Wheels on the chair go round and round

We just got back from Chicago and it was a great trip.  This was our first trip with Amanda's new wheelchair and it worked even better than we had hoped.  For starters, we were moved from row 29 to the bulkhead on both flights between DFW and O'Hare.  Score one for Amanda.

Second, getting through the airports is a breeze when you aren't dragging a child or worrying if they have wandered off or gotten run over in a stampede.  And finally, the best part is, Amanda was able to participate all day long.

We went to the Navy Pier where I learned that steep ramps need to be taken in reverse.  Amanda's eyes were as big as the Ferris Wheel when came sliding to a stop at the bottom.

Amanda covered a 100,000 square foot convention floor in three hours collecting all of the give aways from other companies.  Between her and my 19 year old beauty queen niece I think they even got somebody's laptop.

On Monday I had to work so Tina, my sister and her daughter took Amanda shopping.  I was back at the hotel before they were.  When I opened the door for Tina at almost 5 pm both she and Amanda had the most satisfied looks on their faces.  They just kept going all day and loved it.  I took the backpack from Tina and stupid me, I thought it was the same as when they left in the morning and would weigh about 5 pounds.  Nope, men climb Kilimanjaro with a lighter pack.

I asked Tina where they went.  She said it was easier to explain that they didn't go to Eddie Bauer.

The the wheelchair was a huge success.

And just to point out how helpful it was.  The next day when we got home I took Amanda with me to three places as her sighted guide.  She tripped over two thresh holds and took five minutes to get through a small store.

So all long distance journeys will have the chair, particularly when we go out of town.

Pretty good start to the day

There are parts of my life that go easier than they should, or at least a lot easier than they used to.  Getting Amanda ready for school is at the top of the list.

It used to be the equivalent of putting a feral baboon in children's clothes and hoping for the bleeding from the scratches and bites to stop before I went to work.  It was simply the worst part of the day and possibly my life.

But now, well time heals all wounds.  She gets up in the morning and hugs me.  Says she is going to have a "Good day" and gets ready without too much difficulty.  I don't do her hair because I haven't the first idea how to do it so that battle is a Tina story.  Tina doesn't blog, write letters or essays so you will just have to take my word for it that the battles used to be epic.  But Amanda is even good for that now.

Now here is the best part of the whole morning task.  Amanda's school is a half mile from our house.  We hear one song in the morning and I drop her off right in front of her classroom to her teacher.  I'm home before Tina knows I was gone.

We have one more year at this school before I have to drive across to the middle school. 

A step in the right direction

This morning's meltdown was brought to my home by a combination of high tech and fantasy.

Amanda was determined to take her "phone" to school this morning. Her latest phone is my old Blackberry, less battery and sim card. We explained to her that she wasn't allowed to take a cellphone to school. her answer was, "I... Don't...Care...Take...I...Anyway!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

This was the first time I ever heard her use the word, "anyway." I don't think I like it.

We continued to explain to her that she just couldn't do it. These meltdowns have lasted for hours, but today she pulled it back together in about 10 minutes. She said, "OK, I understand."

Now, I don't know if she held it together all day, or if the whole class was punished by a redheaded Tasmanian Devil. I was pressed by time to get to a meeting at work and then to get to a luncheon with a customer to hear the President of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank speak.

The current economic crisis is much easier to comprehend than the combination of my daughter's imagination and spontaneous desires.

I just hope the day went well for her and all involved.

Some hours later............

Well, it would appear that Amanda conquered her inner hulk and had a good day. I told her I was proud of her and she said, "Good choices." It gives me hope.

Sometimes I wonder

There are days where I wonder if I'm missing something because I'm on a different path. Being a parent of a special needs child really does make me a special needs parent.

Last night I watched the video of the Christmas play that Amanda was in last month. The school does a nice job of recording the production so the parents can actually watch, and not play cinematographer.

On stage were more than 100 kids who were reciting lines, singing and dancing. Amanda moved and danced some, didn't really try to sing, and mostly just had googlie eyes for the boy next to her. It was easy to see that Amanda was different than the rest of the kids. There is nothing wrong with being different, in fact she was the cutest one on the stage. But it did leave me wondering about the parents of the other kids.

Did these parents listen to there kids singing the same songs over and over again for weeks? Did they have to work the play into the rest of the family schedule because their other kids were doing other events?

We just have Amanda, so our world is isolated by her needs, abilities, and limitations, and while I don't begrudge her or anyone else these circumstances, I do wonder what it would be like to have baseball practice or scout meetings, camp outs and ski vacations where I had to work to keep up with a child instead of providing so much of her mobility.

Again, I'm not sad, just sometimes I wonder.