Of Course I Can Lend a Hand

My daughter is a hard one to keep entertained.   When her vision was better she liked being on her iPad because she could see something and her therapist said to let her see as much as she could and don’t be afraid to let her have the iPad because at some point she might lose more vision—and she did.

So now she likes to “listen” to shows.   She loses interest fairly quickly though and she gets bored.   There’s not a lot she can do that doesn’t require seeing something.   She can help with putting the laundry or dishes away because it’s a fixed task she can do with someone else.   She loves to do “special time” with a parent or friend and she especially likes to do projects or crafts or some game of her creation.

But in large part she’s going unstimulated for a good portion of her waking hours.   She’s doing well in school because she has a sensory impairment, not a learning disability, but it’s still long and slow and hard and she has to work in entirely different and more challenging ways to learn something a sighted child would be able to pick up quickly.

So she’s bored.   She’s really good at not getting upset about it but sometimes it comes out.   The other day I asked her if she could help me with something.   She replied in almost an offhand manner, “of course I can lend a hand.  Because I’m just sitting around.   And most of the time I’m bored.   I’m always bored.”

We’re trying to keep her mentally stimulated but it’s hard to do without being one on one with her constantly and the other demands on our life make it hard to dedicate as much time to her as we’d like to.

The Big Boy Update:  My son did not want to go to a birthday party today because he said the birthday girl was, “too bossy”.   I told him it would be nice if he didn’t say that to her or her parents when he got there and perhaps the other friends at the party would be fun to spend time with.    When I went to pick him up he was the last one there, playing with Lilah, who’s birthday it was, and they were for all appearances, best friends.   Also, my son’s shoes were soaked and he’d been in the creek with sand and dirt all over him.   I made him strip down to his underwear before letting him get in the car.   But he had fun.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter and I were playing the musical instruments yesterday.   She and I played the triangles and listened to the sounds.   She said to me, “that sounds like Julia’s wind chime in Maryland.”   I didn’t even know there were wind chimes at their house.   My daughter never misses a sound though.

Woah, I Ran Again:  Eight miles today.   I told my best friend I was going to have to start training for distance again because I took such a hiatus from exercise in general that I’m not in the shape I was.   Eight miles should have been nothing.  So should twelve or even sixteen miles but I can tell I ran and tomorrow I might even be sore.   But it was nice taking a break, I can’t complain.