Precious…simply precious

So yesterday morning was a bad morning. Robert was traveling for work so it was just me and the boys. It’s normally not an issue for any of us. Viktor doesn’t like it much when one of is gone but he knows at this point that we’re coming back. For real.

A little background here…we are having a constant battle with Viktor and his glasses. Or ‘goggles’ as he calls them. He refuses to wear them unless Robert or I are in the room. Which annoys me to NO end. I have all of his teachers on ‘spectacle watch’ and they will ask him to put them on. His ESL teacher is constantly on him as well. I’m sure they all get sick of it and it’s really not their job.

As we were going through the normal morning routine, I picked up said glasses to ensure they actually made it on to Viktor’s face for at least the drive to school and noticed they were now broken (one temple piece is hanging on for dear life as the hinge has some serious bendage going on). This is because he puts them in his backpack and proceeds to add a math book, various folders and spiral notebooks, a Russian Harry Potter book, etc. on top of them. And then he will throw his backpack on the seat of the school bus, car, chair, etc. No wonder they’re broken! Needless to say, I was FURIOUS!

I did not yell. I did not scream. I calmly told Viktor that I was madder than I have been in years. I then went calmly down stairs. Alone. Alex the peacemaker came down to see if I had jumped off the deck onto the concrete patio if there was anything he could do to help. He then went back up to usher Viktor down for breakfast. At which point I calmly once again explained that my expectation was he wears his glasses every waking minute of every day unless I say otherwise. And his eye doctor expects that he wear his glasses every waking minute of every day unless mom says otherwise. He did not look at me. He did not answer me. He walked all the way around the kitchen to avoid me. Typical teenage behavior! If I wasn’t so mad, I would have laughed out loud.

(Viktor has a lazy eye and is slightly near sighted. He has to wear his glasses for 30 days consistently, long enough so they can tell if his prescription is making the lazy eye better, worse or staying the same. Once they get the prescription right, we can switch to contacts. I have explained this many times using many different words. It was explained in Russian as well.)

The drive to school was very quiet, Alex tried very hard to strike up a conversation but needless to say I wasn’t really in a chatty mood. Once I dropped Alex, Viktor did not get out and come up to the front seat as normal. He remained in the back seat. As we pulled into his school, I politely reminded him that he was to walk the block to Sylvan after school and I would pick him up afterwards. I was promptly told by him that he had NO intention of going to Sylvan. Which I then felt the need to repeat my expectations substituting Sylvan for glasses. And then for good measure I repeated myself substituting father for doctor. Nice touch Jan! I was then again promptly told he had no intention of going. Lovely.

All day I worried about where he was going to be at 3:00. About 3:05 I finally started clearing my desk and packing up stuff to work on at home as I mustered up the courage to call Sylvan. Amie answered and low and behold she said so cheerfully “We have Viktor here.” I was stunned. I assumed I would have another ‘lost Viktor’ incident. I unpacked my briefcase and went back to work.

When I got to Sylvan, he waved a little tentatively. Then I saw his face pale. He then promptly turned to face the wall, reached into his pocket and put on his glasses. OMG! Do I have to glue them on his head? I mentioned to him in the car that I saw what he did but I did not push it. He did not reply, just looked at the floor of the car.

When we got home, we decided to make pelmeni from Kiev Foods since it was just the two of us. Alex left school early yesterday with some friends (yes, and a parent) to travel all the way across the state to the state soccer tournament to watch a few games; he arrives home again today. Since there is no school today, it seemed a harmless and fun road trip for the boys (Thanks Lisa!). But I digress…as Viktor and I were cooking our pelmeni, he came up, wrapped his arms around me and said “I am sorry about this morning mum. I am very crabby and I will try to wear me goggles. No one wear goggles and I am tired of being different. I sorry mum. I really love you.”  Precious…simply precious…