In Which Connor Goes To The Ophthalmologist And Is Given Magical Powers Of Super Cuteness

Connor had an Ophthalmology appointment today at 11:00.  I was originally planning on taking him to school and then picking him up an hour early, but he foiled that plan by deciding to stay up until four in the morning.  School and a doctor's appointment on three hours of sleep would be a disaster for the little guy.  So instead I called him in sick and gave him a little extra time for shuteye. 

Connor sailed through his appointment-- he opened his eyes on command and let the doctor look at them, and he didn't even cry when they put the eye drops in, though he wasn't too excited about the whole thing.  He's getting to be such a big boy; can you believe he'll be five in a few short months?  How in the world is he growing up so fast?

And his behavior wasn't the only thing that looked great-- his eyes looked pretty good too!  The doc said that while Connor obviously still has Duane Syndrome (which is of course permanent) his optic nerves look healthy and while he's farsighted and has a bit of an astigmatism, he doesn't need glasses. 

This is a huge relief to me, because I can't begin to imagine how we would keep glasses on this kid. 

You know, sometimes it's really nice to be able to go to an appointment and get a clean bill of health.  It doesn't happen very often with Connor; usually we're going in because something needs to be fixed, a referral for equipment needs to be made, etc.  But every once in a while we have a doctor who says "Okay!  Looks good-- see you in a year!" and they send me off without a huge list of things I need to get done.  It's extremely refreshing.  I suppose that's what doctor's appointments mostly look like to parents of kids with typical children. 

It's a foreign concept for me, but I wouldn't mind a few more going as smoothly as this one did!

Of course Connor had his eyes dilated, and though they didn't give us any sunglasses those things wouldn't have stayed on his head anyway so they would have been very little help.  Luckily it was a very overcast day so it didn't matter.  Connor has a very strange effect on people when he has his eyes dilated; I think it's similar to those Japanese cartoons with the characters who have very small stature and hugely exaggerated eyes.  Basically he becomes Connor in chibi form, and his already extreme cuteness is magnified tenfold.  No one can resist him; we met Jeremy for lunch at a local restaurant and were swarmed by people who basically thought Connor was the most adorable thing they'd ever seen.  There was one elderly gentleman in particular who practically climbed into Connor's wheelchair with him, he was so overcome.

I didn't take any pictures, though, because one of the side effects of overwhelming eye-dilated cuteness is that it makes your eyes sort of light sensitive, and it was cloudy enough I would have had to use the flash.  It's probably a good thing though-- that sort of cuteness could be a powerful weapon in the wrong hands.
If I ever have any desire to take over the world I know exactly how I can do it.  I'll just take Connor to an eye doctor appointment right before I begin my world conquest.  Everyone would be so busy squealing over how cute the little guy is that they'd let me walk in and become the Overlord of The World without a fuss.  And then all the chocolate in the world would be miiiiiiine!!!

I'd better start practicing my evil laugh.

~Jess