A Big Change for Josiah

It all started with The Alphabet Game.

Yes, folks, that classic game of traveling families is what showed us that our firstborn needed to change his look.

From this...

...to this.  :)

I don't know how long it's been since we first noticed that every time we went on a long trip and played The Alphabet Game, Josiah lost--and lost by a large margin, too.  To tell you the truth, he endured some good-natured ribbing when he would still be looking for a "j," for example, and David would be nearing the end of the alphabet.  We would laugh about it, but slowly the thought crept into our minds that maybe Josiah's eyesight wasn't as good as it should be, and perhaps his lack of success in The Alphabet Game could be attributed to that.

We didn't rush right out and get his eyes checked, however; and looking back, I feel pretty badly about that.  But as life went by, he didn't seem to be having any problems with his eyes: he could see just fine to read and to watch the director of his choir and to do all the other activities of his 12-year-old life.  Being homeschooled, he didn't have to worry about not being able to see the front of the classroom if his seat was in the back; and being a preteen, he didn't have to worry about driving.  And who cares if he couldn't win The Alphabet Game?  That wasn't tremendously significant, right?  ;-)

OK, so I'm kicking myself a little bit right now.

But all's well that ends well, and in this case, the "end" is that Jeff took Josiah to get his eyes checked last Wednesday during their monthly father/son breakfast out, and sure enough, Josiah was discovered to be near-sighted (about 20/40 vision, I believe).  Glasses it is!  He doesn't have to wear them all the time; but any time he wants to be able to see something that's not close by, he sure does have to!  ;-)

I've never needed glasses, although both my parents have had them as long as I can remember.  Jeff is quite near-sighted and got glasses when he was a teen, although he wears contacts most of the time now.  I guess this is just one of the areas in which Josiah is following in the footsteps of his daddy.  :)

We picked up his glasses at Walmart on Monday, and it was so much fun to walk through the store with Josiah right after he got them.  He kept exclaiming things like, "Oh my goodness, I can see that!" as he pointed to something far away, and "Before, that would have looked like a blob, but now I can actually tell what it is!"  :)  As we drove on nearly deserted back roads to the Christmas tree farm yesterday, Jeff would periodically slow to a crawl, tell Josiah to take his glasses off, then point to a random sign in the distance to see if Josiah could read it.  He could not, of course; but when he put his glasses on, he could!  Jeff did that a number of times, and each time was the same.  Oh, what a difference some curved glass makes!  :)

Being 12 years old has brought a number of changes to Josiah.  For one thing, he has shot up in height, so much so that he is actually closing in on me (although he hasn't accomplished that yet, despite his many times of standing on tiptoe beside me and trying to convince me that he's as tall as I am)--and I'm not exactly short!  For another thing, his voice changed this past summer which took a while to adjust to, both for those of us who hear him (I admit that his new voice surprised me quite a few times!) ;-) and for Josiah himself, especially as he was singing in the children's choir this fall (although he got lots of great, encouraging advice there about how to deal with his voice change and how to keep singing through it all, so thankfully a voice change doesn't mean he has to leave the choir!).  :)

With his added height, deeper voice, and now these glasses...

...I feel like he's suddenly turned a corner and put boyhood behind him.  Full speed ahead to young manhood!  And what a delightful, talented, smart, caring, helpful, responsible, kind, and beloved young man he is!!

But I'm his mom, so you wouldn't expect me to say anything less, now would you?  ;-)