I Want My Lawyer!

I had stepped into the craft room this morning to take a call and with the noise-canceling feature of the AirPods, I heard not a sound coming from the house until I'd hung up and removed the earbuds.   What I heard then caused me to suppress an outburst of laughter for I heard my daughter screaming at the top of her lungs, "I WANT MY LAWYER!"

She didn't say it once, she said it again and again.   She was mad at Shane, who had asked her to do something with a balloon and a bag that, apparently, was a cruel thing to do because (as my daughter explained), "I am blind!"

Shane was asking her to use a balloon placed inside a grocery bag and then tied closed.  The activity was entirely created by my daughter's adaptive P.E. teacher and sent to us in a video.   My daughter had listened to the video and was interested, but then suddenly was fearful of balloons because they popped.   This is a child who loves balloons and recently had an entire closet filled with them so she and Madison could have a party in the secret hideout.

My daughter was distraught.   Shane and I knew this was anxiety and having to deal with her blindness.   I let her calm down, let her pick some alternate items she could bounce up and down on her hand (even though the balloon with the bag was by far the easiest), and finally let her have some lunch.   She's still not happy at Shane, even though I told her if she wanted to be angry at anyone it should be me.

Ms. Mary Jane, the adaptive P.E. teacher had sent the activity to her, including a video, because she thought it would be fun and she could be successful while building skills at the same time.   I responded to Mary Jane and told her thanks and sent a video of my daughter getting super double bounced on the trampoline.   Mary Jane wrote back and said she was so grateful to hear back and loved the video.  

The balloon bouncing is very hard or can be, I have to admit.   When we bounce something we see it go up and match the trajectory for where it will come down.   This is almost impossible to do when you can't see anything.   The crinkling bag made a big difference, but my daughter couldn't get the hang of barely tapping the balloon and coupled with her frustration caused the balloon to fly off and only increase her anxiety, anger, and feelings of not being capable.

We ended on less than a positive note with me sending Shane home early with my daughter saying she never wanted to see her again.   I sent my daughter to her room (as a reward) and let her listen to her audiobook until her next teacher meeting which is in a half-hour.   I need her in a good mood for that.   Hopefully, the break will help.  

School: mostly fun with bits of awful for my daughter.

The Big Boy Update:  My son is working so incredibly well lately during school hours.   Yesterday he took extra time organizing the Prismacolor pencils.   He'd worn some down to less than two inches and they were getting hard to hold.   I brought out all the Prismacolor pencil sets we'd gotten for him for school over the past four years and he pulled together a new set from the remnants of the old ones.   He did a lovely job putting them in a pleasing color order.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is using some of her money to buy audiobooks now.   She can go through an audiobook in just two days when she gets really into a story.