My tiny charge since birth it seems has been extremely light-sensitive – I have asked several pediatricians if there is some test that he should have performed to ensure that this is not a sign of vision issues – to which I have received insightful feedback such as: “the sun is bright” and “babies react to bright light too” (maybe I missed my calling – 8 years of medical school to report back to a concerned parent that – the sun is bright seems easy enough). Over the last year of his life – since he has been able to actively ‘tell’ us about his aversion to bright sunlight – we have purchased at least five pairs of tiny toddler-sized sunglasses for him. We have Thomas the Train sunglasses, orange-tinted shades with smiling caterpillars on them, traditional-no-nonesense primary colored versions and I think we even managed to find a Diego pair…..the trick is that between ripping them apart and losing them in mall parking lots we have overall been unsuccessful with keeping the ‘bright’ away. Until last night……..faced with a 101 degree breeze and the glare of a mall parking lot – Texas gladly donned his stylish Thomas the Train shades while entering the mall atop his parent-steered trike and did not take them off for the remainder of our visit.

He was sized for new shoes while wearing them, enjoyed his sourdough bread and tiny corn dogs at Cheesecake Factory and later toured Dillards and Macys proudly staring out at the booming world of suburban commerce from behind his reflective lenses.

We have tackled the bright once and for all – as luck would have it we also have our first pediatric optometrist appointment tomorrow morning – just in case ‘the sun is bright’ is not the proper response to my concern – you can never be too sure you know.