At least since the four year old's last check up, six months ago, I've had in the back of my mind that I really wanted to take her to an eye doctor and get her eyes checked. Actually, it goes back further than that, because when I was trying to work through Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons, she just wasn't getting it and there were a lot of letters she just couldn't keep straight. But at the doctor's office, although their screening test seemed to show she was seeing ok, it didn't seem like she was seeing everything as clearly as I thought she should be able to.

At her check-up in September, I was about 2 weeks from having a baby. Then we bought the Big Purple Money Pit. Then we sold the other house. I never quite got around to taking her to an eye doctor.

She was regressing in the little she had been able to read and when I tried to help her draw things, she was having trouble making even simple things like a square. She has also been crossing her eyes a lot and rubbing them.

I try not to be a worry wort, but all these things together added up to making me quite worried about her eyesight and when the kids' swimming lesson got canceled last week, it gave us the time and opportunity to actually get to the eye doctor.

Obviously, this time I was right. She couldn't see. Oddly enough though, she's far-sighted rather than near-sighted and her eyes are way off in strength from each other, so they weren't playing nicely together. No wonder some things have been so hard for her.

We spent several hours trying to find frames to fit a tiny little face, and even the ones we eventually got aren't a perfect fit. But she's happy to be able to see and she was very pleased that we were able to find some glasses that came in purple.