We celebrated Dad’s 74th birthday a little early. Noel = born on Xmas, but we thought we should give it a little bit of lead time and not fold it all into the craziness of Christmas. We went to a restaurant in downtown Bethesda.
We got dad a nice winter coat. But it’s going to be 70 all week, so I’m not sure when he’s going to be able to use it.
Happy birthday dad!
First, admire Edda’s hair. A true masterpiece by Keyla at 6 am.
Second, admire this computer setup. A true masterpiece by Jeremy, also at 6 am.
We have this eye-gaze computer that we got about 6 months ago. An eye-gaze computer has a camera which can follow your eyeballs. You use your eyeballs like a mouse instead of the real mouse. Which is good because Edda’s hands are no good for mice-ing. We had some hopes that the school would take the lead and help us out a lot with the programming or using it, but there are complications. It’s a consumer product and not an educational institution product and so then the rep which usually supports the school district with this brand of equipment balked at providing support for our device for the augmentative communication team. Because it’s our own personal device, they can’t use it with any school bought software or equipment. It’s a little bureaucratic mess. But no matter, Jeremy spent the weekend making up some communication boards for Edda. He started with one of Edda’s favorite topics – breakfast. So Edda gets a bunch of choices for breakfast. Eggs, cereal, oatmeal and juice/milk. This morning, Jeremy made all the possible choices for breakfast.
For ten years now, every morning for breakfast, Edda has had oatmeal. Jeremy makes a week’s worth on Sunday in our largest pot and packages them in little glass jars that line the back of the second shelf of the fridge. Over the years, he’s changed the recipe to add fruit and change the consistency. It’s a lovely food ritual that Jeremy likes and Edda, for a decade, has seemed to enjoy her morning oatmeal. So what does Edda tell Jeremy he wants for breakfast on the first day she can tell us a preference? She wants eggs and cereal. So she had eggs and cereal. And the oatmeal was left on the counter.
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One thing I love about texting my mother is that I can send her photos of Vince’s Chinese vocab and ask her for help. Vince is taking Chinese II. I’m starting to lose my understanding of the vocabulary (I know, so lame), so I need my mom to help. This week’s vocabulary is all about illnesses, resting, headaches, hospital beds. And then I came across this vocab and sent my mom the photo. Mom?!?!! What the hell is an abnormal growth of fresh (meat)? I do not understand.
I’m not usually a sequined girl, but I wore this Christmas sweater/scarf combination all weekend. I’m trying to enjoy the holidays more – even though I am grinch-like. It’s hard to turn these things around, like changing the direction on the Titanic. Anyways, it was a nice weekend, very holiday-like with relatively good cheer. We went to two parties on Saturday night. One party where my sequined sweater was one of the dullest outfits around and the other where my sequined sweater stood out like a pimple on a teenager’s face. When did “festive” attire mean black/blue/grey/silver? Oh well. I managed to have conversations without feeling too awkward.
On Sunday, Jeremy wanted to go on a long bike ride. Usually on Sundays like that, I just bum around the house with Edda. But this time, I planned a whole road trip around the DC area. Edda and I drove to Woodbine, MD, Tysons Corner, VA, Clifton, VA, Silver Spring, MD, Bethesda, MD and then all the way home. I was out from 10 am to 8 pm, which really is some sort of endurance record for me and Edda. I got to see Caroline, just for a moment, – who looks fantastic – and Caroline got to make fun of my sparkly crazy Christmas sweater.
The garage work is completely done. Pictures 1, 2 & 3 show the first bay (car parking), second bay and loft.
We went to Edda’s IEP meeting today. This is a whole new team working with Edda as she transitioned to middle school (I think they are the Pumas, you can see the cat in the background of the photo. Or maybe they are the bobcats). Edda is well these days, very happy and very healthy. I know in many ways, I’m lucky. Edda is not sick very often, she has a lot of people who love her and want to spend time with her, we have enough resources to find good care for Edda – all these things are good. Edda has brought people into my life who are so meaningful to me and, in turn, I’m always trying to pay it forward – to be patient, to show compassion and kindness to the people I interact with and my life and heart is fuller because of it all. But it doesn’t mean that in the middle of the meeting, when the OT is talking about how wonderful it is that Edda kind of will let them hold a paintbrush in her hand and do a few brush strokes on a paper or how she’s still trying to touch pictures to answer simple questions, I don’t get a hitch in my voice when I’m trying to sound happy and encouraged. I’m mainly happy and encouraged, but sometimes I’m not.
Started the work day with the blue screen of death. Sigh.
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Had lunch at The Villages of Rockville, a continuing care place. Checking it out – not for me, for a friend. I think I might enjoy working there as an RN. We’ll see. The food was good there – they give you a nice helping and there is enough salt in the food which sometimes isn’t true at other places. And they had banana cream pie, which is my favorite non-fruit pie. My favorite fruit pie is blueberry, but who am I kidding, my favorite pie is pie crust with ice cream.
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Jeremy’s work’s holiday party. They served beef (shocking b/c of its energy consumption density).
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Vince is ready for opening night tomorrow for Star Wars. Thanks for the donated shirt from many moons ago, Strickers.
Vince feeling old at the pediatric dentist.
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Spring blooms in December.
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And now an early PT session with Edda.