Whenever I drop Gage off at school all these kids say, "Hey Gage!" and he looks right at them and never replies. I would ask him about it and he would say, "Who just said Hi to me?" I was getting really frustrated thinking I was raising an impolite boy. That didn't seem to jive with Gage at all. I could not figure it out.
Then, I started hearing, "Gage. MOVE!" being yelled from the family room. I would look in there only to find Gage right in front of the TV and his brother and sister kept asking....um yelling...at him to move. Again, I would get frustrated and say, "Honey, the kids can't see around you." I would wonder again, "why is this kid so inconsiderate?"
The most concerning thing came when I was picking Gage up from school one day and he walked right in front of a car. I saw him look both ways before he crossed to me but he came within a hair's breadth of getting hit. Of course, when he got to me I yelled like crazy, "You almost just got hit by a car!!! You've got to be more careful!" What was Gage's reply? "What car?" I was sure my boy was becoming more careless and clueless as the days went by.
It wasn't until we were playing Wii one night that Gage kept saying he couldn't read the instructions from the couch that it finally hit me that Gage couldn't see!! Duh. You would think I would be on the look-out for it because I am nearly blind myself and I got my first pair of glasses in 2nd grade.
I took him to the doctor and sure enough...he needs glasses. We picked up his first pair yesterday and when he put them on he discovered a new world. He kept saying, "Everything looks darker and smaller! I can read that sign....way over there!" I'm so happy for him and I think he is so handsome. He looks so grown up though that I think my heart will break right in two. All he needs is a moth eaten sweater and a pipe and we could call him Professor.
It has to be said that spectacles have come a long way from when I got my first pair. I believe mine were a pink tortoise shell plastic monstrosity that covered nearly my whole face.
