Though my family isn't known for its genetically perfect vision, at least our eyesight hasn't started failing until we were around college age. Not so for my nephew, who is just a month past his fifth birthday. A sudden bout of heavy blinking and complaints of eye pain have produced a diagnosis of far-sightedness for the little guy ... and a prescription for new glasses.

My initial worry was that he'd be rendered a social dork by the whole thing, but my sister assures me that he's kind of excited about getting glasses because a bunch of his little friends have them too. Her biggest concern is that he'll now be forced to hide his most-commented-on asset: his beautiful eyelashes.

At least his failing eyesight won't hide my favorite part of him: his hearty belly laugh. Get the kid laughing hard enough, and there is no way you can have a bad day from that point on. His sense of humor is so genuine and so ready to bubble to the surface that he makes everyone around him happy. I just hope he keeps his spirits up when the mean kids (and kids can be such assholes) start calling him four-eyes.