Keeping Up With Jimmy: Holiday Edition

Well hello there again everyone!!! I cannot believe the holiday season is upon us and the weather is getting colder here in Connecticut. PS I hate the winter, I am a summer girl through and through. Anyways, we are finally in our “school” schedule and am still trying to keep up with Jimmy and the cabin fever that is already starting to set in. We had a wonderful Halloween, Jimmy was Gale from Hunger Games complete with Bow and Arrows. Jimmy for the first time in his life actually followed through with carving a “scary” jack-o-lantern. Ever since Jimmy went blind I have tried to do this with him so he could feel the textures of the outside and inside of the pumpkin and every year in vain just after cutting the top and playing with the goo he is over it. What I have done to allow him to do it is let him do the cutting. I give him a little hands on hands direction so he gets the feeling of what it feels like and then hope he can follow…lol We did the same thing this year and he actually did it all on his own. As for trick-o-treating we go with friends and I let him walk to and from doorsteps with his cane and friends. They are always there for help and he loves the independence and not to mention all the candy (which may or may not be hidden from him as to slow consumption, just saying).

 

The next holiday we must tackle is Thanksgiving, luckily we usually have it at our house so I don’t have to worry about new surroundings and trying to navigate that. The only thing he has to worry about is maybe an addition table set up but knows where we always put and it NEVER changes. Unfortunately I have a child who doesn’t really want to help with the cooking of the meal, honestly can’t say I blame him (sorry Oma). But what I have and continue do is make him help set the table or bring things from the basement and so on. He truly loves this holiday, he is one boy who LOVES to have family around just talking and laughing. 

Jimmy helping to stuff the turkey!

After this fabulous holiday where all that matters is family and gratitude for what we have (might be my favorite) we have Christmas. Christmas is his favorite holiday as it is for most children. One thing that happens at our house is that Santa knows how to Braille. All presents for Jimmy have Brailled labels on them so he can find and locate his own presents around the Christmas tree. The first year this happened he could not believe that Santa could Braille and my simple answer was that Santa is magical so of course he can Braille, he has to be able to speak and write all the languages of the countries he has to go to so why wouldn’t he know Braille. He was quite happy with this answer.  So Santa gets the Brailler out and makes the labels, yes it can be undaunting for the amount he might need (mind you they are also made for presents from his grandparents and of course from Mom), BUT to see the smile on his face each Christmas morning finding his own gifts without assistance makes it all worth it. As the years go on Christmas shopping is becoming more and more difficult as Jimmy gets older. When he was younger it was awesome, I just bought him all the hands on toys I could and let him go wild. Now that he is getting older I am finding it harder and harder to figure out what to do for Christmas. He is almost getting too old for toys and all his friends play video games and are away from “toys”.  So as I sit here and write this all I can possibly come up with is maybe a cell phone, which he has been asking for, for years now, but even that I wonder is, is he really old ENOUGH for his own cell phone. This is when being a mom of a blind child gets tricky. I don’t want to buy him toys and make him think he is a baby any more but then on the other hand what does a 10 year old little man actually want? We can do board games, which we have and have modified them ourselves with a braille labeler but what could that BIG present be now that he can’t really use the items his friends get? And this my friends is the question I will leave you with and if you have any ideas let me know :)
-Kristi