This winter, we hit Zoe’s 7 year glassesversary.  In some ways, it seems like only yesterday I was trying desperately to get my young toddler to leave her glasses on, in other ways, all those struggles seem so far away.  Here’s a few ways that things have changed since then:

• There are no more struggles to get her to wear her glasses.  She picks out her pair (we get two pair so that she always has a back-up, and has a choice) first thing in the morning, and puts them away right before going to sleep.  I know that some kids her age are resistant to glasses, but I think because she can’t remember a time without them, there’s no resistance.
• 

  Even now, this photo makes me want to run and get a glasses cleaning cloth.

  The glasses stay so much cleaner! Now that she has learned to eat without getting food all over her body, her glasses don’t get nearly as dirty.  And she is old enough to know how to clean her glasses herself.

• Choosing glasses is both easier and harder.  No more crying and struggling to get frames on a wiggly toddler at the optical shop, and there’s so many more options for an 8 year old than a 1 year old.  But now she has Opinions.  I like that she has opinions, and so far, I’ve loved the frames she’s chosen, but the more opinions there are, the more complicated selection can get.
• Most of the anxiety around glasses is gone now.  I feared that we’d lose her glasses, and now seeing how she loves to wear them, I’m less worried about that.  I worried that she would beteased, but so far, that’s not the case.  I was afraid she’d always be known as the kid in glasses, and while that was a little bit the case when she was younger, it’s much less of an issue now.  I was scared about the problems she might have due to her vision, but that fear has been replaced by wonder as I watch her become an independent, awesome 2nd grader.