The forecast for last night's temperature was minus 35 C (not counting windchill). My mom decided she'd better plug in her van to ensure she could start it this morning for work. She goes to the Chinese community footcare clinics on Wednesday mornings. She has lots of equipment to lug along making it difficult to go there by bus.
My mom has not plugged in her van for many, many years. Since the battery is several years old already, she did not want to take a chance of not being able to start the van. When she was ready for bed at 3 am. this morning, she went out to the garage. She could not find the cord from the block heater. She opened the hood and climbed up in front of it. She used a flash light to search everywhere under the hood and could not find it. It was freezing cold, so she gave up and came in to go to bed with a heated up magic bag to thaw herself.
Praise the Lord! The van started instantly this morning.
My mom is tired tonight, so she will be a good girl and go to bed right after publishing this post. It is midnight right now according to our time.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Snow
Sunday (2 days ago) was a miserable day. It snowed all day and the wind was bitterly cold. My sister and mom decided not to shovel the snow until it stopped snowing. Yesterday, the sun was out and the wind was not as strong. It was still cold though - minus 46 C with windchill. Due to the extreme cold weather, my mom worried that our snow blower might not start. She hauled the snow blower inside the house to warm it up. It was a challenge for her to lug the snow blower up and down the stairs.
We had a lot of snow on the ground. As a result of the strong wind, snow was almost knee high at some parts of the parking lot. Without the snow blower it would have been very difficult to clear the snow. It took more than 2 hours using the snow blower. I cannot imagine how long it would take by hand. I am thankful that two of my caregivers went out to help my mom. Without help my mom would have to be flat in bed today. She is sore, but is able to get out of bed and be somewhat functional.
Last evening, due to shortage of staff I went over to visit with my mom until the second staff came in for her shift. My mom would have kept me longer if she weren't so tired. She persuaded me to play the piano so that she could rest while sitting beside me. I played the songs she regularly practices. My attention span tends to be short, so I soon lost interest and wanted to stop playing. To keep me at the piano, my mom started to sing a favorite song of mine, Majesty. My mom is a terrible singer and she cannot remember the whole song and most of the lyrics. She opened a hymn book to see if she could find the song. No luck!
"Let me find a song you know." She said. "How about He is Lord?"
Before she could find the page, I was already playing the song. You see, my mom has no idea how much I know.
We had a lot of snow on the ground. As a result of the strong wind, snow was almost knee high at some parts of the parking lot. Without the snow blower it would have been very difficult to clear the snow. It took more than 2 hours using the snow blower. I cannot imagine how long it would take by hand. I am thankful that two of my caregivers went out to help my mom. Without help my mom would have to be flat in bed today. She is sore, but is able to get out of bed and be somewhat functional.
Last evening, due to shortage of staff I went over to visit with my mom until the second staff came in for her shift. My mom would have kept me longer if she weren't so tired. She persuaded me to play the piano so that she could rest while sitting beside me. I played the songs she regularly practices. My attention span tends to be short, so I soon lost interest and wanted to stop playing. To keep me at the piano, my mom started to sing a favorite song of mine, Majesty. My mom is a terrible singer and she cannot remember the whole song and most of the lyrics. She opened a hymn book to see if she could find the song. No luck!
"Let me find a song you know." She said. "How about He is Lord?"
Before she could find the page, I was already playing the song. You see, my mom has no idea how much I know.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Negative Attention Seeking
Yesterday, I was agitated and I was not able to express what was troubling me. I acted out by throwing my new CD player on the floor. I have behaved like this periodically in the past and have caused damages to a few CD players. My mom has taught my caregivers to ignore any of my undesirable behaviors because reactions from them will reinforce my behavior. They tried to redirect me by giving me stickers, which worked initially. Nobody knew why I was agitated and since the real problem was not resolved, I continued to act out. I picked up my caregiver's CD player and intentionally threw it on the floor right in front of her.
My mom was really upset when she heard how I behaved yesterday. She suspected that it might be related to my frustration with the CD's and/or players. When I listen to my CD's, I keep pressing the buttons to search for the song I like. Sometimes I like one specific part of the song and I am constantly pressing buttons to repeat what I want to listen. My actions ruin my CD's and shorten the life span of my CD players. Then I get frustrated because nothing is working and I cannot listen to my music.
My mom has two challenges now. One is to figure out strategies to eliminate my negative attention seeking behavior of throwing CD players. The other is to come up with ideas for me to be able to listen to music without having to replace CD's and CD players on a regular basis. Sometimes my CD's only last for days and my CD players last for only weeks.
My mom was really upset when she heard how I behaved yesterday. She suspected that it might be related to my frustration with the CD's and/or players. When I listen to my CD's, I keep pressing the buttons to search for the song I like. Sometimes I like one specific part of the song and I am constantly pressing buttons to repeat what I want to listen. My actions ruin my CD's and shorten the life span of my CD players. Then I get frustrated because nothing is working and I cannot listen to my music.
My mom has two challenges now. One is to figure out strategies to eliminate my negative attention seeking behavior of throwing CD players. The other is to come up with ideas for me to be able to listen to music without having to replace CD's and CD players on a regular basis. Sometimes my CD's only last for days and my CD players last for only weeks.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Energizer
My mom went to bed after 5 am. two out of the last four nights. She is kind of like the Energizer battery . . . she keeps going. I said "kind of" because she is not going strong like the Energizer. Her pace slows down until she gets recharged. Her priority this week is to get the Chinese Outreach tax receipts done. She has to go to there again tomorrow to do a final check to ensure accuracy.
Even though my mom is so busy, I still get to go and visit with her every evening. What I generally do at mom's home is listen to music and play the Wii while my mom practices her piano. She does not want to waste time while providing me with constant supervision. My mom is pleased that I am not addicted to the Wii. After I play for less than 1/2 hour, I'd say, "All done!" and get my mom to turn the game off for me. Then I play piano with her. I play many different songs and my mom is amazed at what I can play. Last evening I played the following songs:
* O Come All Ye Faithful
* O Canada
* Amazing Grace
* Happy Birthday
* Jingle Bells
* Do-Re-Mi
* Silent Night
* Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star - My mom has not learned this one yet.
* I also play scales
I, of course, am not playing the right keys. I play the melody so that you can tell which song I am playing. My mom keeps on saying that she should tape my music for her piano teacher to listen to. However, I am not playing long enough each time for her to do the taping.
Even though my mom is so busy, I still get to go and visit with her every evening. What I generally do at mom's home is listen to music and play the Wii while my mom practices her piano. She does not want to waste time while providing me with constant supervision. My mom is pleased that I am not addicted to the Wii. After I play for less than 1/2 hour, I'd say, "All done!" and get my mom to turn the game off for me. Then I play piano with her. I play many different songs and my mom is amazed at what I can play. Last evening I played the following songs:
* O Come All Ye Faithful
* O Canada
* Amazing Grace
* Happy Birthday
* Jingle Bells
* Do-Re-Mi
* Silent Night
* Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star - My mom has not learned this one yet.
* I also play scales
I, of course, am not playing the right keys. I play the melody so that you can tell which song I am playing. My mom keeps on saying that she should tape my music for her piano teacher to listen to. However, I am not playing long enough each time for her to do the taping.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Sunday Afternoon
It has become a routine for me to play Wii on Sunday afternoons. I turn on the Wii and then ask my mom to help me with getting the game started. Honestly, it does not make any sense to me for asking her to help. She doesn't know what she is doing. She presses the buttons randomly to get it going. I could have done it myself and I am sure I can figure it out faster than she can. However, I decided to do what is "politically correct". When I ask for help instead of acting impulsively, I gain trust. The game will be available and accessible to me all the time. If I act irresponsibly, the game will only be accessible when someone can supervise me.
My mom isn't all that energetic today. Thank God I have been calm and happy. She went to Chinese Outreach yesterday to work on preparing tax receipts. I have good news and bad news. Good news is that there are more donations and the number of donors have increased from last year. Me and my friends (the Bara Team) are partly to be blamed for this as a result of our Walk for Jesus event. The bad news is that it takes my mom longer to get the job done. She was there all day . . . . . and then all night. She came home at 5 am. this morning.
My mom isn't all that energetic today. Thank God I have been calm and happy. She went to Chinese Outreach yesterday to work on preparing tax receipts. I have good news and bad news. Good news is that there are more donations and the number of donors have increased from last year. Me and my friends (the Bara Team) are partly to be blamed for this as a result of our Walk for Jesus event. The bad news is that it takes my mom longer to get the job done. She was there all day . . . . . and then all night. She came home at 5 am. this morning.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
New Year's Day
I woke up before 8 am. and I went to the piano and played O Canada. I continued to play the piano on and off for about an hour and a half. I didn't stay in front of the piano for very long each time. I played scales for a little bit and also the following songs:
* O Canada
* Jingle Bells
* Amazing Grace
* Silent Night - The first part of the song only as my mom has not mastered the whole song yet.
Whatever songs my mom plays, I play. It works the other way too. Whatever songs I play, my mom will play. The difference is what I play comes naturally to me. As for my mom, it will take her hours of learning and practicing before she can play the song. I know the next song for her to learn is O Come All Ye Faithful because I played it this morning.
After I had enough piano playing, my mom got me to help her with baking a cake. By noon I was bored. I was a little agitated because my mom was busy preparing lunch and couldn't help me with turning on music I wanted. My mom isn't sure if my CD's are not working or if the CD player is not working.
Right before lunch, I figured out how to turn the Wii on. When my mom asked me what I wanted, I had no problem getting my message across - I raised my arms and moved them as if I were driving. Right now I am sitting in front of the TV racing a car through the downtown streets.
* O Canada
* Jingle Bells
* Amazing Grace
* Silent Night - The first part of the song only as my mom has not mastered the whole song yet.
Whatever songs my mom plays, I play. It works the other way too. Whatever songs I play, my mom will play. The difference is what I play comes naturally to me. As for my mom, it will take her hours of learning and practicing before she can play the song. I know the next song for her to learn is O Come All Ye Faithful because I played it this morning.
After I had enough piano playing, my mom got me to help her with baking a cake. By noon I was bored. I was a little agitated because my mom was busy preparing lunch and couldn't help me with turning on music I wanted. My mom isn't sure if my CD's are not working or if the CD player is not working.
Right before lunch, I figured out how to turn the Wii on. When my mom asked me what I wanted, I had no problem getting my message across - I raised my arms and moved them as if I were driving. Right now I am sitting in front of the TV racing a car through the downtown streets.
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