I asked Kelsey "Can you show Amy the "play" button?"
She said (pushed) "Yes"
I said "Kelsey push the "play" button"
And she pushed it.
I love her sense of humor.
(I should mention that "play" is up and to the left on her GoTalk which means crossing midline and reaching up high to push the button. So if she would have "got away" with saying "yes" to my question that would have been less work for her. :) )
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
The Hope of Easter
Death is a scary thing. At least I always thought it was.
When you are young, heaven sounds kind of boring compared to your childlike dreams of going to the circus or park.
As a child, your older relatives die and then you no longer get to see them. Gone.
But what happens when it is your baby that dies?
This is not the natural order of things. A mother is not supposed to outlive her child.
It is also something that makes people uncomfortable to talk about.
In many of my circles, it is as if Kaitlyn never existed and Kelsey has no disability...because no one talks of them. It is easier to ask if you have seen the latest movie than to ask how Kelsey has been doing in therapy or if I ever still think of Kaitlyn (I do. everyday.)
I heard the end of this song yesterday on the radio:
Steven Curtis Chapman wrote this after the loss of his 5 year old in a accident.
This is the promise of heaven.
To him, "heaven" right now is the ability to be reunited with his little girl and do all the things they used to do.
To me, I can picture in my mind's eye my two little girls running around in little white dresses with long blonde curls in a garden somewhere. (this is what I always pictured while pregnant before Kaitlyn died, only it was my backyard...)
My view of death has changed since Kaitlyn. While I am not in any hurry to get there, I am no longer afraid of it.
It has solidified the fact that because I have a personal relationship with Jesus and he died for my sins that I will be in heaven one day where my only job will be to praise Him.
And my little girl will greet me there and someday her sister, Kelsey, will run and play there too.
Happy Easter Everyone!
When you are young, heaven sounds kind of boring compared to your childlike dreams of going to the circus or park.
As a child, your older relatives die and then you no longer get to see them. Gone.
But what happens when it is your baby that dies?
This is not the natural order of things. A mother is not supposed to outlive her child.
It is also something that makes people uncomfortable to talk about.
In many of my circles, it is as if Kaitlyn never existed and Kelsey has no disability...because no one talks of them. It is easier to ask if you have seen the latest movie than to ask how Kelsey has been doing in therapy or if I ever still think of Kaitlyn (I do. everyday.)
I heard the end of this song yesterday on the radio:
Steven Curtis Chapman wrote this after the loss of his 5 year old in a accident.
This is the promise of heaven.
To him, "heaven" right now is the ability to be reunited with his little girl and do all the things they used to do.
To me, I can picture in my mind's eye my two little girls running around in little white dresses with long blonde curls in a garden somewhere. (this is what I always pictured while pregnant before Kaitlyn died, only it was my backyard...)
My view of death has changed since Kaitlyn. While I am not in any hurry to get there, I am no longer afraid of it.
It has solidified the fact that because I have a personal relationship with Jesus and he died for my sins that I will be in heaven one day where my only job will be to praise Him.
And my little girl will greet me there and someday her sister, Kelsey, will run and play there too.
Happy Easter Everyone!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Adaptive Easter Egg Coloring
Last night we met Fletcher and his family for supper and then for Easter Egg coloring.
We had so much fun!
My goal is to have Kelsey experience as many age appropriate things as she can. I try to find ways to work around the physical limitations so she can still have the cognitive stimulation and experiences that typical kids her age are having.
We started with the traditional Easter egg dye and then some awesome kits that Fletcher's mom, Erin, found at Target.
We also used Ziploc plastic bags and a plastic storage container to put the dye in. We were able to seal the bags with the egg and the dye in them and have the kids squish the egg back and forth to color it. We tried the same thing with the storage container (rolling it back and forth), but for us the bags worked better.
Kelsey thought it was really funny to squish the bag back and forth.
The rollers in the kit above were great to place in the kids' hands and help them/let them roll the dye onto the egg. (The rollers are a spongy material with a plastic handle.)
The stamp kit was also fun to place in Kelsey's hand and help her stamp.
- I think the combination of the activities made it pretty successful and we sure had more fun than using an old, boring wire handle to fetch eggs out of a cup!
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