Poo. Fart. Chips. for me.

I'm baaa-aaack!

Yep, it's been ten and a half weeks since my last posting (how Catholic-sounding of me), but I'm gonna try REALLY hard this time to keep a regular commitment.

REALLY.

Ok, so life's been very full over the last few months. Nothing new in that. Well, apart from my brother's wedding interstate, at which ALL THREE of my kids were in the bridal party, and I was MC! Eeek! No pressure! It was a wonderful time though, the kids rose to the occasion and we all had fun catching up with LOTS of family, old and new. Thanks Unca J and welcome to the family Aunty C!



Then there was our holiday to The Snow. That was hard work, but fun. Kind of. Might have been more fun if we hadn't arrived in the middle of a blizzard, but hey, now we can look back and laugh. Golly, it was cold. Beach next time.





What else? Oh yeah, the usual flurry of school routine and activity - the massive annual School Fair, school projects, after-school sport, playdates, therapy appointments, toddler gym, International Talk-Like-a-Pirate Day, oh, and work. And lots of other stuff in between.

And then there was that horrible week when my Darling Hubby was rushed to hospital with a sudden and life-threatening problem that was finally resolved by surgery after he lay in extreme agony for three days, before developing a secondary problem which was also very serious before he finally got better enough to come home. Thank goodness that week is behind us.

So, during all this I've been playing with my new toy - an iPhone. MY iPhone. I'd been interested in getting one so Princess could have something to access and play with. The touchscreen really is quite fab, and Princess does have some fun with it. I'm scouring for applications all the time that are useful for her and the boys. It's so easy!

What caught me by surprise is how much fun I'm having with it! It's great! Not so much as a mobile phone, but as a hand-held touchscreen computer it's beaut.

Little Man likes to borrow MY iPhone to play games on every now and then. Sometimes he gives it back to me with a maniacal laugh, and it took me a while to work out why. I recently opened the 'shopping list' application (daggy but handy) - you may have already guessed, this post's title is what I read on my shopping list...
Poo.
Fart.
Chips. for me.

Ahh, eight-year-olds...don't you just love 'em?! Can't wait to discover what else lurks in there.

People First

Those that know me know that one of my pet hates is the way a person with a disability can be so poorly described by (most of) the media.

Here's a classic case in point, from a New Zealand TV Program. It's a great, hopeful story(for the most part). So it makes me wonder WHY did the headline have to read "Cerebral palsy patient gains, then loses, her voice". What's wrong with saying "Girl with cerebral palsy gains, then loses, her voice"? The girl in question was not ill, so she's not a patient. She's a GIRL.

People with disabilities are PEOPLE first. All with individual abilities, interests and needs. There's no need to stereotype anyone into being a condition that they may have - the CP boy, the autistic girl, the mentally ill man. Instead, the boy with CP, the girl with autism, the man with a mental illness.

This is called People First language. Sounds like common sense to me.

Pain logic

Princess, we know, has a high tolerance to physical pain. The poking and prodding she has sometimes had to endure would bring tears to the eyes of the most stoic individual (and often has to mine). Princess, however, seems to be made of very tough stuff and though I know she does feel pain, sometimes it's hard to know to what degree. She really doesn't seem to like giving much away.

Last Friday afternoon she had an inexplicably swollen ankle, but was tight-lipped as to how or when the cause of it happened, or even if it was hurting her. Finally, after a discussion about going to the doctor for an x-ray she blurted out that it DID hurt but she didn't want to go to the hospital (which we unfortunately ended up doing because no other x-ray places were open).

She then told us it had happened the night before (I remember the likely incident - had no idea she had actually HURT herself!). In hindsight, she had been teary that morning, but I couldn't pin-point why. All day at school she had quietly endured the pain, and after school she remained tight-lipped - all because she didn't want to go to the doctor. And who can blame her?

Sigh. A child's logic can be so heartbreakingly logical.

End result: No broken bones. Probably stretched ligaments. Definitely a much wiser mother. And Princess is all smiles again.

(PS. I know I'm not the only parent of a child who thinks things through...)

Lifeless? I don't think so.

I was carrying Princess through a particularly busy area at a special event at Little Man's school today - there was quite a crush of kids and parents, so I had Princess against my chest and was supporting her with my arms, with her facing forward.

Because of the amount of activity around us, Princess had no doubt gone to her 'factory default setting' as I call it, of having a slightly stunned, almost disconnected expression on her face. (Some background - if there's an expectation placed on her to show interest in something, and she's too busy listening and keenly observing it all, she will get this disinterested look on her face, and the effect can be easy to misinterpret. But don't be fooled - she's got a mind like a steel trap and a sharp tongue when she wants to use it!)

A dad we know only as a slight aquaintance walked towards us, looked at Princess, commented "Whoa. Lifeless!", and kept on walking. A little stunned, I asked Princess "Was he talking to us?" - apparently he must have been. And I wonder, what on earth made that man think it was okay to make such a comment at, and within earshot of, my daughter?

I try not to get indignant at stupid comments or ignorant people - why waste my time being worried about their problem? - but can't help wondering would this guy have made that comment if Princess had had a less stunned look on her face, if she'd looked like she was as alert and engaged as every other child in the room, which she in fact was?

What is it about kids with 'special needs' that seems to give anyone the right to comment or judge when they wouldn't do it to anyone else?

This dad missed an opportunity to learn something today. If he'd stopped to say hello, and if he took the time to get to know her, he would learn that our Princess is many many things, but certainly never lifeless.