it didn't work for the purpose of showing off his glasses. But I had to include it because I thought the hap-hazard look was so cute!