Eric's New Glasses

When Eric started asking me for glasses for Christmas, I thought he just wanted them because I was wearing my glasses more than contacts. He’s a stylish kid, often complimenting my outfits, or suggesting alternate accessories. So it was easy to pass off the glasses request as merely for fashion.

But then he asked for them a few more times over the course of the month, and kept bringing it up. Brian and I would try to quiz him to see if he could see things clearly, but we are certainly not trained in that area, and it’s hard to get a 4 year old to give detailed descriptions! I finally made an eye appointment for him and sure enough, he needs glasses!  I’m so glad we listened to him, because they said by catching it early, we may even be able to correct his (slight) farsightedness.

He had a lot of fun trying on all the different styles, but finally settled on these. Disney makes these kids glasses, and I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that they do. They’re lightweight and durable, and super 
cute
 handsome to boot. Leave it to Disney to infiltrate our lives yet again! These glasses are green, his favorite color, and the pattern reminds him of a race car. “Cars” and “Cars 2″ being his favorite movies, he was sold.

Here’s my little guy with his new glasses:

It could have been so much worse

I hope you never have to experience what I did yesterday. I watched my little three year old boy get hit by a car.

We were riding our bikes to the farmers market, crossing a street in the crosswalk. I always pull in to the middle of the street, then wait for both kids to cross the street. Anna was in front of me, and I think I went a little further than the middle of the street before stopping to wait for Eric. I don’t know why, I think I either thought he was closer behind me, or I felt safe since we were crossing at a crosswalk and the light was with us. In any case, I stopped about halfway through the adjacent lane, and looked back to wait for Eric.

I saw the car start to turn in to the cross walk, right where Eric was riding. I’m shaking my head no no no even as I type this. I started screaming “NO WAIT STOP NO NO!” but he kept right on turning. In that flash of an instant, it occurred to me that all of my fears as a parent were coming true right then. I see Eric get pulled down, but then I can’t see him any more, and I’m running and screaming at the top of my lungs. The car finally stops 10' later (I measured the scrape marks today), and Eric is pinned under his bike, the back tire of the bike is under the car’s front tire. I can’t get him out, I bang on the hood of the car and scream BACK UP BACK UP BACK UP! I’m a little fuzzy at this point. I’m not sure when I stopped screaming,
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