Splendid Mayhem: "Talker" Funnies

Welcome To Holland

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Friday, March 7, 2008

"Talker" Funnies

Logen (& the rest of the family) is starting to use his communication device more and more. We call it his talker. Here are a few of the funny things he had told us (or just plain cute ones) over the last week.

* As we were leaving OT this morning, Mrs Tabi said "Logen, can you use your talker to tell me bye?" I turn it on for him and he immediately touches, "no" and walks out the door. We were cracking up over that one!

* Last night, I was browning HB meat and holding Logen b/c he was cranky (he'd just been hit in the head with a spoon by Parker) I put his talker by the stove and told him we have a "spoon" "pot" "beef" and we are going to "cook" it. So, he directs me back to the cooking page. He starts hitting all kinds of buttons and pointing to where the are located in the kitchen. My mixer is in a drawer by the stove, I never realized Logen knew that. He choose "mixer" on his device and pointed to the drawer. I was super impressed!

* Monday afternoon as he was working with Ms Gail (one of the SLP's) he was throwing a small fit b/c he wanted to play toys and she wanted him to do his work. She was using the device to tell him that she was sad that he wouldn't work and that he could play toys are soon as he finished his work. He watched her for a bit and then started talking to her- he told her she was "bad", he was "mad", and "please toys", "no work". She said he just kept telling her she was "bad". How funny is that?! His little personality is really starting to shine through!