Thursday, August 18, 2011

Rewarding Solutions

Oh yes, you caught me Kristina.  Maybe you are the only one who noticed… haha!  I am a little late in posting.  I watched my friend’s kids Tuesday and Wednesday.  I tried to do some fun things with them, since it’s the last week before school starts, but found myself a bit wiped out at the end of the day yesterday.  Silly, silly me. 

For this week, Thursday is the “new” Wednesday.  HA!

I have a video I want to share.  I love it!!  It’s about a tortoise, which made an amazing recovery, after needing to have its leg amputated.  The solution was creative and ultimately saved its life.  It’s only a minute and 40 seconds long.  Please watch this… www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-ErWsA5guU&feature=player_embedded.
                                                                                                     
I love the story about the tortoise mostly because of how simple the solution was.  I find myself over thinking at times and miss a solution that could be pretty simple… maybe you can relate?  I have a couple of examples to share, not about the over thinking, but more about solutions which made a big difference.  These are not all my solutions, so I’d like to thank those wonderful people in our life who have helped us!!

At school, Alyssa has a touch screen computer to use for learning.  Alyssa’s Occupational Therapist shared with us, Alyssa was struggling with the computer because of the way she would try to manipulate the screen.  Alyssa would tap the screen with the tip of her fingernail, unsuccessfully.  Our team, at school, came up with a suggestion to try thimble or maybe some gloves.  A local knitting shop had both.  The knitting glove is Alyssa’s preference and it works great.  These do not work on I-Phones, but they do work on the touch screen computer.

Alyssa had a habit of taking her clothes off through the night.  Maybe this doesn’t seem like a big deal, but when she would remove all of her clothes, it included her night pant.  Often, this would lead to accidents in bed.  No fun for mommy.  By the way, mommy doesn’t like laundry!  I was having coffee with a friend one morning and she suggested I take the blankets away.  Score, this totally worked!  As long as she has a sheet, she is happy.  This is probably more appropriate for summer, anyhow.  I am guessing this experience was Alyssa trying to tell us, she was too hot at night.  I can’t even tell you how many weeks went by, before having this easy, easy solution, revealed to us. 

We can’t have fencing in our neighborhood because of home owners’ association rules.  We wanted Alyssa to be able to play in the yard, but wanted her to be able to know her boundaries.  Large rocks and grass helped her ascertain her play area.  By adding a sprinkler, she is in backyard heaven and loves it.

Alyssa is tall, very tall.  She used to climb up on our TV stand and sit directly in front of the television.  This made me crazy.  I didn’t want her to be so close to the screen, not to mention, I didn’t want her climbing on the furniture.  A neighbor came by one day and saw Alyssa climb right up.  The neighbor asked if this bothered me.  I said, “Yes, more than you know!”  Our neighbor makes beautiful furniture.  As a special gift, he made Alyssa (and us) an absolutely gorgeous wall unit.  It’s taller than the one from before and much too narrow for Alyssa to make a seat of.  She watches her shows from the couch now.  And, this special unit has “trick” latches.  The latches help keep the doors closed, so Alyssa isn’t tempted to empty the contents.  This solution has been a God send!!  If you are in the market for a custom piece of furniture, he’s your guy!!

Someone once said to me, “Sometimes, the smallest things make the biggest differences.”  Yes, yes!  I couldn’t agree more.  For me, I would bet, my difficulty is simply a circumstance, of sitting in the middle of the forest and having trouble seeing through the trees.  I just love the people in our life, which we have been blessed with, for always offering a perspective, from the outside view.  It’s so nice, to not have to do all of the thinking, on our own, all the time.  And, I find it extremely rewarding to come up with solutions, no matter how big or small, especially when they make a difference for Alyssa. 

Thanks for reading and have a great week.  Angie

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