Seeing The World Through His Eyes

"Aiden, what do you mean you can't see anything? The letters are right there! What are you talking about that everything's blurry?! Just read the letters! I mean, I know you know the alphabet!"

This was me a few weeks ago. Practically begging Aiden to read the letters on the wall during his eye exam at the pediatrics optometrist's office. (Or scolding him, depending on who you ask.)

But he kept saying the same thing. "I can't see any of the letters. It's all blurry. Is it a 'D'? Oh! I know... it's the letter 'F'. Right?" (No. No it was not an "F". It was the letter "P".)

The doctor kept reassuring him that he was doing a good job. "What about now? Can you read me the letters now? How about now? What if you looked through these lenses? Can you read them to me now? Okay... good. Good job!"

Me, on the other hand? I was dumbfounded. My first thought was, Oh my goodness! The kid's blind as a bat! My second? Guilt galore. How on Earth did I not make an appointment to get him here sooner?! All those times he was squinting to see the TV or something far away and I just let it happen?! 

He really cannot see! The world is really all a blur to him!

My third thought was something along the lines of, Why on Earth didn't Aiden say something this entire time?! I mean, if I were walking around and everything was blurry, I'd say something! Anything!

But then I finally took a step back and tried to see the world through his eyes. I tried to remember what it's like to not quite know that something's a little... off. 

Funny thing is, Aiden's probably been thinking that that's how the world is supposed to look -- blurry. And since I wasn't paying attention to the obvious signs that he's blind as a bat his vision isn't clear, I've been none the wiser.

Thankfully he has glasses now -- just in time to get used to wearing them everyday before his first day of third grade.

I'll never forget what he said when he put those glasses on for the first time, "Everything was so blurry before, but now I can see EVERYTHING! Oh my gosh... it's all so clear, mommy! It's a big difference!"

He never used to be able to see the signs on the street that were more than a half a block away. But, with his glasses, he proceeded to read all of the street signs that were a block or more away from us.

Every.

Single.

One of them.