Some of my caregivers are away on vacation making it even more difficult to cover all the shifts. Recently I notice a couple of new faces and I am trying to get used to being helped by them. This afternoon another person comes over for an interview.
There is not enough staff for New Year's day. It is to my delight that I am going to sleep over at mom's home tonight and be with her most of tomorrow. My mom is trying to figure out how to keep me occupied all day long. Stores are not open, so we can't go shopping. It is too cold to fly my kite. . . . . I will wait and see what kind of creative idea my mom comes up with.
My mom has been practicing her piano. She has two weeks off from her lessons. This gives her extra time to practice. She plays her old songs including O Canada. She has not played it for some time as there are so many new songs for her to learn. After hearing O Canada a few times, I start to play it too.
Tonight my mom practices her scales. I love it! I giggle as her fingers move back and forth. She intentionally moves faster and I giggle some more.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
Candy Cane Lane
The weather has been mild lately (around freezing). The roads are slushy and our van is really dirty. The windshield has been splashed with mud. The visibility is limited and our windshield wipers are not doing their job well.
My mom decided to take me to Candy Cane Lane tonight. She went out to wash the windshield so that I could have a better view. That wasn't an easy job for her as she is short and our van is high. She climbed up onto the front fender which is coated with a thin layer of ice. Being slippery, she used her left hand to hang on while she stretched and wiped the windshield with her right arm. That was the tricky part because she has right shoulder pain (from old age, you know). She did it and got the windshield and all the windows really clean after washing it the second time. Now we have a dirty van with clean windows.
My mom drove up and down Candy Cane Lane three times for me to take a good look at the lights. It is not cold tonight - our van registered +4 degrees. A lot of people parked and walked. This would not have worked for me because there were dogs everywhere. Had I been on the side walks, I would have dashed faster than the cars. However, there are so many of them, I wouldn't even know which direction to dash.
My mom decided to take me to Candy Cane Lane tonight. She went out to wash the windshield so that I could have a better view. That wasn't an easy job for her as she is short and our van is high. She climbed up onto the front fender which is coated with a thin layer of ice. Being slippery, she used her left hand to hang on while she stretched and wiped the windshield with her right arm. That was the tricky part because she has right shoulder pain (from old age, you know). She did it and got the windshield and all the windows really clean after washing it the second time. Now we have a dirty van with clean windows.
My mom drove up and down Candy Cane Lane three times for me to take a good look at the lights. It is not cold tonight - our van registered +4 degrees. A lot of people parked and walked. This would not have worked for me because there were dogs everywhere. Had I been on the side walks, I would have dashed faster than the cars. However, there are so many of them, I wouldn't even know which direction to dash.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Proactive
Due to shortage of staff, I get to spend more time with my mom. I slept over at my mom's home last night and I stayed with her till supper time today. After she tucked me in, she worked on calculating the staff's retention bonus offered by PDD (the government funder). When she was done at around 2 am. she could hear that I was up. She came downstairs and coached me back to sleep. She didn't get back upstairs to her bedroom till 5 am.
After my mom reflected on the course of events, she realized that she could have completely changed the situation if she had been proactive. My sister gave a CD to my mom before she left for Australia. My mom should have put the CD away. The songs are new to me and I have a tendency to fixate on novelties. The music was on when I went to bed and I was happy. My mom removed the CD for fear that I might damage it. I got up in the middle of the night looking for the CD. That was the reason I refused to go back to sleep. Being tired, my mom didn't think of putting the music back on for me.
Today, she took me to a Christmas party at the Alberta Association of Community Living which is an organization that promotes community inclusion. At the end of the party, I got to choose a gift. Guess what I chose?
Anybody who knows me will not be surprised that I chose a washing machine. One of my favorite entertainments at home is to sit in front of our washer to watch the clothes tumble. This washing machine comes with laundry soap, laundry basket and some clothes. It has a soap dispenser I can pull out and there are different buttons I can push. I can also manually turn the drum to see the clothes tumble inside. It can actually be battery operated and it has sounds and lights. I will need my mom's help with using batteries.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Getting to Know Me
It is not easy to get to know me for various reasons:
* You may be hesitant to approach me because I am different.
* When you do approach me, I may not respond. Generally, I am so distracted by what is happening around me that I have trouble focusing on what is being said to me.
* I have a limited vocabulary and I am not very motivated to use my words.
* I need a lot of time to process an incoming message. My mom always tries to get me to pay attention and to respond. Most people are very polite and kind. They tell my mom it is fine and that she does not have to insist that I respond. It is important for me to learn how to interact with others, so please help my mom in encouraging me to speak.
With the use of my blog and facebook, I am hoping that you will be able to get to know me more. With your help, I may one day learn to be more responsive when others communicate with me.
* You may be hesitant to approach me because I am different.
* When you do approach me, I may not respond. Generally, I am so distracted by what is happening around me that I have trouble focusing on what is being said to me.
* I have a limited vocabulary and I am not very motivated to use my words.
* I need a lot of time to process an incoming message. My mom always tries to get me to pay attention and to respond. Most people are very polite and kind. They tell my mom it is fine and that she does not have to insist that I respond. It is important for me to learn how to interact with others, so please help my mom in encouraging me to speak.
With the use of my blog and facebook, I am hoping that you will be able to get to know me more. With your help, I may one day learn to be more responsive when others communicate with me.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Since most 25-year-olds have a Facebook Account, I should have one too. Thanks to the help of a friend, this becomes a reality. I find it exciting that I can invite people to be my friends. I have lots of cousins, so it should not be too difficult to build a circle of friends.
I do not talk much, so it is not easy for others to get to know me. I am hoping that through the use of technology, such as facebook and blog, I can let others know who I am. I am generally an easy-going, happy kind of guy. I am also curious and sometimes my curiosity gets me into trouble. My mom often jokingly states that she should have named me George. You'd understand why if you have read the books of "Curious George". George gets into trouble all the time, and so do I. My mom has to be on the alert all the time and this is good "exercise" for her brain and it will help in delaying the onset of Alzheimer's Disease.
I do not talk much, so it is not easy for others to get to know me. I am hoping that through the use of technology, such as facebook and blog, I can let others know who I am. I am generally an easy-going, happy kind of guy. I am also curious and sometimes my curiosity gets me into trouble. My mom often jokingly states that she should have named me George. You'd understand why if you have read the books of "Curious George". George gets into trouble all the time, and so do I. My mom has to be on the alert all the time and this is good "exercise" for her brain and it will help in delaying the onset of Alzheimer's Disease.
Christmas Songs
My mom's piano teacher decided that mom should learn Christmas songs this month. As a result, I get to hear the following songs over and over again:
* Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
* Good King Wenceslas
* Jingle Bells
* Away in a Manger
* Go, Tell it on the Mountain
* We Wish You a Merry Christmas
* Silent Night
* Amazing Grace - This song got added to the list because I have been singing it.
Christmas is the most exciting time of the year for me because of my love for Christmas music, trees and lights. As a matter of fact, I like Christmas songs so much that I used to have a tape in our van and I played it almost all year round. I can still remember that when I was listening to Christmas songs on one hot summer day in our van, a person passing by us stared at me.
* Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
* Good King Wenceslas
* Jingle Bells
* Away in a Manger
* Go, Tell it on the Mountain
* We Wish You a Merry Christmas
* Silent Night
* Amazing Grace - This song got added to the list because I have been singing it.
Christmas is the most exciting time of the year for me because of my love for Christmas music, trees and lights. As a matter of fact, I like Christmas songs so much that I used to have a tape in our van and I played it almost all year round. I can still remember that when I was listening to Christmas songs on one hot summer day in our van, a person passing by us stared at me.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Windmill
My mom read a story called Welcome to Holland. The author (Emily Perl Kingsley) described having a baby as planning a fabulous vacation trip to Italy. Having a child with disabilities is like landing in Holland instead of in Italy. So, my mom and I landed in Holland. Now I am beginning to understand why I am so attracted to windmills.
A decade after the author landed in Holland she wrote another story called Celebrating Holland. I agree with her a 100% on the following statement:
. . . . . it doesn't matter where you land. What's more important is what you make of your journey and how you see and enjoy the very special, the very lovely, things that Holland, or any land, has to offer.
I certainly enjoy the windmills.
To read the stories, you can click on the titles (in green).
A decade after the author landed in Holland she wrote another story called Celebrating Holland. I agree with her a 100% on the following statement:
. . . . . it doesn't matter where you land. What's more important is what you make of your journey and how you see and enjoy the very special, the very lovely, things that Holland, or any land, has to offer.
I certainly enjoy the windmills.
To read the stories, you can click on the titles (in green).
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