Good news for those who struggle telling the twins apart – José is now “the one with the glasses.”  Turns out he has a lazy right eye.  The optometrist said he’s had it since birth, and we just didn’t discover it till his most recent annual check-up.  José was beside himself with excitement that he got to wear glasses “just like TÍo Steven,” my youngest brother who is also Guatemalteco by birth.  And he does look quite handsome and scholarly in them, if I do say so myself.

glasses

 The downside: a lazy eye doesn’t fix itself, and glasses don’t really correct it.  They just magnify everything through the right lens to alleviate the strain on his left eye.  But even magnified, everything he sees through his right eye is a little fuzzy.

 To fix the problem he has to wear a patch over his good eye for an hour every day to force the muscles in his weak eye to work.

 And even though I picked out the coolest pirate patch I could find at the costume shop, he doesn’t like to wear it.  It catches on his amazingly long eyelashes, and he complains that it’s itchy.

 So at the suggestion of a friend with a background in child therapy, I asked him if it would make him feel better if we ALL wore patches for that hour.

 And being the extravert he is, that sounded GREAT to him.

 So every afternoon in our house, we have Pirate Hour.  I set a timer, we all put on our patches, and when the timer beeps,  José yells  “…5, 4, 3, 2, 1 – Patch Off”  (ok so I mixed a little Space Shuttle metaphor in there with the Pirate Theme).  And we all put our patches away till the next afternoon.

 I have to say, it has given me a whole new appreciation for what I’m asking him to do.  He’s right:  the patches DO itch.  And using only one eye really messes with your depth perception.

 Can’t wait till “we” don’t have to wear them anymore, but for now, if you show up at our house mid-afternoon, THIS is what you can expect to greet you at the door:

eye patch solution for lazy eye

Oh, and yes, I am the one WITHOUT the earrings…