What Do You Mean The Blinds Broke? And Other Fun Stories….

Hi to everyone reading my blog.  As you know I am the mother to an wonderful, amazing daughter who has the disorders of Dyspraxia and Sensory Processing Disorder or SPD.

Elizabeth is an absolute love but those disorders simply do not quit.  I share the following example of some of the dyspraxic moments we have shared recently….

If you know Elizabeth, you would know her to be fun, funny and to enjoy a good laugh and sometimes she will deadpan a response to a question and not realize she is being funny.  I go into her room to ask her a question this week and she is lying on her bed watching a DVD, she looks up to me and says” Hi Mom”  I respond ” Hi Elizabeth, how are you?” right after I said that I notice that the sunlight coming in her room looks odd, kind of  more on one side of the room than the other.  That is the moment I look up to see her blinds, her “easy open-easy close” blinds, ones with no cord to pull left or right to open and close simply push them up and pull them down….purchased for just that feature, these beautiful dyspraxia friendly blinds, I notice are hanging at an angle!!!  Almost forming a triangle. One side so close to the top of the  window and the other a mere inch from the the window seal.  After a moment to process this development, as everything was fine a bit earlier, I ask “Elizabeth, what happened to your blinds?”  She deadpans ” I am not sure, I think something happened to them”  I said ” Elizabeth, of course something happened to them, they are hanging so weird, what did you do to them”  She answers ” I am not sure”  and then she smiles.  So I start kind of pulling on them to get the sides to even out.  The blinds make this weird creaking sound, but don’t move much.  So I pull harder,.  More sounds, more creaks and now the blinds are hanging less as a triangle and more like a weird square.  Amidst all my pulling, I have launched into a verbal tirade about how we need to be gentle with things, ask for help to learn how to do things, don’t force things to work when they are stuck.  So now I am truly yanking on the blinds that won’t move, talking a mile a minute and the ever present creaking won’t stop.  When I finally decide my tirade on the blinds is accomplishing very little, I look over to find Elizabeth laughing!!! Yes, laughing at her own personal “mommy going a bit insane” show.  I literally stop moving, still clutching the end of the blind in my right hand and turn to her and ask ” Elizabeth, are you laughing at me?”  and she replies “yes” and laughs more, then seeing my face, says ” No” and then laughs more.  I could not get her to stop, NOTHING I said stopped her fit of giggles.  Not even when I said, “Okay, well now you will have to see the backyard light in your room unless we figure something out”   It was only when I took a look inside those eyes of hers, those huge baby blue eyes, to see the mirth there, the enjoyment of a situation that truly amused her and truthfully, as I write this, amused me too.  It was then that I released my choke hold on the blinds and realized that this child who has these tough and ever present disorders can simply laugh, better than you and I probably could over situations that tax the best of us.

I asked myself then, if the blinds were REALLY that important and the truth is…well kind of…I mean they were sort of custom made for her room.  But were they really more important than realizing a few things…NO.  to that I have to say no they were not.

After my heartrate went back to normal and I sat with her a moment, we talked about why this happened, what she could do next time and etc… sort of wrapping it all up in a bow.

This was not the first time dyspraxia affected out home nor do I know it will be the last.  But thank God, Elizabeth is able to help me, see the lighter side of things.  Dyspraxia does not quit, but how I and we deal with it is the key.  I am always up for some learning and changing as that is how life goes.   So now the blinds still hang at the weird square shape, we figured out how to block the backyard light until the new blinds arrive and I have a mental snap shot of those eyes to keep to sort of guide me the next time I hear ” Oh oopsy”  followed by ” Moooooommmmmmm”

Now does anyone want to hear what happened to her boots?

4 thoughts on “What Do You Mean The Blinds Broke? And Other Fun Stories….

  1. These sort of things happen so often to me that I name them Kerry Calamities and post them on my Fb page http://www.fb.com/dyslexia.tutor
    Then others chip in with their stories and we have a giggle together.

    After a Kerry calamity my husband often comments – you couldn’t do that again if you tried.

    I mention some of them in a vlog I do with my daughter on Youtube too.

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