showing off

Besides the thousands of dollars in medical bills, we spend a lot of money on other things for Tate... like on his sunglasses (more than we ever have on our own!). Granted, I usually find whatever is $10 or less for myself because I know it's only a matter of time until they're sat on or one of the arms is broken off when the kids are playing dress up with them.

Anyway, at our checkup with our surgeon a couple of weeks ago, he told us that we need to get more sturdy frames and thicker lenses for Tate's regular glasses since they're for protection. But we're not supposed to do that until we see the ocularist again for an adjustment on his prosthesis, so the doc can prescribe a "minus" lens to make his fake eye look like it's the same size as his real eye when he wears his glasses. We're not heading back to the ocularist for at least another month, so the eye can "settle" more, so the adjustment will be more accurate. So in the meantime, we decided it was time to go buy him another (larger) pair of good sunglasses again. We really like Julbo brand. They're very well built, and Tate loves the designs. They're about $40, so we keep a good eye on him when he's wearing them so he doesn't scratch, break, or lose them. He's pretty good with his glasses now, so hopefully we'll have these for a long time. $40 isn't a huge amount (and worth every penny for his protection), but considering we get the 2 for $6 special at Children's Place for the other boys, this is always a big event when we "upgrade" his sunglasses.

He chose these himself.... and I'm pretty sure that only a kid as cool as Tate can pull off this look. I was happy that he found some that he'll wear...  if he'll wear them, I'll buy them. When I was pulling up a couple of photos for the blog today, I said playfully to Tate "Hey, Tate, who is in this photo?" He said excitedly, "That's me!" I said "It is???" He replied, "Yes!! I can tell by the shirt and glasses!" Well, apparently, we'll have to hang on to the shirt and glasses forever. I'd be worried otherwise.